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Martin Kenny

Martin Kenny TD
Kenny in 2019
Teachta Dála
Incumbent
Assumed office February 2016
Constituency	Sligo–Leitrim
Personal details
Born	(1971-10-01) 1 October 1971 (age 52) Sligo, Ireland
Political party	Sinn Féin
Spouse	Helen Kenny
Children	4
Alma mater	Institute of Technology, Sligo

Martin Kenny (born 1 October 1971) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Sligo–Leitrim constituency since the 2016 general election.^[1][2]

Career[edit]

Prior to entering politics, Kenny worked in horticulture, growing mushrooms and providing advice to other farmers. He later moved into community work.^[3]

Kenny became a member of Leitrim County Council in 2001, when he was co-opted to replace Liam McGirl, the son of former Sinn FéinTDJohn Joe McGirl.^[4] He previously served on Sinn Féin's ard comhairle.^[5] Kenny sought the nomination to be Sinn Féin's candidate in the 2014 European Parliament election in Ireland in the North-West constituency, but Matt Carthy was selected.^[6]

He was Sinn Féin's candidate in the 2014 Roscommon–South Leitrim by-election,^[7] in which he received 5,906 votes (17.7% of the vote) and was eliminated on the fifth count.^[8] He ran in the new Sligo–Leitrim constituency in the 2016 general election and was elected, with 6,356 votes (10.2% of the vote).^[9] He was re-elected in 2020, topping the poll with 15,035 votes (24.8% of the vote) and being elected on the first count.^[10]

In May 2016, Kenny alleged a number of serious instances of misconduct within the Garda Síochána. The main allegations included that gardaí were engaging informants who were active criminals, outside the Garda Covert Human Intelligence Sources programme. He also mentioned a number of instances including "robberies allegedly carried out by informants under the direction of gardaí", cases of entrapment made at the behest of Garda handlers,^[11] and an instance where "senior gardaí did not inform other members of the force of plans by a criminal gang to carry out attacks at the homes of gardaí".^[12]

He also stated that two Gardaí had brought this to the attention of both Martin Callinan (former Commissioner of the Garda Síochána) and the former Minister of Justice, Alan Shatter, but their concerns were ignored.^[12][13]

Harassment and attacks[edit]

In October 2019, Kenny said he had received death threats after he spoke out in Dáil Eireann against far-right elements in Irish society using anti-immigrant rhetoric. Kenny's remarks were spurred by the aftermath of the 2019 Grays incident, and recent protests against the building of a direct provision centre in his own constituency in County Leitrim as well other protests in Ireland against the construction of direct provision centres.^[14] On 28 October 2019, Kenny's car was set ablaze outside his family home.^[15][16] In an interview with Ocean FM he described the arson attack as "traumatic" and feared that he was facing the same fate as Kevin Lunney.^[17]

In October 2021, a threat of gun violence was made to Kenny's office.^[18] In October 2022, a man was charged with causing criminal damage to the gates of Kenny's home.^[19]

Personal life[edit]

Kenny is married to Helen, and the couple have four adult children.^[20]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Martin Kenny's page on the Sinn Féin website