Kelly is from Portroe just outside Nenagh, County Tipperary. He is the son of Tom and Nan Kelly. Educated at Nenagh CBS, he subsequently attended University College Cork, where he completed a BA in English and History in 1995. Two years later he completed a M.Phil in Political History. Kelly continued his education at Boston College, where he achieved a Certificate in Leadership in 1999. He returned to Ireland shortly after this and completed a MBS in eCommerce in 2002. Kelly subsequently worked as an eBusiness Manager with Bord Fáilte and Fáilte Ireland.
Political career
Youth politics
Kelly is thought to have been politicised from an early age. In his final year of secondary school, he canvassed for the Labour Party during the 1992 general election. He remained active in left-wing politics in university, firstly by establishing the Jim Kemmy Branch of the Labour Party in UCC. He then became involved in a number of by-elections, local election campaigns in Cork and in the wider Munster area. Kelly became Chair of Labour Youth in 2000, having previously served as Co-Chair. In 2001 he was a member of the General Council. In 2001 and 2002 he was director of the Tom Johnson Summer School and was also a member of the General Election Planning Committee in the period 2001-2002.
Seanad Éireann: 2007–2009
In 2007, Kelly launched his own political career when he secured election to Seanad Éireann by the Agricultural Panel. He was the only Labour Party candidate in that grouping. After the election of Eamon Gilmore as leader of the Labour Party in 2007, Kelly was appointed as Labour Party Spokesperson on Tourism and was Seanad Spokesperson on Finance and Local Government.
Though he promised he would see out his five-year term in the European Parliament, Kelly allowed his name to go forward as a Labour Party candidate at the 2011 general election. He ran in the Tipperary North constituency and was successful, receiving 9,559 first preference votes and securing the third and final seat at the expense of Fianna Fáil's sitting TD, Máire Hoctor. Phil Prendergast replaced him as MEP for the South constituency. When the new coalition government was formed Kelly joined the junior ministerial ranks as Minister of State for Public and Commuter Transport.
Labour Party deputy leadership and cabinet minister (2014–2016)
In May 2014, Kelly confirmed that he would be contesting the vote for a new deputy leader of the Labour Party following the resignation of Eamon Gilmore as party leader. He was elected as deputy leader of the Labour Party on 4 July 2014. On 11 July 2014, he was appointed Minister of the Environment, Community and Local Government. In January 2015, it was announced that his leader Joan Burton had nominated Kelly for the roles of Labour's director of elections and chair of Labour's national campaign committee ahead of the upcoming general election. His involvement in Irish Water was extremely controversial during his tenure as minister. Brendan Ogle of Right2Change called his comments on water 'arrogant', with Ruth Coppinger T.D describing some his remarks as 'delusional and unbelievably arrogant'. Paul Murphy TD described plans to take water charges from wages was a 'bullying tactic'. Jonathan O'Brien TD described him as 'arrogant Alan' in September 2015. Kelly attracted further controversy following a January 2016 interview in the Sunday Independent headlined 'Alan Kelly: "Power is a drug... it suits me"'. He later clarified the context in a June 2020 interview with The Mirror, saying; “I did say those words, but everybody forgets about the dot, dot, dot in the middle. I’ve nothing against the journalist now, but if you read it, power is a drug, it suits me, there’s a dot, dot, dot in the middle. The conversation was about how some people are always in opposition and will never want to go into government. Some people, you know, being in government suits them. They’re able to handle it or deal with it, or whatever. That was the conversation and I suppose power, being in power, being in government are interchangeable words, so that was the context of it. But when you’re explaining you’re losing". Following the election, Kelly remained Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government in an acting capacity during prolonged talks on government formation. On Sunday 24 April 2016, he represented the government at the official U.S. commemoration of the Centenary of the Easter Rising in Manhattan, New York.
Opposition and leadership challenges (2016–2020)
Shortly afterward, on Friday 13 May 2016, Kelly announced his intention to seek leadership of the Labour Party. However, he failed to attract a nomination from his parliamentary colleagues, resulting in the unopposed appointment of Brendan Howlin as the new leader. Grassroots efforts to put pressure on members of the parliamentary party were unsuccessful. The parliamentary party also decided not to nominate any candidates for the position of deputy leader, leaving Kelly's previous position vacant. In September 2017, Kelly called for the HPV vaccine to be given to all schoolboys in Ireland. The vaccine's roll-out among Irish girls had recently been subject to news coverage following controversy over its alleged side effects. In August 2018, Kelly challenged incumbent Brendan Howlin for his party's leadership. His challenge failed due to lack of support from his parliamentary colleagues. At the Labour Party think-in in Drogheda that year, he said “We need a moment to reconnect with working people. We are the Labour Party. We are not the Liberal Party.” Also that month, in an interview with the Sunday Independent, he said that the Labour Party was portraying an "absence of visible leadership" on economic issues affecting ordinary people. He also said that "Some people say that politics shouldn't be about personalities. That's nice in theory but simply wrong in practice. Leadership in politics has always been and forever will be about strong personalities that represent political values and generate support for them from the public. Yes that involves teamwork within a party but that party has to be led with passion, energy and conviction." He said that "Labour can no longer be part of a cosy consensus within Ireland. We must return to our roots with vigour and concern ourselves above all else with the problems of economic inequality. That must be our political crusade. Only then can we begin to regain the trust of those that the party exists to represent". In 2020, Kelly was re-elected to represent the Tipperary constituency during the February general election, obtaining 13,222 first preference votes and thus securing the fourth of five available seats. He was publicly backed by women's health campaigner Vicky Phelan during the election. As of 2020, Kelly was Labour's spokesperson on health.
After Brendan Howlin's intention to stand down as party leader following the 2020 general election, Kelly was nominated by two of the party's six TDs; Seán Sherlock and Duncan Smith. Kelly was also publicly supported by former Labour TDs Jan O'Sullivan and Willie Penrose. Launching his election bid, Kelly said that a complete rebuild of the Labour Party was needed. On 3 April 2020, he was announced as the new leader of the Labour Party, having won 55% of the vote. Kelly became noted for his outspoken style following his election as leader. In May 2020, he appeared to rule out going into a coalition government. That same month, he quoted author George Orwell in his criticism of health services during the COVID-19 lockdown. He went on to say “Very simply… if we got what the Green Party did in relation to seat numbers, I think you’d have a government in Ireland by now. But we only got six seats unfortunately". In a June 2020 interview in The Mirror, he said that; “I want to get the Labour Party back into a substantial position for the next electoral contests, whether it’s local, European or general. I want to get the party into that position by being completely reorganised across the country which is my forte, which is something that I really strongly do, getting really strongly organised.” He said in the same interview that he didn't 'envision' himself being in politics at the age of 60 and that having an interest in IT, he would like to get involved in green technologies and similar areas.
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Alan Kelly has been nicknamed 'AK47' for his quick temper and aggressive style. He was described in a 2020 article in Laois Today as someone who "not only likes his soubriquet but relishes in his characterisation of someone who shoots from the hip, takes no prisoners and gets things done". Newstalk ranked 'The Alan Kelly Rap' as the No.1 Irish election song ahead of the 2020 general election.
Personal life
Kelly is married to Regina O'Connor, a primary school teacher who was raised in Waterville, County Kerry. The couple have two children; a daughter and a son. He is the author of A Political History of County Tipperary 1916-1997 and has won numerous rugby and hurling medals according to his Labour Party summary.
