Áine Ní Chonaill

Biography

Ní Chonaill is a school teacher in County Cork but for the last decade or more she has been public relations officer for ICP. Her political background is largely unknown but she was involved in the early days of the Progressive Democrats. Aine Ni Chonaill said she started her campaign because she was concerned about the numbers of immigrants arriving in Ireland and about asylum abuse.

Career

In the 1997 general election Ní Chonaill stood in her native Cork South-West constituency and received 293 votes. This was followed up in the larger Dublin South-Central constituency in 2002 where she received 926 votes.

In 2005 Ní Chonaill was accused of being a neo-nazi after being invited to UCD's Literary and Historical Society for a debate. She was later asked to not attend but both UCD and Ní Chonaill denied the claim.

Views

Ní Chonaill has, as party spokesperson, repeatedly spoken out about immigration, including the opposing the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and asylum claims of homosexuals fleeing persecution. In a statement she said: If the choice is between having homosexuals from these countries having to act discreetly and us being swamped with alleged homosexual claims from 80 countries around the world then they will just have to act discreetly.

She has described the Irish government's response to the 1990 Fajujonu court case, as a betrayal of Irish citizens.