Gabrielle McFadden's life after politics: ‘I don’t feel I’m out of it fully... you do miss it’

For Gabrielle McFadden, growing up in a political family, there was perhaps an inevitability about becoming involved in the political landscape. It seems it's not something that can be left behind easily, as she admits, five years on, that she still misses it.

“I was reared in a family of public service, not self-service, and I'm quite happy to keep doing it,” she said this week, explaining that her current role as Project Manager of the Just Transition-funded and government funded Social Enterprise Exchange still keeps her involved in public service.

“I'm still very much in contact with my former colleagues in Fine Gael and former colleagues in Leinster House, so I do keep that side of things going,” she said.

“I have a good working relationship still so I don't feel like I'm out completely. But yeah, you do miss it,” she said of politics.

Gabrielle readily admits that it was circumstance that brought her to politics on a national level, but she was always particularly interested in the local level and community, and her current role has brought that aspect back into her life.

She explains the idea behind the project is to promote social enterprise in the Just Transition region, which is Laois, Offaly, Longford, Westmeath, Roscommon, East Galway and parts of Tipperary. It involves collaborating with social enterprises, local authorities, policy-makers and government to develop the social economy in the region.

“My dream would be that this region would be synonymous with a social economy nationally and internationally. For example, we visited Navarre in Spain a couple of years ago and that's synonymous with social economy and has an amazing social economy, and I feel that there's no reason why the Just Transition region can't be that in Ireland and indeed in Europe,” said Gabrielle.

“It's what I always would have been interested in before I got involved in politics – local and community development. I became a national politician reluctantly – I was very happy as a local politician and I would have stayed there quite happily. Now what I'm doing is on-the-ground, community, local stuff, and I love that.”

Explaining that a social enterprise is not a non-profit enterprise, but rather a profit-for-purpose organisation, she believes there are openings for social enterprise in every county, parish and community of Ireland.

She said she would love for young people to see that they can stay and work in their communities, but also can serve their communities in this way and have a good work-life balance.

Gabrielle said while her current role is still about providing a public service, it is different from her time in politics.

“I loved my time in politics on one level. On another level, I didn't. I loved my first five years in local politics, I loved Athlone Town Council and Westmeath County Council. I think there is nowhere in the world like Athlone. I think it can develop and grow all the time, that's what I wanted to do,” she said.

Gab explained that at the start of her term as Mayor of Athlone in 2013, she mentioned three things in her speech that she hoped to achieve for the town – that it would achieve city status; that it would have a university; and that it would become a tourist destination.

“When I was a government TD, I lobbied hard for Athlone to be made a city. It didn't get city status but it did become the regional capital and get that funding then,” she said.

She added that she was the Government Chief Whip in the Seanad when the Technological Universities Bill was going through, and was responsible for ensuring it was passed, and during her time on the council they visited Westport to see how Destination Westport worked, and we now have Destination Athlone.

“Those kind of things, that I could grab and run with, I loved. That side of politics was wonderful,” she said.

There are other sides of politics she didn't enjoy as much, and she laments the fact that more women aren't involved in politics.

Recalling her first day in the chamber of Westmeath County Council when all 23 councillors – including herself and Detty Cornally – were presented with a Westmeath crested tie and cufflinks as a momento of the occasion, she said her first utterings on the council to the then-county manager was to query whether this was what she was getting and if they hadn't been expecting her.

"And somebody behind, who can remain nameless, said 'What's wrong with you Gab? Is it a pair of Westmeath knickers you want?' And I just thought that's just about fitting," she said.

“We were two women back then, and now there's three. We still don't have women,” she said, adding that there are no women in the Athlone-Moate Municipal District, but she is happy to now see Aoife Davitt in the position of Cathaoirleach, the first time a woman has held the role.

Gabrielle added that while she had never been in favour of gender quotas, she believes they did create a conversation and, for a time, she had thought they were working.

When she was appointed as the first-ever female Government Chief Whip in the Seanad, there was a female Garda Commissioner, the Justice Minister was female, and a female Attorney General.

“I thought maybe these gender quotas are having an effect and I'll have to eat my words, but now you go back and you look at it now nine or ten years later and it's all lost again. We don't have a female TD in the constituency,” she said, adding that while many women want to go in and get the job done, they don't want to have to put up with the other side of politics.

Gabrielle is proud of what she achieved during her time as a national politician and admits she was unapologetically parochial in ensuring she delivered for the locality. But the decision to move from local to national politics was a difficult one, she said, and followed the passing of her beloved sister Nicky in 2014.

“It was a horrendous year, really. In November my Dad died, and then in March Nicky died,” said Gabrielle, who added that her daughter Katie was in the middle of the mocks and orals for Leaving Cert at the time.

She said up until Nicky got sick, everything was going right in her own life – she was enjoying her time as a town and county councillor and she was very happy at home. She said that when Nicky died, she had assumed her party colleague Mark Cooney would run for the Dáil.

“I don't know why I assumed it. It was automatically in my head, without consulting anyone or talking to anyone, that Pat Cooney had been a TD and my father had supported him and Nicky was a TD and a Senator and all that time Mark supported Nicky, so it was automatically in my head that Mark would take on this role, hopefully win a bye-election, and I would be a councillor and support him. That was just how I pictured it,” she said.

She added that Nicky had asked her if she was ever to resign whether she (Gabrielle) would contest the convention. While she had initially said no, she eventually agreed and promised Nicky that she would contest a convention.

“I had assumed there would be other people contesting the convention, i.e. Mark Cooney and Peter Burke, who at the time was a county councillor not a TD, and I just said yeah, and she said ‘promise me’. As far as I was concerned, I thought it was the end of it,” she said.

However, a few weeks after Nicky passed away she was approached by Fine Gael head office, and after winning the bye-election, started her first day in Leinster House on the day her daughter began her Leaving Cert that June.

“If it hadn't been for Denis Naughten that first week, I probably would have went home and not come back,” she admits, saying the experience was similar to being the new kid in secondary school who has no friends. “He was very kind. Denis brought me for a coffee and showed me around.”

She soon settled in and said she enjoyed being able to deliver money for Athlone, such as in Sports Capital grants for the Boat Club, and for Athlone GAA, and for the Regional Sports Centre and Athlone Stadium.

“It was really great to be there, and to have the honour of being there, and I wouldn't change it,” said Gab.

Other things she is proud of include the air ambulance service, something she lobbied then Defence Minister Simon Coveney for, and being involved in securing funding for the initial phase of the Athlone to Mullingar Greenway and the TUS engineering block, as well as ensuring the new Coosan NS was completed - a project she explains that Nicky had initially been involved with.

“I was very honoured by Enda Kenny to be invited to be the Government Chief Whip in the Seanad, and that was an achievement in its own right because it was the first time there was a woman as Government Chief Whip. But I also liked it because I was able to use my personality,” she said, explaining that she built up relationships with all parties and none.

Reflecting on her time in politics, she said: “I feel that I served as best I could, I was parochial about it, there's no question in my mind I was parochial and I wouldn't apologise to anyone for that. I'll always be parochial when it comes to Athlone. I feel I delivered as best as I could at the time and I still love my town.”