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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
22 July 2021
The Blueshirt who has inherited the most
distinguished legal pedigree but lies about his
background, worked for Big Tobacco and as a
Commercial Lawyer, and broke electoral law
J
AMES GEOGHEGAN went to Gonzaga,
both of his parents and two of his
grandparents are Supreme Court
Judges. One, Thomas Finlay, who
went to Clongowes, was briefly a Fine
Gael TD in Dublin South Central (1954-7) and,
Profile:
James Geoghegan,
Gun for Hire; privilege
without achievement
By Michael Smith
NEWS
later, an undistinguished Chief Justice. Both
Thomas’ father (a TD) and brother were senior
counsel. Thomas and his daughter Mary were
both auditors of UCD’s Law Society.
There has never been a Blueshirt who has
inherited a more distinguished legal pedigree.
Unless he was playing games with
his electorate by pretending to vote in
Beechwood he’s a criminal too
Undeniably, James Geoghegan is among the
most privileged 35-year-olds in the history of the
state. He cannot be expected to do much about
that. What is troublesome is that he has worked
his entire adult life to entrench his own privilege
and the privilege of people like him.
Let’s be clear: James’s parents will have been
paid many millions of Euro over the course of
their lucrative careers as commercial barristers
and as over-pensioned judges. Money would
have been no object growing up. James himself
bought his house a month after his mother
inherited €800,000. He has refused to discuss
whether his parents helped him with the
purchase. He has said he wants to be a “voice
for the generation” of people who are “locked
out of the housing market”.
When, at his by-election launch, it was
pointed out that he had been born into
considerable privilege, Geoghegan responded:
“voters don’t look at the opportunities a
candidate has had in life, but look at how they
use those opportunities”. So that, now, is what
Village is doing.
Yet the first opportunity young James had, he
decided to capitalise on his education and
contacts by shilling for Big Tobacco. His first full-
time job out of college was for Dublin’s
Transatlantic Public Relations where one of his
biggest clients was Philip Morris, the
multibillion-dollar conglomerate behind
Marlboro cigarettes.
Working for RENUA or FG?
Geoghegan has had a long on-again-o-again
relationship with Fine Gael. He worked closely
with former TD for what is now the Dublin Bay
South constituency, Lucinda Creighton.
Creighton sat, at various times, not only for Fine
Gael, but also as an Independent and for Renua.
Geoghegan has
said that: “I was employed by
Lucinda Creighton as her parliamentary
assistant when she was still a member of Fine
Gael” [thejournal.ie, 17 May 2021].
Yet Geoghegan has said elsewhere that he
worked as Creighton’s parliamentary assistant
from September 2013 – two months after
Creighton had been expelled from Parliamentary
Fine Gael and removed from its website [source
needed].
The truth is he became Lucinda Creighton’s
parliamentary assistant after she lost the Fine
Gael whip and was looking around to form new
alliances.
He has also been dishonest as to when he
rejoined the party. He told thejournal.ie that:
“During my time as her employee and when I
was in my mid to late 20s she established this
new party – ie Renua – and I stayed along on
until she was no longer a TD. After that I was fully
sort of re-engaged with Fine Gael and I ran as a
councillor in 2019 “.
July 2021 23
As Creighton lost her Dáil seat in the February
2016 election, Geoghegan is claiming to have
only re-engaged again with his ancestors’ party
after that, despite the fact that he had been
working for Fine Gael TD, John Paul Phelan – in
competition with Renua - for 16 months by that
time.
Misleading CV
His CV, oered on his ocial Fine Gael website,
describes Geoghegan as having been a “senior
advisor to the Banking Inquiry “. The Inquiry’s
final report shows that he job-shared as a
parliamentary assistant to Phelan. It’s simple:
assistants are not senior advisors.
These are not the only occasions on which he
has given unreliable descriptions of his life and
career.
His website claims that, while working in
public aairs in the US, he worked “with”
Democratic Congressman Richard Neal and
Ambassador John Bruton but, under the heading
“Experience “ on his LinkedIn site, he says that
he was actually an intern for Neal and Bruton
upon graduating from university. He worked for
not with these eminences.
Later, according to his LinkedIn, he worked for
the European Committee of the Regions as an
Expert in EU Trade Policy (Jan 2016 – May 2017)
and an Expert in Competition Policy and Law
(Apr 2017 – Dec 2017). However, it is not clear
how a primary degree in international politics
and sociology and a diploma and a degree in
general law would make him an expert in these
areas.
