Denis Cregan

Denis Cregan(born 4 May 1940) is anIrishpublicanand formerFine Gaelparty politician fromCork,who served for 17 years as asenator.

A former branch vice-president of theIrish Transport and General Workers' Union,Cregan was a long-standing member ofCork City Councilfrom 1979 to 2009, and wasLord Mayor of Corkfrom 1991 to 1992.He had unsuccessfully contested theCork South-Centralconstituency at the1981andFebruary 1982 general elections.He stood in the 1982 Seanad elections, winning a seat on theLabour Panel,which he held until his defeat in the 1989 elections to the19th Seanad Éireann.

He was unsuccessful again when he stood again in Cork South-Central at the1992 general election,but in the subsequent elections to the20th Seanadhe was re-elected on the Labour Panel. He was re-elected in 1997 to the21st Seanad,but was narrowly defeated in the 2002 elections to the22nd Seanad.

At the2004 local elections,he held his seat on Cork City Council, though with a margin of less than 50 votes over theSinn Féincandidate.

In January 2009 he announced his retirement from politics and did not contest the 2009 local elections.

He is well known in Cork for his chain ofFish and chip shopscalled Dino's.