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Mannix Flynn

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Cllr
Gerard Mannix Flynn
Dublin City Councillor
Incumbent
Assumed office
24 May 2009
ConstituencySouth East Inner City
Personal details
Born
Gerard Mannix Flynn

(1957-05-04) 4 May 1957 (age 67)
Dublin, Ireland
Political partyIndependent
Websitemannixflynn.com

Gerard Mannix Flynn (born 4 May 1957) is an Irish Independent politician who has served as a Dublin City Councillor since May 2009.[1][2]

Aside from his work on Dublin City Council, he is also an author and playwright, having written the novel Nothing To Say in 1983 and the play James X in 2002.

Early life

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He was sent to St Joseph's Industrial School in Letterfrack aged eleven for eighteen months.[3][4] He was subjected to sexual and physical abuse there.[3] He also spent time in Marlborough House Detention Centre, Daingean, County Offaly, St Patrick's Institution and was given 5 years at 15 years of age and sent to Mountjoy Prison.

Career

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Artist

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He published the novel Nothing To Say in 1983. It was subsequently translated into German, Italian, and Polish. He founded his arts company, Farcry Productions, in 2004, which produces visual art, performance and installation work around taboo issues such as child sexual abuse, violence, and addiction.

In 2004, James X performed by Flynn won the Irish Times Theatre Award. An earlier version of this play titled ' Talking to the Wall' had previously won the Edinburgh Fringe award.

He appeared in the films Cal and When the Sky Falls, Excalibur and worked as an actor in Scotland, London, Austria, and Dublin for 20 years.

Politician

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Flynn was first elected to Dublin City Council in the 2009 local elections as an independent candidate representing the South-East Inner City electoral area. He was re-elected to the revised Pembroke-South Dock electoral area in the 2014 local elections.

He tabled a motion to move the Temple Bar Cultural Trust [State company set up in 1991 as a regeneration agency for Temple Bar] under the direct control of Dublin City Council. The trust was subsequently found to be in breach of corporate governance and accountability in a number of public reports.[5][6]

He has expressed critical views of the way public money was spent as part of a Grafton Street regeneration project in Dublin.[7]

He supports tougher regulation around the amplification of busking on public streets, which led to his office being vandalised in February 2015.[8] He has been involved in a number of challenges to cycle lane provision, with a High Court challenge against the Strand Road cycle lane COVID mobility trial[9] and is a spokesperson for a group opposed to this cycle lane trial.[10] Critics have accused Mannix of consistently voting against policies that would provide more active travel infrastructure and in favour of policies which negatively impact pedestrians and cyclists.[11][12][13] His legal challenges to cycling provision have the potential to revert a number of cycle lanes which have been created back to servicing predominantly cars.[14][15]

In 2015, he resigned from the Dublin City Council Arts SPC over what he perceived as a lack of cohesive overall policy, strategy, and vision.[16]

In 2016, he protested against the Artane Band, due to its association with the Artane Industrial School. The band responded saying it has had no association with the former industrial school. Flynn's peaceful protest, which included him protesting on a window sill in his Dublin City Council office, was criticised by some as "attention seeking" and a "publicity stunt full stop".[17][18]

In 2019 Flynn was involved in a protest march against plans to open the state's largest homeless shelter in his ward.[19] Protesters marched northbound on Aungier Street blocking traffic and shouting slogans against the Peter McVerry trust for providing the services in conjunction with Dublin City Council. In 2020 Flynn took further legal action against the council, who were working in conjunction with the Peter McVerry Trust, so that he could ensure the homeless facilities would not be built in the area.[20]

He contested the 2011, 2016 and 2020 general elections to Dáil Éireann unsuccessfully. He stood unsuccessfully as an independent candidate at the 2021 Dublin Bay South by-election,[21] getting 879 first-preference votes (3.3%).[22]

Land Without God

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A 2019 documentary by Flynn, Land Without God, about the effects of clerical abuse on Flynn and his family, received special mention for the Dublin Human Rights Film Award at the Dublin International Film Festival.[23][24][25]

References

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  1. ^ Gerard Mannix Flynn Archived 17 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine at Irish Writers Online. Retrieved 24 May 2009
  2. ^ "The Times & The Sunday Times". www.thetimes.co.uk. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  3. ^ a b McLaughlin, Brighid (21 December 2002). "Mannix Flynn: To Hell in Connaught". Irish Independent. Retrieved 24 May 2009.
  4. ^ Cullen, Paul. "Mannix Flynn to stand as an Independent in local elections". The Irish Times. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  5. ^ "Analysis: Temple Bar Cultural Trust to have assets sold off". The Irish Times. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  6. ^ "Temple Bar trust suspends chief executive". The Irish Times. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  7. ^ Ryan, Philip (18 June 2013). "Grafton Street refurb cost €400,000 before work began". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  8. ^ Ryan, Orla (5 February 2015). "Councillor's office vandalised with 'horrendous graffiti of a sexual nature'". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
  9. ^ "Order halting works on Sandymount cycleway issued by High Court". The Irish Times.
  10. ^ Kilraine, John (21 April 2021). "Criticism over 'one-sided' 30km/H limit campaign". RTÉ.ie.
  11. ^ "Cllr Mannix Flynn wants pedestrian priority at traffic lights reduced to pre-Covid state -". IrishCycle.com. 19 July 2021. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  12. ^ Staines, Michael. "Councillor slams 'hare-brained' plan to pedestrianise Merrion Row in Dublin". Newstalk. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  13. ^ Donohoe, Amy (1 February 2021). "DCC to hand out fines to drivers who block cyclists, buses and pedestrians". DublinLive. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  14. ^ Kelly, Olivia (21 August 2021). "Give me a crash course in ... cycle path opposition". The Irish Times. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  15. ^ McDonald, Frank. "Frank McDonald: Major hurdle may now face future cycleways". The Irish Times. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  16. ^ "Why I resigned from Dublin City Council's Arts Committee | Village Magazine". www.villagemagazine.ie. Archived from the original on 1 March 2016. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  17. ^ McGreevy, Ronan. "Calls to disband Artane School of Music 'attention-seeking'". The Irish Times.
  18. ^ Barry, Aoife (3 October 2016). ""A publicity stunt full stop" - there isn't much love for Mannix Flynn's windowsill protest among his fellow councillors". TheJournal.ie.
  19. ^ Tyrrell, Emma. "Protestors To March Against Dublin Homeless Shelter". www.98fm.com. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
  20. ^ "Mannix Flynn challenges homeless hub plan for Dublin's Aungier Street". The Irish Times. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
  21. ^ Leahy, Pat. "Varadkar signals July date for Dublin Bay South byelection". The Irish Times. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  22. ^ "Dublin Bay South by-election". The Irish Times. 9 July 2021.
  23. ^ Brady, Tara. "Land Without God: A trip into the dark side of our Irish State". The Irish Times.
  24. ^ "Land Without God - examining the legacy of Institutional abuse". RTÉ. 3 September 2021.
  25. ^ "ICCL Human Rights Film Award". Dublin International Film Festival. Virgin Media. Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
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