Hazel Chu ninth woman elected Lord Mayor
By Maurice Garvey
GREEN Party councillor Hazel Chu vowed to fight racism and encourage women leaders following her election as Lord Mayor of Dublin.
Hazel Chu is the ninth woman to hold the office of the Lord Mayor of Dublin and was elected by a margin of 43-9 at a special meeting in the Mansion House on Monday.
Lord Mayor Hazel Chu with Patrick Costello and their daughter Alex
She is the first person with immigrant parents to be elected Lord Mayor of Dublin.
Her parents migrated to Ireland from Hong Kong in the 1970s and met each other in Dublin.
Hazel Chu was born in Dublin, grew up in Firhouse, before moving to Celbridge.
She now lives in Ranelagh with her partner Patrick Costello, a Green Party councillor for Kimmage-Rathmines, and their 2 year old daughter Alex.
She was the first of her family to finish school and to go to college, studying Politics and History at UCD and trained at the Kings Inns as a barrister.
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.
She 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 party.
Cllr Mary Callaghan (Soc Dems) was elected the Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin. It marks the first time both positions are filled by women.
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