Career
A native of Dunmanway in west Cork, he entered politics at the age of twenty-two by gaining a seat for the Labour Party on Cork County Council in the Skibbereen Electoral Area. He was the Labour Party spokesperson on Marine, and acted as spokesperson in the Seanad on Agriculture, Community and Rural Affairs, and Communications, Marine and Natural Resources. McCarthy stood unsuccessfully as a Labour Party candidate for the Cork South–West constituency at the 2002 and 2007 general elections, before being elected to the Dáil at the 2011 general election.
He lost his seat at the 2016 general election.
