GREEN PARTY COUNCILLOR Hazel Chu has been elected Lord Mayor of Dublin at a ceremony in the Mansion House this evening. 

Chu, who is the party’s Chairperson and was elected to Dublin City Council in last year’s local elections, will replace Fianna Fáil’s Tom Brabazon who has held the post since February.

Brabazon was elected interim Lord Mayor following the election to the Dáil of Fianna Fáil’s Paul McAuliffe. 

Chu was elected following a vote of councillors this evening, with 43 votes in favour and nine against. 

“I am overwhelmed and humbled,” Chu said in a speech following her election to the role, in which she pledged to fight housing and homelessness. 

She also said that she would tackle discrimination, saying that it wasn’t enough “not to be racist, we have to be anti-racist”.

Chu said she would like to promote discussions about race and gender during her tenure. 

Hazel Chu was born and raised in Dublin, in the suburb of Firhouse, before moving to Celbridge, and now lives in Ranelagh with her partner Patrick and their two-year-old daughter Alex.

Councillor Chu became the first Green Party councillor to be elected in the 2019 local elections for the ward of Pembroke and topped the poll with over 4,000 first preference votes. In the same year she was elected chair of the Green Party.

She studied politics and history in UCD and trained to be a barrister at Kings Inns. While studying she worked as a fundraising consultant for non-profits and as a production manager for music festivals.

After being called to the Bar in 2007, she worked in Sydney, Hong Kong and Guilin. Upon returning home she was offered a Fellowship by UCD Smurfit and worked in New York for Bord Bia. She has worked in various management roles and in 2013 became Diageo’s Head of Brand, Corporate and Trade Communications.

Councillor Chu was the first person in her family to finish school and go to college. Her parents are from Hong Kong, and met in Ireland in the 1970s.

Hazel Chu is the 9th woman to hold the office of the Lord Mayor of Dublin.

Councillor Mary Callaghan of the Social Democrats was elected as Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin, by 43 votes to 9.