Helen O'Donnell (née O'Connor) is an Irish businesswoman who is co-founder of Team Limerick Clean-up.

She was born in Sligo and was educated at Grange National School, Grange Vocational School, Convent of Mercy Claremorris, and College of Catering RTC Galway.^[1]

In 1994, O'Donnell was invited by John Bruton to sit as an Alternate delegate for Fine Gael on the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation.^[2]

In 2011, she founded Limerick City Tidy Towns and three years later she received the national Hero Award at Tidy Towns.^[3] In 2015, along with J. P. McManus and Paul O'Connell, she co-founded the annual Team Limerick Clean-Up, a one-day tidy happening every Good Friday and attracting over 20,000 volunteers from various towns in the county.^[4]

She sat as chair of Crescent College's board of management, Limerick City Business Association, Adapt Domestic Abuse Services and PAUL Partnership,^[5] and the Safefood advisory board. Founded in 1999, Safefood is one of six North-South implementation bodies established jointly by the British and Irish governments under the terms of the British-Irish Agreement.^[6][7] She represented Limerick Chamber at the National Retail Forum.^[8]

In 2013, she was awarded the Limerick Person of the Year award and was honoured with a civic reception in 2020. That same year, she was named as a Grand Marshal of the Limerick St Patrick's Day Parade.^[9][10]

She ran the Hunt Cafe in the Hunt Museum for twenty-five years, until 2022.^[11]

She was a former Honorary National Secretary of Fine Gael. She left the party to run as an independent candidate in the 2024 Limerick mayoral election.^[12]

In 1984, she married Tom O'Donnell (1926–2020) and has one son. Her husband was a Fine Gael politician who served as Minister for the Gaeltacht from 1973 to 1977. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Limerick East from 1961 to 1987. He also served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Munster constituency from 1979 to 1989.^[13]