Frances Black & Aodhán Ó Ríordáin elected to the Seanad

Musician Frances Black has been elected to the Seanad through the Industrial and Vocational Panel. Black benefited from transfers from Sinn Féin’s Mac Lochlainn who topped the poll by some distance.
The 55-year-old, who has struggled with alcohol dependency, is a trained addiction counselor who in 2009 founded the RISE Foundation. Focused on family members with alcohol, drug, gambling, food and sex addiction problems, they run programmes throughout the country.
Black cut her musical teeth in the 1980s as a member of The Black Family. Her teaming up in the early '90s with Newry's Kieran Goss resulted in their eponymous album going top 10 in Ireland, and a series of sell-out tours. She became a global phenomenon when together with Eleanor McEvoy, Sharon Shannon, Maura O’Connell, Dolores Keane and her sister Mary Black she participated in the biggest-selling Irish album of all time, A Woman’s Heart.
Also securing his Seanad place via-the Industrial and Commercial Panel is the former Labour Drugs Minister, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin who will continue to press for the introduction of medically supervised injecting rooms here.
“100 years on and a young man dies of a heroin overdose in Connolly station toilets,” he tweeted last week after yet another drug-related fatality. “Only one of three last week, yet no public outcry. What price a life?”
Welcoming Black’s election, Senator Ó Ríordáin says that he’s looking forward to her “bringing the debate on addiction to a new level.”