WIP

10 Question Interview

Interviewee: Senator Cecilia Keaveney

Interviewer: Shane Doherty

Q.1. What were you doing when you where my age, 23?

In 1991 I was finishing my degree in Jordanstown in music and that summer I went over to Rome to make beds and serve breakfast at the Irish college in Rome. I was working with the then Monsignor now Cardinal Brady, which is funny in a way as we met up years later at President McAleese’s inauguration in Dublin and so we were then meeting on a more professional basis as I was a student the first time we met and the second time we met I was a TD. So when I was 23 like you I finished my degree and went to Rome to work for the summer and when I got back I began my masters in teaching in Jordanstown.

Q.2. How did you get to where you are at today?

My father was a county councillor in 1979, he took cancer in 1995 and he said he was going to step down until he was better. Behind the scenes my father had been asking people to co-opt me into the county council. So that was the beginning of my political career as I took my fathers place in the county council. The following year there was a vacancy at national level, Fianna Fail said that I was a good candidate as I was young, female and I had no ties so I stood for election in 1995, won that election, the following two elections and lost my Dail seat in 1997. I believe this happened due to the political and economic situation at the time. The other two candidates created a war between themselves which kept their names in the media, and in politics one of the most important things is keeping your name to the fore, so I lost out by 30 transfer votes.

Immediately after that I got in the car and drove all over Ireland trying to get elected to the Seanad, which I managed to do. So from then until now I have been in the Seanad, which is actually a better thing as I can now challenge the government on issues whereas when I was a backbencher in the Dail I was unable to challenge the government to the extent I can now. Also because I am from the North of Ireland and I live really close to the border with Derry I am supposed to be the Seanad spokesperson for Northern Ireland issues and I’m also the spokesperson for education as my background is in teaching so the move to the Seanad has had its advantages for me.

Q.3. Who was the most influential person in your life and why?

Put simply my mammy and daddy. My political career comes from my father. I don’t agree with political dynasties however the only advantage of having politicians in your family is that my father’s experience of being a politician let me know what I was letting myself in for. If you had have asked my brother or sister would they be politicians they would have never done it, not even for a million a day because they saw the bad side to the job. For example I saw people coming into my house in the middle of the night asking my father questions, and you could never be negative towards those people because they will just turn around and tell people how horrible you were to them, perhaps leaving out the fact that it was 2am and they were half drunk. So my fathers experience helped me in that regard, as I knew what I was letting myself in for.

My mum was a music teacher so she was the other great influence in my life. It was her that inspired me to become a music teacher myself and that was my first passion. She also made me go to music feishes when I was young, which was great experience for when I had to stand up in front of a crowded room and talk, so my music training form my mother helped me in my political career as it gave me a small bit of training.

Q. 4. What do you value most in your life and why?

I value the couple of minutes I get free every now and then to relax or to take a walk over the shore. A political job is like an airhostess’s job, it looks great on the outside, but it can be often very tiring when you get into the detail of the job. Often after three nights of dinner dances all you look forward to is sitting in front of the fire with a bottle of wine and beans of toast. Also I enjoy spending time with my nieces and nephews because you see the world through their eyes, which helps you relax. So the quiet simply moments is what I value the most.

Q.5. What advice would you give to a young University student from Ireland?

You can be what ever you want to be. People from Ireland can often undervalue themselves. There are many stories of how people from Ireland have gone overseas and made it, however there are just as many stories of people who haven’t made it.  We have a very good education system here in Ireland. It’s very broad and we expose our young people to as broad a range of disciplines as possible, so a young graduate coming out of third level education in Ireland means that they must have went through primary and secondary level, which equips them with a broad range of skills for the future. However we need to be aware of the fact that we can do it or to borrow an Obama phrase, “yea we can”. Irish people can be very hard on themselves and we have to believe in ourselves. Put simply, yes we can, have the confidence to be whatever you want to be.

Q.6. Putting yourself up for election can be a very daunting experience even for the most seasoned of people. You are bound to come across a lot of negative feedback from your peers. How do you overcome this negative feedback?

Put simply you grow a very thick skin. First you acknowledge that it is going to happen, that you will receive negative feedback and you should be aware that for every person that cheers you on there will be 10 to shoot you down. Often people don’t understand how things work in government and it can be very hard to take the negative feedback, especially when you work very hard to get a project up and running. When I get struck with negative feedback I just gather myself up and dust myself down, if you believe in what you are doing then the negative feedback should not be a problem.

You should never enter politics to serve yourself or to make a lot of money. You have to want to make a change in your community for ordinary people. Often the majority of people don’t see the hard work you put in to get services and other things to your community. If you believe in what you have done and achieved and even if you stand and point to the things you have achieved for your community there will always be people to say you haven’t done enough. So it’s a pretty thankless job but you just have to acknowledge that this will happen and always believe in yourself.

Q.7. In 2007 you lost your Dail seat and for many people they would have called it quits at that stage but you continued in politics. How did you overcome that blow to your career?

That’s a very difficult one. I had some very hateful people come up to me after the election and say you lost your seat because you weren’t doing your job properly. But you have to say to yourself that you do work hard and that you are doing the right thing. I knew that morning, the morning of the election that I had lost my seat as the numbers weren’t what they should have been so I went out into the garden in a daze to peel the stickers off my car with my finger nails and my confidence took an awful roasting. However I did have a lot of friends who came to me and gave me the confidence to go for the seanad seat and so I took the decision quite quickly to drive all over the country to try and get enough county council votes to secure my seanad seat.

As I drove around the country and began talking to county councillors which helped my confidence to come back, as many of them had seen what I was doing for my community and thought it was unfair for me not to be re-elected. Also I’m addicted to the job and problem solving so I’m always going to try and stay in politics because I believe in what I am doing and my record specks for it-self. If I was to fail again I don’t know what I would do, but you just have to take each day as it comes.

Q.8. You are currently researching a report for the Council of Europe, “History Teaching in Areas of Recent Conflict.” Did you find that an interesting and enjoyable ex