Luke 'Ming' Flanagan (born 22 January 1972) is an Irish politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Ireland for the Midlands–North-West constituency since 2014. He is an Independent, but sits in parliament with The Left in the European Parliament. Flanagan served as a member of Roscommon County Council between 2004 and 2011. First elected at the 2004 local elections, he was re-elected in 2009, and served as Mayor of Roscommon from 2010 until his election as a TD for the Roscommon–South Leitrim constituency at the 2011 general election. He served in Dáil Éireann for three years before being elected as an Independent candidate for the Midlands–North-West constituency at the 2014 European Parliament election. Flanagan is a social campaigner best known for his long-running involvement in the campaign for the legalisation of cannabis and addressing allegations of corruption in the Garda Síochána, the national police force. Personal life Flanagan is married to Judy Flanagan; they have three children. He was a student of University College Galway. Here, he went under the nickname, "Emperor Ming" (Ming the Merciless) in student elections and advocated the legalisation of cannabis. Flanagan has been convicted on several occasions of possession of cannabis for personal use. He served nine days of a 15-day sentence at Loughan House open prison in County Cavan in 1998, for refusing to pay a fine imposed for breach of the Litter Pollution Act. Local politics Flanagan began his political career running unsuccessfully as an independent candidate in the Galway West constituency at the 1997 general election. He entered politics urging the legalisation of cannabis and as a protest candidate against his landlord, Fianna Fáil TD Frank Fahey. He got 548 votes (1.1%). He went on to contest the Connacht–Ulster constituency at the 1999 European Parliament election receiving 5,000 votes (1.6%) and the Longford–Roscommon constituency at the 2002 general election receiving 779 votes (1.6%). The media did not portray him as a serious candidate, instead focusing on how he shaved his hair and styled his beard in the way of Ming the Merciless from the comic strip Flash Gordon. His posters and other election material featured cannabis leaves, and legalisation of the drug was one of his main policy platforms. He voiced uncompromising support for radical social and environmental issues, and displayed a knack for using the media, being featured in many newspapers and radio programmes who were