The first Social Democrats candidate to run in Dublin Rathdown, Sinéad Gibney’s political endeavours had seemingly been at odds with her human rights work until this point.

Although she failed to win a Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown seat in the 2019 local elections, she was then selected to run for the party in the 2020 general election.

However, she withdrew her candidacy when she was appointed chief commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC).

The 48-year-old stepped down from her IHREC role in March to run for the European elections in June.

She was eliminated on the 15th count, finishing with 18,396 votes, just 440 short of a threshold needed to reclaim election expenses, saying at the time that it was “heartbreaking”, having sold her car to part-fund her campaign.

Ms Gibney lives with her husband Mark and has been vocal about previously raising her daughter as a lone parent.