Luke 'Ming' Flanagan

Luke 'Ming' Flanagan (born 22 January 1972) is an Irish politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Ireland for the Midlands–North-West constituency since 2014.

He is an independent, but sits in parliament with The Left in the European Parliament.

Flanagan began his political career running unsuccessfully as an independent candidate in the Galway West constituency at the 1997 general election.

He entered politics urging the legalisation of cannabis and as a protest candidate against his landlord, Fianna Fáil TD Frank Fahey.

He got 548 votes (1.1%).

He served nine days of a 15-day sentence at Loughan House open prison in County Cavan in 1998, for refusing to pay a fine imposed for breach of the Litter Pollution Act, and the following year he served another sentence at Loughan House for possession of cannabis.

Flanagan is married to Judy Flanagan; they have three daughters.

He is on the autism spectrum.

He went on to contest the Connacht–Ulster constituency at the 1999 European Parliament election receiving 5,000 votes (1.6%) and the Longford–Roscommon constituency at the 2002 general election receiving 779 votes (1.6%).

The media did not portray him as a serious candidate, instead focusing on how he shaved his hair and styled his beard in the way of Ming the Merciless from the comic strip Flash Gordon.

His posters and other election material featured cannabis leaves, and legalisation of the drug was one of his main policy platforms.

He voiced uncompromising support for radical social and environmental issues, and displayed a knack for using the media, being featured in many newspapers and radio programmes who were attracted by his colourful appearance and strong rhetoric.

In 2001, he hit the headlines when he sent more than 200 cannabis joints to politicians in the Oireachtas, one to each TD and senator, as part of his campaign to have cannabis legalised.

Flanagan served as a member of Roscommon County Council between 2004 and 2011.

First elected at the 2004 local elections, he was re-elected in 2009, and served as Mayor of Roscommon from 2010 until his election as a TD for the Roscommon–South Leitrim constituency at the 2011 general election.

Flanagan returned to his native Castlerea, County Roscommon where he contested the 2004 local elections; he was elected to Roscommon County Council, topping the poll and being elected on the first count, defeating sitting councillors John Murray and Danny Burke.

He was re-elected on the first count at 2009 local elections, receiving 16.8% of 1st preference votes in the Castlerea electoral area, and exceeding the quota by 394 votes.

On 28 June 2010, Flanagan was elected as the Mayor of Roscommon County Council.

During his time as mayor, he voluntarily took a 50 percent cut of his mayoral allowance and took none of his foreign travel allowance, encouraging other politicians to do so.

On 27 July 2010, Flanagan was the subject of debate over his refusal to lead the prayer said before council meetings; he said that it would be hypocritical for him, as a non-believer, to lead it.

The matter was later resolved by asking the Deputy Mayor Ernie Keenan to say the prayer.

In December 2010, Flanagan proposed that his mayoral allowance should be halved, and many of his other allowances be abolished entirely, in recognition of the financial difficulties that the country and the county were experiencing.

The proposal met with a mixed reception from his council colleagues.

Flanagan was elected to represent the Roscommon–South Leitrim constituency in the 31st Dáil in the 2011 general election, one of twenty members of the New Vision alliance of independent candidates.

He received 8,925 (18.8%) first preference votes, which enabled him to take the first seat with 12,149 votes on the fourth count, while the two incumbent Fine Gael TDs were elected on the sixth count.

Neither of the two Fianna Fáil candidates managed to retain the seat of their retiring party colleague, Michael Finneran.

Upon his election, Flanagan took a 50% salary cut and urged his fellow TDs to follow suit.

Following his election to the Dáil, Flanagan nominated independent John Murphy to replace him on Roscommon County Council.

When he was elected in 2011, Flanagan kept his promise to retain only half of his €92,672 salary and distribute the rest to local projects.

He refused to hand it back to the State, claiming it would only be pumped into the banks.

In March 2011, one month after being elected to Dáil Éireann, Flanagan announced that he would cease his smoking of cannabis while in Ireland in order to protect his family and focus on the issues for which he stands.

He said he still intended to smoke cannabis when abroad.

This followed a formal complaint lodged to the Garda Síochána by a Fianna Fáil councillor from Kilkenny about his cannabis use.

Flanagan said that: "...my wife and children are the most important people on the planet to me and I don't want my kids to witness the Garda calling to the house."

He served in Dáil Éireann for three years before being elected as an Independent candidate for the Midlands–North-West constituency at the 2014 European Parliament election.

Flanagan is a social campaigner best known for his long-running involvement in the campaign for the legalisation of cannabis and addressing allegations of corruption in the Garda Síochána, the national police force.

Born in Roscommon, Flanagan is a native of Castlerea.

He studied science at Galway Regional Technical College for two years before dropping out.

He then attended Sligo RTC where he studied mechanical engineering.

Flanagan has been convicted on several occasions of possession of cannabis for personal use.