Mick Wallace

Michael Wallace (born 9 November 1955) is an Irish politician and former property developer who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Ireland for the South constituency since July 2019.

He is a member of Independents 4 Change, part of The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL.

Wallace was born in Wellingtonbridge in County Wexford, Ireland in 1955.

One of a family of 12 children, he graduated from University College Dublin with a teaching qualification.

He married Mary Murphy from Duncormick, County Wexford in 1979; the couple had two sons, but the marriage ended when the children were young.

Wallace had two more children from another relationship in the 1990s.

In 2007, Wallace founded the Wexford Football Club which he managed for their first three seasons, and was chairman of its board.

The club is in the League of Ireland First Division.

Prior to entering politics Wallace owned a property development and construction company completing developments such as The Italian Quarter in the Ormond Quay area of the Dublin quays.

He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Wexford constituency from 2011 to 2019.

Entering politics in 2011 following the post-2008 Irish economic downturn, Wallace was considered to be one of the most eccentric and unconventional figures in Irish politics.

Wallace gained a reputation for anti-establishment and left-wing populist views, and became a frequent guest on the political debate show Tonight with Vincent Browne.

He soon aligned himself with Clare Daly, forming a political duo still operating as a unit today.

On 5 February 2011, while a guest on Tonight with Vincent Browne, Wallace made the announcement that he intended to contest the upcoming general election on 25 February as an Independent candidate.

He topped the poll in the Wexford constituency with 13,329 votes.

According to John Dwyer, who stood against him in that election, Wallace's tax affairs were "the talk of the pubs, all of these things were known. Because he was such a rebel, because he was prepared to stick the finger up at the authorities, he got elected."

Shortly after being elected, Wallace was caught by a microphone in Dáil Éireann saying "Miss Piggy has toned it down a bit today", referring to Mary Mitchell O'Connor.

After Mitchell O'Connor described the comments as "really hurtful" to her, he accepted responsibility and later apologised, saying "It was my fault. I passed the reference because of her handbag. I'm completely out of order. I don't have a leg to stand on […] Clearly it was in bad taste."

He called Mitchell O'Connor to apologise and said he would write a letter of apology to her as well.

On 15 December 2011, he helped to launch a nationwide campaign against the household charge.

In 2012, it emerged that during his time as a property developer, Wallace's company owed €2.1 million to the state in unpaid value-added taxes.

He said he was "a bit flabbergasted" by the introduction of the household charge brought in as part of the 2012 Budget, and by how that party had changed from when it was in opposition.

Wallace co-founded the Independents 4 Change, which was registered to stand for elections in March 2014.

During their time in the Dáil, Wallace and Dublin North TD Clare Daly became friends and political allies, and worked together on many campaigns, including opposition to austerity and highlighting revelations of alleged Garda malpractices, including harassment, improper cancellation of penalty points and involvement of officers in the drug trade.

Wallace and Daly were partially active in protesting the Garda whistleblower scandal, which eventually caused the resignation of Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald, although she was later cleared of wrongdoing by the Charleton Tribunal.

In July 2014, Wallace and Daly were arrested at Shannon Airport while trying to board a US military aircraft.

Wallace said the airport was being used as a US military base and that the government should be searching the planes to ensure that they are not involved in military operations or that there are no weapons on board.

Wallace was fined €2,000 for being in an airside area without permission, and chose not to pay.

In December 2015, Wallace and independent TDs Clare Daly and Maureen O'Sullivan each put forward offers of a €5,000 surety for a man charged with membership of an unlawful organisation and with possession of a component part of an improvised explosive device.

Wallace was criticised and accused of "defending terrorism" by Joan Burton, then Ireland's Tánaiste, for comments he made during the November 2015 Paris attacks.

While the attacks were unfolding, Wallace posted on his Twitter account "So terrible for the victims, but when is France going to stop its role in the militarisation of the planet?", sparking an angry reaction on social media.

He was sentenced to 30 days in prison in default, and in December 2015 was arrested for non-payment of the fine.

Joan Burton accused Wallace of "putting Irish people at risk" of terrorism by repeatedly linking Shannon Airport to US-led wars "simply for the sake of some media coverage".

The company later collapsed into liquidation, with Wallace finally being declared bankrupt on 19 December 2016.

At the 2016 general election, Wallace stood as an Independents 4 Change candidate and was re-elected, finishing third on the first-preference count with 7,917 votes.

Wallace has stated that the welfare of women working in prostitution would be improved if the trade were not pushed underground.

In 2017, Wallace called on Ireland to join the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel and "condemn the illegal expansion of Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands as well as the ongoing human rights abuses against Palestinians".

Wallace proposed an "official boycott of goods from illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories".

Since becoming an MEP in 2019, Wallace has also gained attention for his foreign policy positions, particularly on Russia and China.

His views have been the subject of controversy and criticism in Europe, but have been promoted by state-controlled media in Russia, China, Syria, and other authoritarian states.