Nessa Maria Vereker Childers (born 9 October 1956) is an Irish former independent politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 to 2019.
Contents
Early life
She is the daughter of the fourth President of Ireland, Erskine H. Childers and his second wife, Rita Childers. Her paternal grandfather was Erskine Childers, a leading Irish republican and author of the espionage thriller The Riddle of the Sands. She has an Arts and Psychology degree from Trinity College Dublin and a postgraduate diploma from University College Dublin. During her time at Trinity she served as Registrar of the University Philosophical Society. She previously worked as a psychoanalyst in private practice.
Politics
She is a former County councillor for the Green Party, representing the Blackrock local electoral area on Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council. She was elected in 2004 and resigned from her seat in August 2008.
Childers originally joined the Labour Party before the 2004 local elections, but when she failed to get a nomination to run for Dún LaoghaireRathdown County Council, she switched to the Green Party and was elected to represent it as a Councillor.
In September 2008, she resigned from the Green Party to run for the Labour Party in the East constituency at the 2009 European Parliament election. She was elected in May 2009.