Wicklow’s youngest councillor ‘who broke the mould in 2019’ is to stand down from politics

Cllr O'Connor was elected as an independent in 2019 for Bray West, becoming Wicklow’s youngest ever councillor and the country’s second youngest, at just 20 years old. Ben Dalton O’Sullivan became the youngest person to be elected, when he was voted onto Cork County Council, representing the Greater Carrigaline area, the same year.

Cllr O’Connor was the chair of the climate change and biodiversity committee for Wicklow County Council and led the charge on several policies and projects for the committee. These included Wicklow’s first policy to limit the usage of glyphosate weedkillers like Roundup, due to the damaging impact on biodiversity, and a tree management policy to increase native trees across Wicklow and give more protection to existing trees.

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Cllr O’Connor was elected as the Leas-Cathaoirleach of Bray Municipal District in 2023. During his tenure he established two different grants. One for defibrillators for estates across the area as well as a community grant for estates to create areas of biodiversity.

"It's been an honour to serve the people of Bray, Enniskerry and Kilmacanogue during my five-year term as councillor,” he said. “It's with a heavy heart to not run again. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed representing my community. I would recommend politics to anyone who considers it. It’s easy to be cynical and frustrated in the world we live in. But your work can make a real difference within your community and country.

“I would like to thank all the people who voted for me, I hope I have served you well. I would also like to thank my colleagues for their good will, co-operation and friendship over the past five years,” he concluded.

Rory O’Connor’s great-grandfather was Sean Lemass, who was the Fianna Fáil Taoiseach from 1959 to 1966. His father, also Sean, daughter of Sheila O'Connor (née Lemass) was head of Ogra Fianna Fáil and was very briefly a senator, appointed by Charles J Haughey to fill a short term vacancy in the upper house in 1982, when aged 22. Sean then took up a career in business, but an effort to return to the Senate in the election of 2007 failed to secure him a seat. A Dubliner, he and his English-born wife Elizabeth have raised their family of five in Enniskerry, County Wicklow.

After his election, Rory told the Bray People: “'Everyone in the family used to vote Fianna Fáil, until I broke the mould.”