Castlebar man joins Harris team as a special adviser

A Mayo man has been appointed as a special adviser to Simon Harris.

Castlebar-native Jack O’Donnell is returning to the Fine Gael fold following a stint with the Green Party.

Mr O’Donnell has been working as a special adviser to Pippa Hackett, the Green Party junior minister. A sought-after political staffer, Mr O’Donnell had previously worked for a number of senior Fine Gael minister.

A past student of St Gerald’s College, Mr O’Donnell was a former chair of young Fine Gael in Castlebar.

The son of retired Castlebar pharmacist John O’Donnell, he became a special assistant to the Department of the Taoiseach under Enda Kenny in 2014, focusing on liaising with local media in Kenny’s constituency, before being promoted to assistant government press secretary in June 2016.

Following Enda Kenny’s resignation as Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader in 2017, Mr O’Donnell was appointed as a special adviser to then-housing minister Eoghan Murphy.

When Murphy opted to leave politics following the 2020 General election, Mr O’Donnell joined the PR firm Q4, before returning to Leinster House and the world of politics in 2022.  Prior to working in Irish politics, Mr O’Donnell worked as an intern for Senator John McCain in Washington DC.