Councillor Hazel Chu of The Green Party has been elected the 352nd Lord Mayor of Dublin.
The vote took place at Dublin City Council’s annual meeting in the Round Room of the Mansion House on Monday night.
Ms Chu was elected with the support of over two-thirds of councilors.
She is the ninth woman to hold the post.
Other women elected to the role were Caitlin Bean Ui Chleirigh (1939-41), Catherine Byrne (1958-59), Carmencita Hederman (1987-88), Mary Freehill (1999-2000), Catherine Byrne (2005-06), Eibhlin Byrne (2008-09), Emer Costello (2009-10) and Críona Ní Dhálaigh (2015-16).
Ms Chu was born and raised in Dublin, growing up in the suburb of Firhouse before moving to Celbridge.
She now lives in Ranelagh with her partner Patrick and their daughter Alex.
Councillor Chu became the first Green Party councillor to be elected in the 2019 local elections for the ward of Pembroke, and topped the poll with over 4,000 first preference votes.
Very proud to vote for my brilliant colleague @hazechu to become just the 9th woman of 352 Lord Mayors of Dublin. In her speech she said she hopes ALL children will be able to look at her and see what they can achieve if they just have the ambition and the support to it. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/FK8Lhtd6hn
— Cllr Carolyn Moore (@carolynmoore_ie) June 29, 2020
In the same year she was elected chair of the party.
She studied politics and history at UCD and trained to be a barrister at Kings Inns.
While studying she worked for non-profits and as a production manager for music festivals.
After being called to the bar in 2007 she worked in Sydney, Hong Kong and Guilin.
She was then offered a Fellowship by UCD Smurfit and worked in New York for Bord Bia.
She has also worked in various management roles and in 2013 became Diageo’s head of brand, corporate and trade communications.
Councillor Chu was the first person in her family to finish school and go to college.
Her parents are from Hong Kong, having met in Ireland in the 1970s.
Councillor Mary Callaghan of the Social Democrats was elected the Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin at the meeting.
Councillor Mary Callaghan has been elected as Deputy Lord Mayor at the Annual Meeting of @DubCityCouncil held in the @RoundRoomDublin of @MansionHouseDub this evening. pic.twitter.com/WR1puyhJfJ
— Lord Mayor of Dublin (@LordMayorDublin) June 29, 2020
While it is customary for the outgoing Lord Mayor to transfer the chain of office to the incoming recipient, this did not take place due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Instead, Councillor Chu was presented with the chain by her partner.
Councillor Chu first became involved in politics in 2014, when she ran her partner Patrick’s local election campaign.
In her spare time she lends her voice to promoting diversity and equality, and is a regular media contributor.
Speaking after her election, Lord Mayor Chu said: "It feels good, but overwhelming actually.
"I'm very grateful to all my councillors, officials and the people of Dublin and we'll see how it goes".
Talking about her priorities for the year ahead, she said: "I think with the fact that we are still in the pandemic at the moment and we're moving into the re-opening phase, my priorities are to make sure our city is liveable and also continue with the clean air, clean transport, the mobility plans that DCC have rolled out with NTA... we need to keep those things up.
"I would also want to make sure that homeless and housing, we tackle that, because it's still an ongoing emergency.
"The figures are still staggering and we still need to try to tackle it as much as possible.
"Those are my two main priorities, but also the third one would be to make sure we look into programmes to fight racism, have an anti-racism agenda throughout the year as well".
Main image: Dublin Lord Mayor Hazel Chu (left) is seen with her partner Patrick and daughter Alex. Picture via @LordMayorDublin on Twitter
