Age 54, the Tralee native is a solicitor and until his surprise election in 2020, ran a busy practice specialising in criminal law in the district courts and civil law in the higher courts.

He was co-opted on to Tralee town council in 2012 and elected in his own right in 2014.

A father of four, he is married to Mary Ross, a teacher from Causeway.

He is the Sinn Féin justice spokesman.

In 2002 and 2003, he was in Colombia to act as an independent legal observer for the trial of the Colombia Three.

He was selected as the Sinn Féin Dáil candidate for Kerry in August 2019, replacing Martin Ferris TD after Martin’s daughter Toireasa ruled herself out as a candidate.

He is involved in GAA, particularly in the Tralee club Na Gaeil. He is also a key figure in resisting the move of the local courthouse to a greenfield site on the western side of Tralee, instead advocating empty buildings and sites surrounding the historic courthouse be brought into the existing complex.