The well known musician Frank McNamara will be unveiled today as a general election candidate for the Progressive Democrats. He will run for the party in Dublin South Central on a ticket with Bob Quinn.
Mr McNamara, who was music director of the Late Late Showon RTÉ for 20 years, was the arranger and producer of two consecutive Irish winners of the Eurovision Song Contest.
His music career began at the age of 11, when he first appeared on RTÉ television playing the piano. He later graduated in music from Trinity College and studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and later in London and Canada.
As well as featuring on the Late Late Show, he composed themes and other music for television and wrote numerous works for orchestra. Mr McNamara has released several albums, which include his orchestral arrangements and original compositions.
Mr McNamara has not been involved in politics before and his decision to stand as a PD candidate will come as a surprise. The party has eight TDs and faces a huge battle to retain that number in the next Dáil.
The PDs have never won a seat in Dublin South Central and only polled 1,300 votes there in the last election, However, the five-seat constituency is wide open with Fine Gael poll topper Gay Mitchell not contesting a seat.
Fianna Fáil is also under pressure to hold its two seats, with Michael Mulcahy regarded as the weaker of its TDs.
