Kieran Deeny
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Kieran Deeny (born October 12, 1954) is a Northern Irish medical doctor turned politician, and an independent Member of the Legislative Assembly for West Tyrone, having run on a single issue ticket of retaining the Tyrone County Hospital in Omagh.
Born in Downpatrick, Deeny was educated at St Patrick's Boy's Primary School, Downpatrick and St Patrick's De La Salle Grammar School, Downpatrick. During this time he regularly partipated in several sports, representing Ulster Schools at Table Tennis, representing County Down in the Gaelic Athletic Association and playing football in both the Irish League and League of Ireland in the early 1970s.
He studied at University College Dublin and worked as a general practitioner in County Tyrone from the mid 1980s onwards. From 2000 he also served as Chairman of Omagh and District G.P. Association and took a prominent role in the campaign to keep full medical provision at the Tyrone County Hospital.
In the 2003 Northern Ireland assembly elections Deeny ran as an independent candidate in West Tyrone on the sole issue of retaining the hospital and generated one of the biggest shocks of that election when he topped the poll and took a seat from the Social Democratic and Labour Party. However the continued suspension of the Assembly has meant that Deeny has not been able to directly influence decisions about the future of the hospital.
In the 2005 general election Deeny stood for the Westminster seat, campaigning heavily on sitting MP Pat Doherty's abstentionism and arguing that this denied the seat a voice, and received a lot of backing from many activists and supporters of both Nationalist and Unionist political parties, though all the major parties ran candidates. Deeny received over 11,000 votes and placed second in the election to Pat Doherty. However, the Electoral Commission's report of campaign spending reveals that Deeny exceeded the legal maximum for the constituency.
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Other British doctors elected on similar tickets:
