Ivan Yates

It's like the books.

But anyway, it's all good.

What do you drink?

Oh, absolutely quite conventional in my drinking.

A couple of pints of Guinness followed by a bottle of red.

And that would be absolutely my staple diet.

And if I got all my nutrients and vitamins and everything from alcohol, I'd be a happy guy.

Well, there was different degrees of it insofar as the different stages of my life.

But yeah, I was surrounded by some proper drinkers that wouldn't be sated by the...

Leinster House bar and they would end up in Joy's or, you know, there was a Leeson Street strip in those days.

But like I'm now 66 and that is, I left politics in 02.

So that was sort of in my 80s and 90s, which seems like a long time ago.

But, you know, but like this, I wouldn't say that, you know, I was, you know, particularly noted for that.

But certainly I always believed in being sociable.

Well, first of all, it didn't come from any family background.

My father died in 79.

And if he hadn't died in 79, he had terminal cancer.

I wouldn't have stood for the local election because he was anti-politics.

Probably was a Fianna Fáil voter, but really wasn't involved in politics in any way.

My mother was the daughter and granddaughter of a clergyman, Church of Ireland clergyman, and she wasn't really into politics as well.