Tiernan’s political career began in 1999 when he was elected for Fianna Fáil as a councillor for his hometown in Bundoran, County Donegal. He served as councillor and mayor of Bundoran for two terms. Since then he has gone on to prove his efficacy as a politician and as a strategist in Ireland and overseas.
Tiernan was born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh and grew up in Bundoran, County Donegal. He studied at University College Dublin (UCD), where he became chair of the Kevin Barry Cumann, the country’s largest Fianna Fáil cumann.
Tiernan has a degree in economics from UCD and a Masters in International Relations from DCU. In 1995 he was diagnosed with acute leukaemia and spent 7 months undergoing chemotherapy in St James's Hospital, Dublin. He successfully ran a small newsagent business in Bundoran for almost ten years.
Councillor and Mayor
Tiernan was elected to Bundoran Town Council in 1999 and re-elected in 2004. He twice served as council chair. In 2005, Tiernan introduced Ireland's first derelict property tax to address underdevelopment and hoarding of properties by developers.
As council chair, Tiernan proposed the creation of special coastal conservation zones to prevent residential zoning in areas of natural beauty. These proposals faced resistance from councillors from several parties – including some from his own party - but Tiernan worked with like-minded colleagues from several parties to ensure that the proposals were adopted by the Council.
He served in local government until 2008 when he sold his business and moved to Dublin to study a Masters in International Relations at DCU.
DIRECTOR OF ORGANISATION, FIANNA FÁIL, DONEGAL SOUTH WEST
Tiernan ran the election campaigns of both Pat (the Cope) Gallagher and Mary Coughlan. During his time as Director the party vote of the candidates rose from 38% to 52% and doubled the seat representation in the electorate.
Equality campaigner – Ireland
In 2009 Tiernan became Director of Gay HIV Strategies with GLEN – The Gay and Lesbian Equality Network. GLEN successfully lobbied to pass the Civil Partnership Act in 2011. In April 2013 Tiernan addressed the Constitutional Convention to argue for marriage equality. In 2012 he led the successful bid for Dublin to host the 15th Annual Conference of the International Lesbian and Gay Association - Europe (ILGA-Europe) and chaired the conference organising committee. The ILGA conference is the largest of its kind in Europe with delegates from over 40 countries attending.
In the summer of 2014 the Irish government announced that there would a referendum on marriage equality in May 2015. Yes Equality became the main campaign for the Yes side. In its first major activity Tiernan headed up the Register to Vote campaign aimed to increase enrolment in advance of the vote. The campaign was a huge success enrolling over 40,000 new voters making it the most successful enrolment campaign in the country's history.
Tiernan then became the Political Director of Yes Equality, working closely with political parties and political leaders from across the political spectrum to maximise and coordinate the impact of the campaign. The national campaign won with a 62% vote in favour of marriage equality making Ireland the first country in the world to have passed marriage equality by a public vote.
In March 2015 Tiernan launched Ireland's first community based rapid HIV testing programme, the Knownow project. It became Europe's most successful testing programme of its kind.
Equality campaigner - Australian Marriage Equality
In 2016, Tiernan moved to Australia to work with Australian Marriage Equality. The coalition government led by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had a policy of holding a national plebiscite to decide the issue. Tiernan designed the strategy to both prepare for the plebiscite if it happened whilst working to defeat the proposition and get parliament to pass marriage equality by a vote in parliament. As Director, he launched the Equality Campaign, a joint campaign by Australian Marriage Equality and Australians 4 Equality to push for marriage equality.
Tiernan had designed a campaign approach that focussed on fairness and equality as the key message delivered through human stories. The approach was to be respectful and positive, avoiding angry debates with the activists from the No campaign. He believed real victory for LGBTI people was not about defeating others but persuading them. He believes divisive campaigns do not create the real change that LGBTI people need because whilst it may change the law it will also damage the social fabric and the daily lives of LGBTI people and that campaigns therefore need to focus on the social cohesion and peace that must follow any campaign on marriage equality. The campaign stuck rigidly to this approach.
On 15th November 2017 the results of the survey were announced. They were a major victory for the Yes campaign with 62% of Australians voting in favour of the marriage equality. There was a majority in favour in every state and territory and in almost 90% of parliamentary electorates. On the morning of the results Tiernan addressed a crowd of over 10,000 in Sydney with the clear message that marriage equality must be a moment of national unity and social peace and that people needed to reach out to those who had voted no in the survey and continue the work of persuasion. Australia joined Ireland as the only two countries in the world to pass marriage equality by a public vote and Tiernan has been at the forefront of winning both.
