Sinn Fein MEP Kathleen Funchion at The Parade, Kilkenny Castle. Funchion's controlling ex-partner had his sentence extended by a month after he appealed the severity of the sentence from a lower court
A phone consultation with a private lie-detector company was the final straw in Kathleen Funchion’s six-year-long abusive relationship, the MEP has revealed.
As she listened nervously on the phone to how the process would work and where she would take the lie detector, the then Sinn Féin TD said she knew it was all ‘wrong’.
In an interview with the Irish Mail on Sunday, the brave mother-of-two details how – with the support of family, a close circle of friends and a women’s refuge – she finally broke free from Seán Tyrell’s control.
She also praised ‘kind’ gardaí from Kilkenny’s Garda Protective Services Bureau who later ensured she got justice for the abuse she had suffered at the hands of the former Sinn Féin councillor.
Speaking after her controlling ex-partner had his four-month prison sentence increased by a month, Ms Funchion told how for years, she found herself ‘walking on eggshells’.
She would even become nervous and anxious when the Dáil schedule changed or her day didn’t go as planned, because she knew it was going to ‘create an issue’.
Tyrell never told her there was an issue, but he made it clear she knew she was the problem. Instead, she was subjected to silent treatment and ‘frozen out for days’.
‘It was very emotionally draining, I felt like I always had to be a number of steps above,’ the Ireland South MEP recalls.
With the benefit of hindsight, Ms Funchion said there was an issue around jealousy early on that was ‘very hard’ for her to understand.
Their relationship broke down on several occasions, but the mother of two children from a prior relationship said that she had really loved Tyrell and that she ‘wanted to make it work’.
But eventually, she knew the relationship was at a point where it was ‘obvious’ there was no return.
‘I am nearly embarrassed now when I think about it [the lie detector], because we did a phone consultation with this man who does lie-detector tests.
‘I did this phone consultation about how it all works and where you go and all the rest of it.
‘Seán had found this company based in Galway. I was thinking this was not good.
‘I remember being so nervous on that phone call because I knew it was ridiculous and wrong, and I felt I knew I had to get myself out of this, but I didn’t really know how to do it at that point.’
The 44-year-old also discovered Tyrell had exported her WhatsApp chats from her phone to his after she voluntarily handed her mobile to him.
Funchion realised that her ex-partner Sean Tyrell had exported her WhatsApp chats
She said he began contacting her friends, their partners and journalists after she texted him to say she was not going to go through with the lie-detector test.
‘After I handed over my phone and he went through that, and when I realised that was still not good enough, I was thinking then, “this is never going to end”.
‘And then there was the thing around the lie-detector test. It also emerged then he had gone through my phone, he had exported my WhatsApp chats.
'I had given him my phone and that was me saying I had nothing to hide, but I didn’t realise he had taken information off it.
‘I knew then it was something I couldn’t live with and I reached out to Amber [domestic violence shelter]. I contacted them and the gardaí then.’
Last Monday, Tyrrell, of Cypress Grove, Loughboy, Kilkenny, had his prison sentence for offences under the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act increased by a month on appeal.
He was previously given a four-month custodial sentence, with a separate four-month jail term suspended for two years, for offences under the legislation, also known as Coco’s Law.
Ms Funchion spoke of the ‘relief’ she feels now that the ‘emotionally draining’ relationship and its aftermath life has finally concluded.
‘I went to the guards in August 2022. He was arrested in December 2022 and it was in May 2024 the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] came back with a decision.
‘The case was March 2025 and the sentencing was April 2025, and then I had to wait almost another year for the appeal.
‘It has been exhausting.’
Looking back at the relationship, she stressed how difficult it was to get to the point where she knew she needed to get out for good.
The politician also acknowledges she has ‘a good bit of recovering’ to do now the case has concluded.
‘I had my two children, I had been married and gone through a separation. I felt I did everything right.
'We were friends and it grew from that, I think that’s what makes me really doubt myself now because I’d done everything right.
‘You end up saying to yourself, “how do you ever know, how do you ever move on and trust again?”.
‘When you think that you were doing it right, and it all went so very horribly wrong.’
Ms Funchion said that she wants women who are in similar situations to trust their instincts and recognise the early red flags in abusive relationships.
‘It’s hard to see it when you’re in it, it creeps in over time and you second-guess yourself.
‘There were good times in the relationship too. It wasn’t like every single day was terrible – we had some great times.
‘But when I look back on it, some of our best times was when it was just the two of us – and maybe that’s because he knew where I was and what I was doing.
‘I probably still have a good bit of recovering to do for my own confidence,’ she acknowledged.
Ms Funchion said she was unable to sleep in the nights approaching court hearings.
She also told of how at times she even changed her movements around Kilkenny while the case was ongoing because she was ‘consciously trying not to run into him’.
‘It’s only hitting me, now that it is done. It has been exhausting.
‘I’d try not to think about it, but I’d wonder is he going to get off, or what’s going to happen, so it’s great not to have that anymore.’
Seán Tyrell, 39, was given a five-month jail term and a separate five-month suspended sentence under Section 4 of the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020
Ms Funchion said her family and close group of friends were ‘really important’ in helping her through the process.
‘My family were really good, and a group of friends from college I have had long before I was in politics. I feel like they know me for such a long time and are really important friendships to me, and they 100 per cent stood by me.
‘I was really lucky to have that level of support.’
She also praised Amber Women’s Refuge for providing professional support and thanked the ‘fantastic’ Garda Protective Services Bureau in Kilkenny.
‘They were objective but incredibly kind and supportive.
‘Because in [going through] all of this, our confidence is so low you wonder, are you being a nuisance – so for them to so lovely at that time is so important.
‘I don’t think people realise how rampant this behaviour is, particularly the controlling behaviour.’
