McBrearty ran in the
2009 local elections for the
Labour Party. He stood in the
Stranorlar local electoral area, and was elected to
Donegal County Council. He stood in the
2010 Donegal South-West by-election, though was unsuccessful. During the campaign he told the
County Manager to "fuck off" and insisted he would not apologise for doing so. Three months later he stood in the
2011 general election, and was again unsuccessful. He served as Mayor of Donegal from 2012 to 2013. He was critical of "militant protests" against leaders such as
Enda Kenny, claiming they only bring shame and negative publicity, and has criticised public representatives such as
Thomas Pringle for joining with people in demonstrating against members of the ruling parties. At the county council meeting on 1 October 2013, McBrearty confirmed that he had left the Labour Party. He was re-elected in Stranorlar as an
Independent in
2014. McBrearty ran in the
2016 general election as an independent candidate for the new five-seater
Donegal constituency. After achieving just 1,914 first-preference votes, and being eliminated on the fourth count, he posted an angry social media post beginning "Next bastard that comes to my door will know all about it. After helping over 8000 people in 7 years on the council this is how your [sic] rewarded. My vote is down everywhere." McBrearty accused voters of abandoning him and the media of vilifying him. He also announced his intention to leave politics when his current council term ended. In
late May 2019 he was again elected, this time for the
Lifford-Stanorlar local electoral area, and for the
Fine Gael party, having joined that party two months earlier. He also threatened to "make the council unworkable" if he was "excluded from power-sharing". == Phone theft allegatoins ==