As the Dáil and Seanad resume next Wednesday, politicians will be dusting themselves down for another busy Oireachtas term.
With the Dáil adjourned since mid-July, the long and often criticised break affords TDs and Senators the space to refocus on constituency work as well as some down time. The Irish Times asked a range of politicians across the political spectrum what they got up to.
Sinn Féin’s housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin says he and his partner Dublin MEP Lynn Boylan take the last two weeks of August off every year to holiday with Basque friends.
“We love reading, cooking, drinking wine and disconnecting from our respective political worlds,” he says.
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“So what we do is find a very nice, remote house with a kitchen near a very small village and we hide ourselves for two weeks. We did that this year in the north of Burgundy ... Typically speaking I put on half a stone of weight during those two weeks which I then swiftly lose when I get back.”
The Dublin Midwest TD describes himself as “an obsessive” and each year picks a particular subject, buying six or seven books on the topic to “binge on”.
“This year was a little unusual, it was a series of well respected books by authors on Black power and Black nationalist politics in the US in the 1950s and 1960s and corresponding books on free jazz during the same period.”
Ó Broin says he avoids reading the news, checking social media or emails during those two weeks, but adds: “I would be a liar if I told you I achieved those three objectives.”
“I think all people need a break. It doesn’t matter what your job is,” he says. “Our job is unusual in that the hours aren’t nine to five, it’s not a 35-hour week, it’s quite an intensive working environment.
“So mostly, for your own sanity, but also for your ability to do your job properly and do right by your constituents and others, you obviously need to take a break and that’s no different from everybody else.”
Labour leader Ivana Bacik spent time at Clonea strand in Dungarvan, Co Waterford, where she travels every year, as well as a family trip to Naples in Italy, for “some sun, swimming and culture”.
“I would love to spend more time in Pompeii visiting the ruins. I had always wanted to visit there but after six hours on-site my family mutinied,” she says.
The Dublin Bay South TD’s reading list included Martina Devlin’s new book Charlotte and Diana Nyad’s Find a Way.
Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless says he took six days off over the course of the summer which included a few days in Cavan and a weekend in Porto.
“I wasn’t fully able to switch off as I was on the phone or texting with the department or my constituency office every day,” the Fianna Fáil TD says.
“The only exception was my birthday in August, which I spent with family. I was back at the desk for the Leaving Cert results and the CAO offers.”
Lawless says he read An Education by John Walshe, The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, Burning the Big House by Terence Dooley and The Secret Life of Leinster House by Gavan Reilly.
Reilly’s book also featured on Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín’s summer holiday reads, alongside Borderlines by Lewis Baston, The Illustrated Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth and The Lamplighters of the Phoenix Park by Donal Fallon.
The Meath West TD spent two weeks in rural western France with his family.
“I worked the rest of the summer in the constituency,” he says. “I love getting around the constituency and also it’s great to be able to eat dinner with your family every day.
“My relationship is noticeably different with my kids on the last day of the summer recess than on the first day. That’s simply because I am home for dinner each evening and am around for the football, hurling, normal life.”
Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh spent a week in the small town of Blanes in Catalonia.
“I try to increase my steps on holiday so I walk a lot. Spending time with my two boys, who are now 22 and 24, is something I treasure more than anything,” she says.
“I struggle to fully switch off from work so tend to do emails and calls early morning and then leave it for the day. A week is too short.”
The Mayo TD, whose name has been linked as a possible presidential candidate for her party, says she read Mission Economy by Mariana Mazzucato and listened to the Path to Power podcast with Matt Cooper and Ivan Yates for “humour and politics”. “Mind you, they are often wrong,” she adds.
Bucking the trend was Fine Gael Senator Evanne Ní Chuilinn who stayed in Ireland, spending some weekends in her native Co Kilkenny.
“I didn’t go abroad or on holidays per se ... I made the decision at the start of the summer to use the recess to get my head around this new role as a politician and give myself a chance to learn the ropes at local level,” she says.
“Maybe next summer it would be a good idea to be actually out of office for a few weeks in August, but for this summer I was quite happy to get my head around the constituency.
“Coming to the end of the last Dáil and Seanad term, I was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with the job of work I have to do in Dublin South Central. We don’t have any [Fine Gael] councillors or TDs so it’s a lot on my shoulders. I’m still quite invigorated going back into the next term.”
The former RTÉ sports broadcaster says she didn’t have “a lot of freedom” over the summer months in her previous role and was happy to act as “a taxi mammy” for her three children, and walking their dog.
“I actually listened to The Irish Times politics podcast. I enjoyed the episodes about Brian Cowen. I also listen to Red Raw with Laura O’Mahony and Rob Heffernan. I did read some politics books; Gavan Reilly’s book, Eoghan Murphy’s book. I reread The Thursday Murder Club as I knew it was coming out on Netflix. So it was a real mixed bag.”
Local authorities are also back in full swing, with no monthly or area council meetings generally held in August.
Social Democrats Meath county councillor Ronan Moore works as a teacher alongside his council role.
“This fortunately allows me more time off than most, including my wife,” he says. “So when the kids, aged five, seven and nine, finished school for the summer, the four of us packed into a car and drove off to Scotland where we visited and stayed with a friend in Edinburgh before camping in the Highlands, in the town of Airedale.”
There were so many outdoor activities, “I had no time for books or podcasts,” he says.
“I find that working in a job where you are often trying to help others can take a lot out of you. Teaching is the same,” he adds. “So you really need to completely log off when you are on holiday to recharge the batteries. The work phone stays at home.”
