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Cyprian Brady (born 26 June 1962) is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Central constituency from 2007 to 2011. Brady is a former civil servant who for 20 years ran the constituency office of the former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

Political career

In 2002, Brady was nominated by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, as a member of the 22nd Seanad.

2007 general election

In late 2005, Brady and his brother Royston, a former Lord Mayor of Dublin and unsuccessful candidate for the European Parliament, were both reported to be in contention for a Fianna Fáil nomination in the Dublin Central constituency. Although Dublin Central was the constituency of the then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and was considered a strong Fianna Fáil constituency there was stiff competition from other parties. In 2002 the second Fianna Fáil TD Dermot Fitzpatrick had been elected in 2002 with a narrow margin of just 79 votes over the Sinn Féin candidate Nicky Kehoe.

The rivalry between the brothers led to a public call from a third brother, Fulton Brady, to "put an end to it". Royston was not one of the four contenders nominated for at the selection conference in March 2006, when Cyprian Brady and Councillor Mary Fitzpatrick were selected as Ahern's two running-mates. Fitzpatrick was the daughter of the outgoing TD Dermot Fitzpatrick.

At the 2007 general election, held under Ireland's single transferable vote system, Brady polled just 939 first preference votes (2.7%) in the first count. However he was elected on the fourth count, due in large part to a pre-arranged electoral strategy seeing large transfers from his running mate, the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, and became only the second ever TD (after Brian O'Higgins) to be elected with less than 1,000 first-preference votes.

His election became the subject of a public interest (in large part because his running mate was the sitting Taoiseach), covered in national newspapers and on the RTÉ Radio 1 news programme Drivetime and on the weekly Documentary on One which had been covering the campaigns of the three female candidates in the constituency.

Mary Fitzpatrick, daughter of the outgoing Fianna Fáil TD and the third Fianna Fáil candidate in the 4-seat constituency, had received 1,725 first-preference votes, but whereas 2,403 of Ahern's surplus votes were transferred to Brady, only 1,362 went to Fitzpatrick. On the night before polling day, 24 May 2007, Fitzpatrick distributed leaflets to households asking people to vote for her as their first preference. In the early hours of the following morning, a letter had been hand-delivered from Ahern's office to 30,000 voters in the constituency, urging them give their first preference to the Taoiseach and their second to Brady. Since Ahern was expected to be elected with a large surplus, and the overall Fianna Fáil vote was likely to be large enough to elect two candidates, the destination of the Taoiseach's transfers would determine whether Brady or Fitzpatrick won the second Fianna Fáil seat in Dublin Central. After Ahern's transfers secured Brady's election, Fitzpatrick complained that "I didn't think they'd go out to completely undermine me and shaft me." Ahern's election agent Chris Wall blamed Fitzpatrick, saying "She was asked not to do this sort of thing. Having then done it, she therefore effectively set in train a motion she wasn't going to be able to stop." Brady said "An election is an election and not everybody can win", adding "Mary is a colleague of mine and she is a very good councillor. It's not really fair for Mary to be blaming anybody".

2011 general election

In January 2011, he was selected as a Fianna Fáil candidate in Dublin Central for the 2011 general election along with Mary Fitzpatrick. Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said his loyalties this time would be with the sitting TD (Brady), and there was no hope of Fianna Fáil winning two seats in the constituency. He lost his seat having received 1,637 votes (4.7%).

References

1. "Cyprian Brady". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 7 November 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
2. Eilish O'Regan (15 March 2001). "Taoiseach has back-up team of high-earning personal advisers". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
3. ^ Bernice Harrison (2 June 2007). "With running mate like these…". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 21 May 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
4. ^ "Cyprian Brady". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 12 March 2010. Retrieved 1 September 2009.
5. Caroline Crawford (4 December 2005). "Warring Brady brothers urged to mend fences". Sunday Independent. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
6. "Three vie to run for FF with Ahern". Irish Independent. 4 March 2006. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
7. Liam Collins (5 March 2006). "Ahern gets running mates". Sunday Independent. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
8. ^ "General Election, 24 May 2007: Dublin Central". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 15 June 2009. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
9. John Drennan (27 May 2007). "It's a miracle! Bertie raises Cyprian from political tomb". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
10. "1923 General election – Clare". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 21 February 2011. Retrieved 16 September 2009.
11. ^ Ronan McGreevy (31 May 2007). "Taoiseach's running mate accuses FF of 'shafting' her". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 21 May 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
12. Colm Kelpie (31 May 2007). "Beaten FF candidate hits out at party 'sabotage' of campaign". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
13. "Patricia, Mary and Mary-Lou too". RTÉ.ie. 31 May 2007.
14. ^ "FF candidate says she was sabotaged". The Irish Times. 30 May 2007. Archived from the original on 21 May 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
15. "'Shafted' Mary gets last laugh on Bertie". Irish Independent. 25 January 2011. Archived from the original on 3 August 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
16. Gartland, Fiona (25 January 2011). "Fitzpatrick and Brady selected for Dublin Central". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 28 January 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
17. "End of a dynasty as Noel Ahern joins Bertie and heads for exit". Evening Herald. 26 January 2011. Archived from the original on 1 August 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2011.

• 1962 births
• Living people
• Bertie Ahern
• Fianna Fáil TDs
• Irish civil servants
• Members of the 22nd Seanad
• Members of the 30th Dáil
• Politicians from Dublin (city)
• Nominated members of Seanad Éireann
• Fianna Fáil senators
• 20th-century Irish civil servants
• People educated at St. Joseph's CBS, Fairview