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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
I'm joined in the studio now by Daniel Ennis of the Social Democrats and Dublin's newest TD. After only three years in politics, Daniel won the Dublin Central seat in the recent by-election, formerly held, of course, by the former Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure, Pascal Donoghue. So congratulations, firstly, on your achievement. Thanks very much, Clare.
How's the first couple of days have been? First week, isn't it, that you've been in the Dáil? Yeah, first week, yeah.
Chapter 2: How did Daniel Ennis become Dublin's newest TD?
Yeah it's still quite overwhelming you know I'm delighted obviously and very very proud like it's a very very proud moment for myself and my family Clare so just trying to embrace all of that and I can't wait just to keep getting back to working hard for Dublin Central What was it like going in there for the first time on Tuesday? It was a bit mad. It was. There's no doubt about that, Clare.
It's still all quite new to me. But from my mum and my brother and my fiance, they weren't out on any canvases or anything. So they weren't seeing the lovely buzz that we're getting off people and the great reaction. And they're not anyway involved in politics. So that was their first interaction with all of that. So the media scrum was the first piece.
And then I think my mum, Chloe and Jeff went home like three ghosts. You know, after seeing me walking around the doll chamber and shaking hands with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and all the other party members, because they're almost looking at it from a camera on my shoulder, you know, and it's... It's a bizarre experience for them.
Oh, it is. But it sounds like your mum sort of warned you about it before you went into politics, didn't she? She said, all of this stuff is going to be brought up, you know, your dad's background, all of that. So was she worried about you?
Ah, she was, of course. You know, like, see, a lot of our family history is exploited by crime or addiction or, like, you know, we're afraid to look backwards sometimes. You know, so when anyone in our communities are doing well, there's almost, like, a wraparound, like, just be careful.
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Chapter 3: What was Daniel's experience during his first week in the Dáil?
You know, like, sometimes we get the feeling, like, that we don't belong in those circles. And that happened to me when I first entered politics, Clare. I was very much, like, kind of questioned the way I spoke. You know, me accent, like, around the halls of Leinster House when I would start working with Gary. I was like, do I change the way I speak? You know, and...
and my mum kind of was saying that like the papers will share stories about your dad like you know just be careful just again it was a worry because we can deal with when you're kind of when things are going wrong because we're used to that but when you're doing well or you're kind of entering into a world that we're not used to And yeah, there's a wraparound there.
And how did you rationalise that? So, yeah, they're going to bring up stuff that's going to be uncomfortable. I'm going to have to talk about it. How did you process that? Like, how did you make the decision that that was going to be something that you could deal with, you could cope with?
Well, first of all, Clare, it's very much not my story. You know, it's my dad's past, you know, and like it was the first, like as my mum said, your dad had a first very hard and horrible first 25 years of his life, you know, grew up in entrenched poverty. And in the early 90s, he went to prison and came out and made a decision to turn his life around. You know, that was all when I was a child.
I knew nothing of that. You know, all I knew my father to be was a good father and a good community person. And like what I know of my father and like, He's turned some of my best friend's lives around, took them away from going down the wrong road.
And his work is remembered by me and by everyone in the community as someone who helped people within the community and set up an at-risk football club.
You know, I suppose it's not even him I'm talking about there. It's about that general sense of they're going to come for you, you know, and you've explained it so well that people that you grew up with have that sense. So you can either decide, well, I'm going to push through that and I'm going to do what you've done or I can pull back.
Yeah. Well, Clare, if you look, like, if I pull back from politics, what am I saying to the kids that I coach on a Saturday and Sunday that have no kind of connection to politics and have no family members that were in politics like I hadn't? You know, so if you can't see it, you can't be it. You know, so now not only am I their football coach, I'm the local TD.
And they're learning things now, like, from the posters. So they're looking at the posters and saying, Daniel, there's another election on. Tell us about it. You know, so they're learning things that I only learned a few years ago. They're learning at six, seven and eight years of age. And, like,
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Chapter 4: How does Daniel's family background influence his political journey?
