Constituency Sligo | ||
Political party People Before Profit Alliance Died 11 August 2015, Sligo, Republic of Ireland Party People Before Profit Alliance | ||
Seamie O'Boyle (born 1957/58) was a politician from Sligo who represented the Sligo local electoral area on Sligo County Council from 2014. He won his party's first ever seat outside Leinster. A prominent politician with a national profile, he died suddenly in 2015. O'Boyle was a member of the Local Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee, the Regional Health Forum West, the Sligo Harbour Advisory Committee, the Sligo Music Fest Company and the Board of The Model. He had also been a member of the Joint Policing Committee.
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Early life
O'Boyle was reared in Sligo's Nazareth House orphanage in the 1960s and referred to those there as his "Nazareth family".
Political career
After having been almost elected to Sligo Borough Council in 2009, O'Boyle was elected to Sligo County Council for the People Before Profit Alliance in 2014, out-polling five sitting members of Sligo Borough Council, including the Mayor of Sligo, to become his party's first ever candidate elected in Sligo and the first outside Leinster. According to analysis published by politics.ie, 75 per cent of his first preference vote came from the town area and acquired transfers from all corners. After his election he served as Deputy Mayor of Sligo. His work attracted praise from Bishop Christy Jones.
Seamie died suddenly on the night of 11 August 2015 aged only in his late fifties after taking a heart attack while driving through Sligo. Brought to Sligo Regional Hospital, he was pronounced dead shortly afterwards. O'Boyle had been organising Sligo's participation in the Right2Water anti-water tax demonstration which was to be held in Dublin shortly after he died. His death received national attention and media coverage. He had two bishops oversee his funeral. A week previously he had led national tributes after a stabbing and murder in Holborn Street and a few days after that he had been present at a Civic Reception held for Olympic gold medalists at County Hall. His funeral took place at Sligo Cathedral on 15 August 2015, after which he was buried in Sligo Cemetery.
Sligo County Council co-opted his son Gino onto the council at its meeting on 14 September 2015, proposed by Councillor Declan Bree, seconded by Councillor Sean MacManus and unanimously agreed by members.
Personal life
O'Boyle had lived at Forthill in Sligo for three decades before his death. He coached his local soccer team and supported Sligo Rovers Football Club in the national league. The club wore black armbands in his memory after his death. A married man, he had two sons and two daughters.