Joe O'Flynn is an Irish trade union leader and former politician.
Born in the Fairhill area of Cork,"Labour man elected Cork Lord Mayor ", Irish Times, 15 July 1998 O'Flynn joined a trade union when he was sixteen, and began working for it full-time six years later.SIPTU, "General Secretary: Joe O’Flynn "
O'Flynn was active in the Labour Party, and was elected to Cork City Council in 1991. He stood in the 1994 Cork South-Central by-election, but took only 6.2% of the first preference votes, and was not elected.Ray Kavanagh, Spring, Summer & Fall: The Rise and Fall of the Labour Party 1986–99, p.157 He served as Lord Mayor of Cork in 1998/1999.
Meanwhile, O'Flynn's union career continued to develop. He served as National Industrial Officer and then a Regional Officer of what became SIPTU. In 2002, he was elected as the union's general secretary. The following year, he was elected as treasurer of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. He also served on Bord Gais Eireann.
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