Finian McGrath
Irish politician

Finian McGrath (born 9 April 1953) is an Irish former independent politician who served as Minister of State for Disability Issues from 2016 to 2020. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 2002 to 2020.
Early and personal life
Born in Tuam, County Galway, in 1953. He was educated at University College Dublin. He went on to become a primary school principal at Scoil Plás Mhuire for Boys in Dublin, before entering politics. He had two daughters with his wife Anne, who died in November 2009. McGrath was a contestant on the You're a Star charity special in summer 2005, where he came in second. He released a charity single in December 2005, which featured the Christmas song "Angels We Have Heard on High" and the classic "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown". All proceeds from the sales of this single were donated to Down syndrome Ireland.
Political career
He was an unsuccessful candidate in the Dublin North-Central constituency at the 1992 and 1997 general elections.
The public source identifies “Finian McGrath” as irish politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Finian, McGrath and Irish.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5450326. VIAF identifies the subject as 315945526. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1953, 2016, 2020 and 2002.
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This entry incorporates text from “Finian McGrath” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.