Sen. Sarah O’Reilly with farmers at the 2025 National Ploughing Championships in Tullamore, September 2025. Photo: Courtesy Sen. Sarah O’Reilly. Senator Sarah O’Reilly’s journey to the Seanad was unexpected and accidental, she says. The first Aontú representative to be elected to the Seanad explained in an interview with The Irish Catholic that she doesn’t think of herself as a “career politician”.
Recalling her life as a single mom with four kids on social welfare in Cavan, the county that she would soon come to represent as a councillor, Sen. O’Reilly described herself as “extremely poor.” “I had a friend across the road who was in politics, and she used to get me to do a few things for her in the evening,” said Sen. O’Reilly, explaining how she got involved in the world of politics.
The transition to politics felt natural for the Aontú representative, she recalled. “It’s very addictive, fast paced and always different.”
The Senator was elected as Aontú’s first member of the Seanad in February 2025, to sit on the Agricultural Panel. Her time working in the agricultural sector in Cavan gives her a nuanced understanding of the issues affecting farmers and agricultural contractors, she said. When asked what she hears farmers lament about the most, Sen. O’Reilly answered, “bureaucracy.”
“We seem to be getting more bureaucratic. Nothing is simple anymore. Everything, particularly for farmers, nearly needs a specialist or another agency to help them,” she continued.
Help
Along with her experience in agriculture, Sen. O’Reilly’s time as a single parent on social welfare has instilled in her a desire to help people who may feel alone. “I know the pressures that particularly one parent families are under,” said the Senator. “So, I have a wide experience of people and their needs. Something in me is drawn to helping people who either don’t know where to go or how to find help. And I suppose that’s where I come in, in directing people to where they can get help. And that is the most rewarding part of the job.”
Speaking about the transition from Cavan County Council to the Seanad, she said she was used to the efficiency and haste at the county level. “If somebody rang you to get a pothole filled, you were able to get it filled.” Alternatively, in the Oireachtas, legislation tends to get “bogged down” in paperwork.
It’s not easy and it’s not what I would recommend, but it is the most rewarding thing that has ever happened to me”
“I would have thought in the beginning when I came in, how am I going to change anything here?” Sen. O’Reilly recalled. “Everybody’s just all talking, and I don’t think anybody’s listening. But they are.” She said she sees most action in the committees, where politicians are able to meet with one another and get testimony from those experiencing an issue on the ground level. “That’s where the real work is done,” said the Senator.
Sen. O’Reilly joined Aontú in December 2018, leaving Fianna Fáil after the Repeal of the 8th amendment. Discussing the decision, she said that despite the risk, she felt she had to maintain her own values on the subject of abortion. Recalling her experience having her first child at the age of 16, she said that she is living proof that a crisis pregnancy does not mean the end of one’s schooling, career and life. “It’s not easy and it’s not what I would recommend, but it is the most rewarding thing that has ever happened to me.”
“It seems to me that if they’re crisis pregnancies, the only solution that’s put forward to young women is abortion instead of the other options, which there are many.” For Sen. O’Reilly, the framing of crisis pregnancies as a negative is anti-family, and she pointed out that she has seen an increased prevalence of anti-family policies in the Oireachtas during her time there.
Voice
Sen. O’Reilly, like many, was frustrated at the removal of the three-day wait rule. “I kind of thought it would go nowhere, until the two main leaders of the two main parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, came out in support of it,” she recalled. The amendment to the Bill is in committee now, said the Senator, urging committee members to listen to their constituents on the issue, “because it’s their constituents that put them in that position to represent them.”
Still, the Senator expressed hope that as opinions are heard, the legislation will change”
Speaking directly to those who are looking to take action but don’t know how, she advised, “you need to contact your local TD or Senator and give them your opinion…if they don’t know the feeling of the people on the ground, they won’t be able to act accordingly.”
The Senator said that she herself heard from many constituents in Cavan-Monaghan after the amendment passed through the Dáil, and is expecting more emails and calls from campaign groups such as Cavan Life.
She said she has heard from women she knows and in her constituency that they feel let down and “betrayed” by the removal of the three-day wait, which acted as a safeguard for many during the 2018 Referendum. “How can we trust the Government when they got our vote by putting in this safeguard, and now they seem to have dismissed it.” Still, the Senator expressed hope that as opinions are heard, the legislation will change. “I suppose we’re in a fight for hearts and minds on this,” she concluded.
Priority
Sen. O’Reilly’s priority is representing the people of Cavan-Monaghan, a position which she sees herself as being privileged to be in. Representing Aontú in the Seanad, she said, is also a privilege, and something she never would have expected. “I’m kind of accidentally here…it’s the councillors that elect me into my position, so it was a huge surprise that I got elected.” She described herself as being “lucky and happy” to represent her constituency and bring the perspectives of farmers and young families to the Seanad.
While it can be easy to feel her work is having no effect on real people, especially among the endless paperwork and bureaucracy, Sen. O’Reilly emphasised how the real work of representing her people is accomplished in committees, by understanding those who are struggling like she once was. “I would hope that I’d be covering as many issues as possible from the people in my area,” she said. “It’s been a privilege and an honour.”