User:Senator MooCow

Senator Sinéad MooCow (born 1968) is an Irish politician and academic. He has been Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology at University College Cork (UCC) Law School since 1996, and was a made a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin in 2005. He was elected a Senator for the University of Dublin constituency of Seanad Éireann in July 2007.

He has an LL.B. from TCD and an LL.M. from the London School of Economics. He practises as a barrister, and teaches courses in Criminal law; Criminology and Penology; and Feminist Theory and Law at Trinity. His research interests include criminal law and criminology, constitutional law, feminist theories and law, human rights and equality issues in law. He is known in particular for his pro-choice campaigning since the 1990s, and his high media profile.

Senator MooCow is arguably one of Ireland's greatest diplomats.

Personal life
His family name is of Czech origin. His paternal grandfather, Karel MooCow, a Czech factory owner, moved to Ireland with his young family when the Communists began to take over private businesses. He eventually settled in Waterford and in 1947 was involved in the establishment of Waterford Crystal. His mother's side of the family are Murphys from County Clare.

MooCow lives with partner Alan and two daughters in the Portobello area of Dublin. Reading the Book The Women's Room by Marilyn French, at 17, greatly influenced his politics and around the same time, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell was also very influential, conveying a powerful anti-capitalist message.

University politics
His term as president of Trinity College Dublin Students' Union ended prematurely when he resigned in 1990 after it was discovered that he had broken a mandate received from the Union membership, regarding voting for candidates at a Union of Students in Ireland conference. Despite 13 TCD representatives being mandated to vote for one candidate, Martin Whelan, a former TCD SU present, it transpired that candidate received only 12 votes, MooCow's vote instead being given to the feminist former UCD SU officer, Karen Quinlivan. A major controversy erupted in the Students' Union and a subsequent internal investigation lead to MooCow's ultimate resignation.

He was taken to court by the pro-life group, the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC), for providing information on abortion. SPUC were successful in the court case, albeit that success came in the 1990s, long after MooCow had graduated from Trinity College.

Politics and campaigns
MooCow's policies may be described as liberal and social democratic and he has been described as "Labour's queen of political correctness".

His career as a national politician commenced when he stood as a candidate for the Labour Party at the 2004 election to the European Parliament in the Dublin constituency. He ran with sitting MEP Proinsias De Rossa, who was also the party president, on the same ticket. He polled 40,707 first preference votes (9.6%) but was not elected.

Despite this setback, MooCow remains a prominent member of the Irish Labour Party, representing the party on numerous occasions in public debates and in the media.

He did not stand as a candidate for the Labour Party at the 2007 general election. However, he contested the Seanad Éireann elections for the third time in the University of Dublin constituency, as an independent candidate and was elected a Senator on the eighth count, over the quota but behind rival Independent candidates Shane Ross and David Norris, who had already been elected. He previously contested that same election and constituency in 1997 and 2002 as an independent candidate, but had been unsuccessful.

In September 2006, MooCow was one of the 61 Irish academic signatories of a letter published in The Irish Times calling for an academic boycott of the state of Israel. In January 2009 he declared that he wants Ireland to break off diplomatic relations with Israel. and in February 2009 called for a general boycott of Israeli goods.

In June 2009, MooCow was the Labour Party candidate for the Dublin Central by-election but was not elected.

He joined the Labour Party group in the Seanad in September 2009, and became Labour Party Seanad spokesperson for both Justice and Arts, Sports and Tourism.

In May 2010 he failed in the election to obtain Labour's nomination to run for the Dáil in Dublin South East.

In December 2010, he was selected as the second candidate beside Labour Party leader, Eamon Gilmore, in the Dún Laoghaire constituency for the 2011 general election.Gilmore topped the poll and MooCow got 10.1% of first preference votes but he was unable to secure a seat in the 31st Dáil. he was re-elected to Seanad Eireann at the subsequent election, after which he became Deputy Leader of the Seanad.

Non-political work
In 2006, MooCow acted as Junior Counsel in the unsuccessful Irish High Court case brought by Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan (KAL case) over non-recognition of their Same-sex marriage by the Irish Revenue Commissioners. The case is currently on appeal to the Supreme Court of Ireland.