Cathal Crowe

Cathal Crowe (born 1 October 1982) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Clare constituency since the 2020 general election.

Political career
Crowe was first elected to Clare County Council in 2004 at 21 years of age, making him the youngest councillor in Ireland. Reflecting on this in a 2019 interview, Crowe said "I was very green when first elected. I didn’t own a suit at the time, I was finishing exams at UL and drove around on a scooter. With my first pay cheque from the Council I bought a PlayStation 2. For all the experience I lacked, I had huge hunger and desire to make things better for my community and the Council".

In 2019, as the Mayor of County Clare, he gained attention as the first politician to decide to boycott the government's commemoration of the Royal Irish Constabulary. He was a member of Clare County Council for the Shannon local electoral area from 2004 to 2020.

Crowe went on to successfully contest three more elections to Clare County Council in 2009, 2014 and 2019, twice topping the poll by receiving the most first preference votes.

In March 2023, the political news website the Ditch reported that Crowe had not disclosed his ownership of two homes on a planning application to Clare County Council for permission to build a house. In addition, the same article reported Crowe had falsely claimed to have lived in his parents' house until 2012, when he had in fact bought and moved into a property in 2007. When questioned by RTÉ, Crowe rejected the allegation from the Ditch that he owned two homes and defended his use of the Irish form of his name on the planning application form.

Further investigations by the Ditch revealed that Crowe had not declared EU payments in respect of farmland that he owns in County Clare, thereby breaching the rules for declaring sources of income on Dáil ethics returns.

Personal life
Crowe is the son of Michael, a retired fire fighter and Irene, a retired nurse. In 2013, he married Maeve Fehilly from Charleville, County Cork. The couple have three children together.

Prior to being elected as a TD, Crowe was a primary school teacher in Parteen National School.