Perseverance pays off as SF candidate on cusp of victory

PERSEVERANCE pays off. When Sinn Féin’s Jonathan O Brien started out in politics, working under the tutelage of veteran party councillor and activist Don O’Leary, he was regarded as something a callow youth.

Few gave him a chance of ever winning a Dáil seat. After all, Don O’Leary had twice tried and failed.

But O’Brien, after being co-opted to Cork City Council to replace an ill O’Leary in 2000, slogged away.