{"id":16059,"date":"2025-09-12T06:57:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T06:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/16059\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T06:57:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T06:57:06","slug":"where-did-irish-politicians-go-on-holiday-and-what-did-they-get-up-to-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/16059\/","title":{"rendered":"Where did Irish politicians go on holiday and what did they get up to? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the D\u00e1il<\/a> and Seanad<\/a> resumes next Wednesday, politicians will be dusting themselves down for another busy Oireachtas<\/a> term.<\/p>\n

With the D\u00e1il 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.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s housing spokesman Eoin \u00d3 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe love reading, cooking, drinking wine and disconnecting from our respective political worlds,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Dublin Midwest TD describes himself as \u201can obsessive\u201d and each year picks a particular subject, buying six or seven books on the topic to \u201cbinge on\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00d3 Broin says he avoids reading the news, checking social media or emails during those two weeks, but adds: \u201cI would be a liar if I told you I achieved those three objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think all people need a break. It doesn\u2019t matter what your job is,\u201d he says. \u201cOur job is unusual in that the hours aren\u2019t nine to five, it\u2019s not a 35-hour week, it\u2019s quite an intensive working environment. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo 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\u2019s no different from everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201csome sun, swimming and culture\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

The Dublin Bay South TD\u2019s reading list included Martina Devlin\u2019s new book Charlotte and Diana Nyad\u2019s Find a Way.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t fully able to switch off as I was on the phone or texting with the department or my constituency office every day,\u201d the Fianna F\u00e1il TD says. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Reilly\u2019s book also featured on Aont\u00fa leader Peadar T\u00f3ib\u00edn\u2019s summer holiday reads, alongside Borderlines by Lewis Baston, The Illustrated Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth and The Lamplighters of the Phoenix Park by Donal Fallon.<\/p>\n

The Meath West TD spent two weeks in rural western France with his family. <\/p>\n

\u201cI worked the rest of the summer in the constituency,\u201d he says. \u201cI love getting around the constituency and also it\u2019s great to be able to eat dinner with your family every day. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy relationship is noticeably different with my kids on the last day of the summer recess than on the first day. That\u2019s simply because I am home for dinner each evening and am around for the football, hurling, normal life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Costa Brava shoreline in the town of Blanes, Catalonia. Photograph: Getty Images <\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in TD Rose Conway Walsh spent a week in the small town of Blanes in Catalonia. <\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201chumour and politics\u201d. \u201cMind you, they are often wrong,\u201d she adds. <\/p>\n

Bucking the trend was Fine Gael Senator Evanne N\u00ed Chuilinn who stayed in Ireland, spending some weekends in her native Co Kilkenny. <\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t go abroad or on holidays per say … 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,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\"FineFine Gael Senator Evanne N\u00ed Chuilinn spent some of her summer weekends in Kilkenny. Photograph: Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cComing to the end of the last D\u00e1il 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\u2019t have any [Fine Gael] councillors or TDs so it\u2019s a lot on my shoulders. I\u2019m still quite invigorated going back into the next term.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former RT\u00c9 sports broadcaster says she didn\u2019t have \u201ca lot of freedom\u201d over the summer months in her previous role and was happy to act as \u201ca taxi mammy\u201d for her three children and walking their dog. <\/p>\n

\u201cI actually listened to The Irish Times politics podcast. I enjoyed the episodes about Brian Cowen. I also listen to Red Raw with Laura O\u2019Mahony and Rob Heffernan. I did read some politics books; Gavan Reilly\u2019s book, Eoghan Murphy\u2019s book. I reread The Thursday Murder Club as I knew it was coming out on Netflix. So it was a real mixed bag.\u201d<\/p>\n

Local authorities are also back in full swing, with no monthly or area council meetings generally held in August.<\/p>\n

Social Democrats Meath county councillor Ronan Moore works as a teacher alongside his council role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis fortunately allows me more time off than most, including my wife,\u201d he says. \u201cSo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were so many outdoor activities \u201cI had no time for books or podcasts,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d he adds. \u201cSo you really need to completely log off when you are on holiday to recharge the batteries. The work phone stays at home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the D\u00e1il and Seanad resumes next Wednesday, politicians will be dusting themselves down for another busy Oireachtas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15049,61,60,43,12636,15050],"class_list":{"0":"post-16059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-dail-eireann","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-oireachtas","13":"tag-seanad-eireann"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}