Background
He was born in Kilrush, County Clare and educated at Street Flannan"s College in Ennis, at University College Galway, and at University College Dublin (University College Dublin) where he received a doctorate in veterinary medicine.
He was born in Kilrush, County Clare and educated at Street Flannan"s College in Ennis, at University College Galway, and at University College Dublin (University College Dublin) where he received a doctorate in veterinary medicine.
He then worked as a lecturer. He had unsuccessfully contested the Dublin South–Central constituency at the 1989 general election. However, he was then elected to the 11th Seanad on the Agricultural Panel, and became the Labour Party"s leader in Seanad Éireann.
At the 1992 general election, he stood again in Dublin South–Central, and in Labour"s "Spring Tide" surge at that election, Upton topped the poll with nearly 12,000 first-preference votes, a remarkable 1.48 quotas.
He was re-elected at the 1997 general election with a considerably reduced vote. In the 28th Dáil he was appointed as Labour"s spokesperson on Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
Politicians of all parties paid glowing tributes to him an outspoken but "erudite and incisive" contributions to politics and to Irish culture.
A leading critic of Labour"s 1999 merger with the Democratic Left, he nonetheless became the party"s spokesman on communications and sport after the merger.
Upton was first elected to public office as a Labour Party member of Dublin County Council for Terenure at the 1991 local elections, where he served until the Council"s abolition in 1994, and then as a member of South Dublin County Council until 1999. He was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 1994-1995.