Ciaran Mullooly, 55, was until 2021 a journalist at RTE, the Irish public service broadcaster, where he was the RTÉ News Midlands correspondent for 26 years. Retired, he devoted himself to EU social inclusion programmes, promoting local tourism and then accepted the candidature focusing his campaign on the issues of a just ecological transition, socially sustainable migration and strong support for small and medium-sized enterprises. ‘I would have always said I was a centrist,’ he said in an interview in early June.