Like it brought me to where I am now. You know, I have a family member that's kind of... went down the wrong road and were similar in age. And if it wasn't for that, like football or that football pitch, you know, I don't know where I'd be now, Clare. You know, I certainly wouldn't be sitting in Dáil Éireann.
So it's, when I speak about sport, like I speak about our sports clubs, our football clubs, like I joined Belvedere Football Club, again, a stone's throw from where I'm living in Fairview Park when I was seven years of age. And I made some of my best friends I'll ever make in football, like former international key, Tracy. Me and him were tickest heaves, you know,
whenever anything was going down when you'd see us on the local football pitch. And that brought me then to playing for a League of Ireland club with Bowles, Shells and Bray.
And if it wasn't for, and I don't understand my parents or other family members that were very, very good to me as well, but if it wasn't for sport and football in particular, like I would have fell to the challenges of the North Inner Sea.
Shh!
Yeah. And like you talk about your family member and so many others who have made the wrong choice. I mean, it's hard even saying that because for some people there is no choice. But did you ever have a moment where you could have deviated from the path that you're on now? You know, do you remember being a teenager going, this is just too hard?
Yeah, there would have been times where, like, it wasn't for, again, a friend of mine, Keith Tracy. So we were on our same journey. So Keith lives in Sherry Street and kind of had family members that had went down the wrong road. And it was around kind of 13 or 14 where, you know, all kids get a bit of a smell for themselves and, you know, they either go one way or another and like...
to some people like going out on a football pitch and getting kicked around and mucked back every Saturday and Sunday is not the most glamorous but I loved it and I love sports so it was around that time where you know you're going through your different friends groups so you have a couple of friends and skills and that's why not only the sports clubs were so important like my local school was so important to me the local youth club there were great kind of safety nets there
And not only the mentors and the youth workers and the teachers and the coaches, but also good people, you know, good kind of friend groups that, you know, it's almost like I look at certain things that happened around our area and I look at like the Vane Diagram of all those kind of wrong things, whether it be crime, addiction. We look at the feud that happened in our area.
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Chapter 5: What challenges does Daniel face regarding his family's past?
There's no doubt about that. And around our city centre, there's parts and pockets that are kind of, there is visible police presence. But the communities around it are being sucked of resources when it comes to guards. They're being deployed in the city centre core. So around your main tour affairs, O'Connell Street and over on Grafton Street.
Well, that's policing for the shoppers and the tourists. Well, that's, and again, we're feeling the effects in the communities, but the long, sorry, the short, medium and long term is investment in our communities.
Yeah, because if you go back to the financial crash, like a lot of the community programmes in your area would have been pulled and never, they were never reinstated. Some or many of them, right?
No, that's, I see that. Like, you know, I have a background in youth work, as we spoke out there, Clare, and the sports clubs. Like, we have no full-size sports pitch in Dublin 1. Like, this scenario that has turned out, as I spoke about Keith Tracy, Kelly Harrington, Troy Parra. Like, it's in the shadow of Crowe Park. Like, the home of sport in our country. And we haven't got a full-size pitch.
And I'm here sitting here speaking about how sport has brought me to represent Dublin Central in Dáil Éireann. That's the power of sport. To bring people together, to intervene when people are struggling. It's so powerful and it's at the point where, it's long at the point where it's being disrespected when it comes to funding.
So we talk about the fixes to making our communities safer, making us stronger. It's about sport and we haven't got a full-size pitch.
The South Inner City had that big investment programme under, when Enda Kenny was leader of Fine Gael and Taoiseach. The North Inner City has been crying out for that, particularly when it comes to sport investment. Now, is there any sign of that on the horizon?
No.
So we have the NEIC initiative which is up and running now about 10 years and it kind of sprung about and I think it was when Enda Kenny was in power from the back of what we were seeing with the field and the movie report and it's sorely needed but the way I look at that sometimes and it's not to run the funding down because we do need it and I think we'll only see change after 20 years 20-25 years it'll have to be generational change
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