Newbridge man running in Seanad Elections for Trinity College constituency

Kevin Byrne works as a research scientist in the UCD School of Medicine

Newbridge man Kevin Byrne is running in the upcoming Seanad Elections for the Trinity College constituency, and is aiming to be the first scientist elected to the Senate by Trinity graduates in decades.

Dr Byrne grew up in Newbridge, attending the Patrician Secondary School in the 1990s, and becoming one of the school’s first pupils to go to Trinity College Dublin, where he studied Theoretical Physics. Although study at Trinity was intense he says he was “ably prepared by great PBS maths teachers like Peter O'Reilly, Pat O’Leary and Br Bosco.”

Subsequently moving into the field of genetics, Kevin now works as a research scientist in the UCD School of Medicine. As an external member of a university audit and risk committee and a former board member of a research funding agency he has a lot of governance experience in the higher education sector.

If elected he says he would be focused on tackling the €200m annual underfunding and the precarious nature of too many jobs in the sector.

Kevin’s past research projects include tracing the deep tribal roots of our political parties using the distribution of surnames, which was covered on RTÉ television, and a study where an undergraduate student, for the first time in Europe, found one of the parents of the yeast hybrid that is used to make lager beer, a story that was covered in media across the world.

The other big issue Kevin is running on is Dublin. The many Kildare people who travel to Dublin for work, or visit to shop or socialise, will have noticed the decline in the capital in recent years. This is a strategic problem for all of Ireland, given the huge proportion of the national tax take that comes from Dublin city centre, and the negative impact on investment
decisions and tourism referrals.

As a community leader in the city Kevin has been on the front lines of trying to turn Dublin around in the wake of the pandemic, saying he “would use a voice in parliament to pressure our political system to finally address Dublin's current decline.” For the last several years he has been chair of the residents group in Dublin's south urban core, and says he wants to
“take Dublin's many intrinsic strengths and make it the clean, green, safe and vibrant global
capital it should be, and that all Irish people can be proud of and enjoy visiting."

Outside of science and politics, Kevin serves on the committee of the United Arts Club which for over 115 years has been a meeting place for people with an interest in all aspects of the arts. In the last year he’s organised and hosted book launches, art talks and tours, historic building tours, and a retrospective of one of Ireland’s greatest female stained glass artists.
Dr Byrne is encouraging Trinity graduates living in Kildare and from Kildare to consider giving him their number one vote, saying “this is an opportunity to put a problem-solving Kildareman in our parliament, who will bring a scientific, evidence-based approach that has often been lacking in our politics."

The election is a postal vote. All TCD graduates who are registered to vote will receive their ballot by post to their registered address and must then complete and return their ballot by post. To vote graduates have to be already on the TCD Seanad register. Addresses can be checked and changed but no new registrations are possible before the election. Ballots will
be posted out on the 30th of December and must be returned by 11am on January 29th.

This is the last time that the Trinity constituency will elect three Senators to the upper house of the Oireachtas. In future elections, Trinity graduates, along with all other Irish graduates, will elect six Senators to the Seanad’s new Higher Education constituency. Over 76,000 Trinity graduates are registered to vote in this final election. If elected Kevin promises there will be a big celebration in Newbridge as well as in Dublin.

His campaign website is at kevinbyrne.ie