| Malachy Steenson | |
| Term Start: | June 2024 |
| Constituency: | North Inner City |
| Birth Place: | Dublin, Ireland |
| Party: | Independent (from 2012) Workers' Party (before 2012) |
| Otherparty: | Irish Republican Socialist Republican Sinn Fein |
Malachy Steenson (born) is an Irish far-right[1] politician and solicitor[2] who was elected to Dublin City Council for the local electoral area of North Inner City at the 2024 local elections.[3] Steenson has a general law practice, and specialises in family law.
In the 1990s and 2000s, Steenson was associated with numerous left-wing Irish Republican groups. However, by 2012, Steenson began to be associated with more rightward political positions. He was expelled sometime prior to 2012 from the Workers' Party for advocating for a hardline pro-life stance on abortion. In the 2020s, Steenson became a high-profile figure in the Irish anti-immigration protests in the Dublin area.
Steenson was previously active in a number of republican groups, including Republican Sinn Féin, 32 County Sovereignty Movement, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, and associated with the family of murdered Real Irish Republican Army leader Alan Ryan.[4]
In 1992 Steenson campaigned for a "No" vote in the November 1992 abortion referendum. During the campaign, Steenson displayed graphic posters provided by the ultra-conservative Youth Defence organisation in a shop he owned.[4]
Steenson has three criminal convictions, among them a conviction by the Special Criminal Court in the 1990s for unauthorised taking of a vehicle, in the course of his republican activities, for which he received a three-year suspended sentence.[5] His home was subject to a raid by the Special Branch in 1994.[6] He was denied a licence to drive a hackney cab in 1998 due to his convictions.
Although active in anti-drug movements during the decade, he opposed a march of concerned parents on Brendan ‘Fats’ Reilly, defending Reilly as an addict but not a dealer; Reilly was subsequently convicted of possession of £30,000 worth of heroin.[6]
In 2006 he was one of the objectors to the re-opening of a pub on the site of the Stardust fire, in which his in-laws died.[7]
He stood for election for the far-left Workers' Party in the 2009 Dublin Central by-election, served as a party spokesman in the 2010 budget protests, and ran as their candidate in Dublin Central in the 2011 general election, before being expelled for attending a pro-life rally after a series of disputes with party leadership.[8] [2] [5] [9] [10] In 2024 the Workers' Party publicly criticised his praise for Official IRA member Jim Flynn, stating Flynn's former comrades would not appreciate Steenson's attempt at associating himself with Flynn.[5]
Steenson participated in the 2010 Claiming Our Future citizen's forum where he called for a referendum on the country's economic policy, "so that government can not again construct state policy merely for the benefit of bankers and speculators".[10] He was a prominent campaigner against the children's rights referendum, which was approved in 2012,[4] [8] which he characterised as an attack on parents.[11] [12] Steenson served as general secretary of the Association of Combined Residents Associations (ACRA), which opposed water charges.[13]
In a 2021 interview with the ultra-conservative student paper The Burkean, Steenson stated
Beginning in 2022, Steenson began organising protests for far-right and anti-immigration causes.[14] [15] [1] [16] [17] [18] Steenson was a guest speaker at the Irish Freedom Party's annual conference in 2022. During his speaking time, Steenson criticised the Gardaí for supporting Gay Pride events and praised Donald Trump for appointing Supreme Court Judges who overturned Roe v Wade, which legislates for abortion in the United States.[4]
Steenson was elected at the 2024 Dublin City Council election as an independent candidate with support from National Party candidates.[3] During his candidacy, a man was arrested following an incident at Steenson's office which Steenson alleged was an attempt on his life.[19] Steenson also ran in the Dublin constituency for the European elections, where he received 7,128 (1.9%) first preference votes,[20] and was eliminated from the field of 23 candidates on the 12th count.[21]