What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Being surrounded by a tight-knit group of friends.
Which historical figure do you most admire?
Jonas Salk who invented one of the first successful polo vaccines and then gave up profiting rights so it could be shared as widely as possible.
Which living person do you most admire?
Jacinda Ardern.
Which is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
My sleep cycle.
What is your greatest extravagance?
My haircut. I know it costs too much and I don't care. Otherwise I don't overly spend on myself.
What is your favourite journey?
Getting out of the train station from a journey back from Dublin and walking through Eyre Square and Shop Street towards home.
On what occasion do you lie?
When I'm not telling the truth.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
Every queer person.
Which living person do you most despise?
Either Xi Jinping of China who has overseen mass concentration camps and ethnic cleansing; President Trump who facilitates world war and atrocity; or someone I hold a grudge for something I can't remember.
Which talent would you most like to have?
Singing, violin, or even a dab of extroversion.
What is your current state of mind?
Not great, the social isolation lifestyle mixed with a national feeling of anxiety doesn't sit well with me. Excited for normal to return in whatever way that is.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Making anyone laugh so hard they cry.
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what do you think it would be?
You said 'if' I was to die, so I choose not dying.
When and where were you happiest?
Last summer and none of ya business.
What is your most treasured possession?
Any sentimental reminder of any current or past friendship/relationship. They're like living memories.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Despair. The absence of hope. Optimism isn't always easy, but I choose to be optimistic.
What is your favourite occupation?
Any job where I can help people. Right now that's being a councillor.
What is the quality do you most like in a man?
Kindness and humour.
What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Gaeilgeoir.
Who are your favourite writers?
Spenser, Tolkien, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tina Fey, Michael Schur.
What is your motto?
It's easy to be sound, be kind.
Owen Hanley is the Social Democrats councillor for the Galway City East ward.
