Catalyst for 33-year-old’s entry into mainstream political life was the Eighth Amendment referendum in 2018
“[Am I] glad I didn’t know? One hundred per cent. Because I don’t regret it. But honestly, had I known... probably, no, I wouldn’t have done it.”
The catalyst for her entry into mainstream political life was the referendum on the Eighth Amendment held in 2018. The experience of canvassing for the campaign spurred Cairns and two friends, Pamela Weaver and Clare O’Reilly to set up a branch of the Social Democrats in west Cork to offer local voters an alternative to the established parties and Cairns was selected as the candidate for the Bantry Electoral Area in the 2019 local elections.
To her frustration, the fact that she was in a relationship at the time with Fianna Fáil candidate Christopher O’Sullivan seemed to attract more attention than anything else – she likened the experience to being in a bad romantic comedy – but after eight counts she was elected again. She was only the second woman ever elected in west Cork in an election that saw Fine Gael fail to take a seat in the constituency for the first time in more than 60 years.
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