Even if it was from UCD. Perhaps it was his
ancestry.
Nor did he fulfil the Committee’s qualifying
criteria for ‘Experts’ of having worked for “at
least three years full-time in an administrative,
scientific, technical or supervisory post in a
public authority”. However, the periods that he
lists as having worked for the committee are in
fact consistent with his having held positions
that the committee defines as temporary sta or
traineeships.
The only thing that is clear from his CV is that
he has an established pattern of allowing the
misleading impressions he creates to persist.
City Councillor voting for
Property interests
His short voting record since becoming a Dublin
City Councillor in 2019 shows that he voted often
for the interests of builders and property
developers.
He voted for the failed attempt at blanket
rezone industrial land across the city to allow for
yet more development in the city. He has
approved the rezoning a total of 14 individual
applications - 4 sites in Dublin 8, a further 3 in
Dublin 5, and sites in Dublin 13, Dublin 1,
Inchicore, Artane, on the Malahide Road and on
Harmonstown Road.
In time-honoured fashion for pro-developer
Fine Gael Councillors the single example of his
opposition to a rezoning proposal was for a site
in what he hopes will be his new Dáil
constituency.
City Councilor for Cutting
Property Taxes for the Wealthy
This is not the only way that he would look
after his well-heeled prospective constituents.
He voted to reduce the local property tax
charged in Dublin by 15% from the national rate.
The Central Statistics Oce most up-to-date
House Price Index values the average house
price in Dublin 4 and Dublin 6 - Geoghegan
country)- at a half million euro more than the
average home in Dublin 10. Voters in
Geoghegan’s constituency would get a tax break
of €209 whereas their poorer neighbours in
Dublin 10 would only receive €74. Neighbours
of the address where he is registered to vote
would receive a tax windfall of €633.
Has He Voted for Himself
Illegally?
Geoghegan’s home lies outside both Dublin Bay
South and the city council constituency for
which he was elected. Currently, he remains on
the electoral role at the address detailed above
in Ranelagh. Neither of which facts are improper
or illegal.
Geoghegn’s history of mostly voting for rezonings [www.counciltrcker.ie]
Screenshot of Geoghegn’s officil website where he misleds s to his employment record
24 July 2021
Online Stte Electorl Register showing Geoghegn is registered t n ddress tht is not
his norml residence
However, having been awarded an advanced
diploma in Democratic Process and Electoral Law in
2016 - a course which the King’s Inns “designed to
enable participants to navigate the complexities of
Ireland’s electoral and parliamentary system” –
Geoghegan would know well that under section 10 of
the Electoral Act, 1992 only “a person shall be entitled
to be registered as a local government elector in a local
authority area if he has reached the age of eighteen
years and he was, on the qualifying date, ordinarily
resident in that area”.
Under section 8 (1) of the Act, it would be a criminal
oence for him to vote for himself in the upcoming
by-election.
This prohibition of out-of-constituency voting
applied on the date he posted this picture of himself:
Furthermore, someone normally resident in
Clonskeagh, who voted at Beechwood polling station
in the Pembroke Ward during the 2019 local elections
would be guilty of a criminal oence under Section 110
Section 110 of the Local Elections Regulations 1995
[above].
Unless he was playing games with his electorate by
pretending to vote in Beechwood he’s a criminal too.
A journalist from ‘Ditch’ put it to
Geoghegan on 26 May that he had
committed an electoral crime but, though
his eyes did cartwheels, he did not say
anything one way or the other.
Responding from in front of a vast photo-
representation of Ranelagh Luas stop to the,
accurate, claim that the Fine Gael website
had represented Geoghegan as living in the
constituency, he deviously stated that the
website does not say that and if it ever did it
was “an error”.
By all accounts James Geoghegan is,
personally, an inoffensive individual.
Politically, he is a pallid Leo Varadkar clone. He
has left a trail of dishonesty and delinquency.
He will not win in Dublin Bay South.
Tweet posted by Geoghegn showing him illeglly
voting for himself in the 2019 locl elections
‘Voters don’t look at the
opportunities a candidate
has had in life, but look
at how they use those
opportunities’. So that,
now, is what Village is
doing.
Section 110 of the Locl Elections Regultions 1995
