David Cullinane

David Cullinane
TD
David Cullinane TD
	Cullinane in 2024
Teachta Dála
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; February 2016
Constituency	Waterford
Senator
	In office; 25 May 2011 – 26 February 2016
Constituency	Labour Panel
Personal details
Born	4 July 1974 (age 50); Waterford, Ireland
Political party	Sinn Féin
Spouse	Kathleen Funchion (m. 2007; div. 2013)
Children	2
Alma mater	Waterford Institute of Technology

David Cullinane (born 4 July 1974) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Waterford constituency since the 2016 general election. He previously served as a Senator for the Labour Panel from 2011 to 2016.^[1]

Personal life

Cullinane was born in Waterford in 1974.^[2] He was married to Kathleen Funchion, who is a Sinn Féin MEP for South.^[3]

Political career

He was elected to Waterford City Council at the 2004 local elections and retained his seat at the 2009 local elections.^[4]

He became a member of Seanad Éireann in May 2011, as a senator for the Labour Panel.^[5] The Irish Times described him in the Seanad as "a frequent, informed and often abrasive contributor across a wide range of areas, with a keen attention to the nuances of legislation".^[6]

He unsuccessfully contested the Waterford constituency at the 2002, 2007 and 2011 general elections, before winning a seat in 2016. He was re-elected in 2020, when his 20,596 first preference votes amounted to 1.95 quotas,^[4] and was the highest ever recorded in the constituency's history.^[7]

Cullinane drew criticism on election night when a 30-second video uploaded to Twitter showed him ending his election victory speech with the phrases "up the Republic, Up the 'Ra and Tiocfaidh ár lá".^[8]^[9]^[10] When questioned about the appropriateness of using these phrases associated with support for the IRA, Cullinane stated: "Yesterday was a very emotional day for me . . . It was a long count and obviously we were very excited and very proud of the vote we got yesterday in Waterford. The 30-second clip was part of a longer speech that I gave where I was reflecting back on the hunger strikes, reflecting back on the fact that Kevin Lynch stood in the Waterford constituency in 1981. He was someone who inspired me and inspired I think many republicans. The comments were made in that context."^[11]