Mick Barry

Who is Mick Barry?

Mick Barry is an Irish Socialist Party councillor for Cork City Council, first elected in 2004 and re-elected in June 2009 on the first count in the Cork City North Central ward. He also stood unsuccessfully in the 2002, 2007 and 2011 general elections in the Cork North–Central constituency.

Dick Spring expelled Barry, alongside Joe Higgins and 12 others, from the Labour Party in 1989. Barry has taken part in activist activities since then and moved to Cork from Dublin two years later. Barry has campaigned on a number of issues locally and nationally, notably the Anti-Bin Tax Campaign with the Householders Against Service Charges in Cork. In support of local services in the Cork area such as the cutbacks in Bus services, and against the building of a Private Hospital on the public hospital grounds of Cork University Hospital.

On 1 May 2013, gardaí arrested five members of the Campaign Against Home and Water Taxes, including Barry and fellow Cork City Councillor Ted Tynan of the Workers' Party, during a midday protest inside the Patrick Street branch of the Bank of Ireland in the city. People gathered on the street. Cllr Tynan said he felt a need to stand up against austerity.