WE NEED MORE FEMALE LEADERS ...and Alison Gilliland is making great strides in that area as the new Lord Mayor of Dublin, a role which she hopes can be used to make changes

IT’S a bit disappointing to learn that the gorgeous chain of office hanging on the shoulders of Dublin’s new Lord Mayor is not the real one. ‘That one is so heavy, the minute I put it on the other night... the weight of it is incredible,’ laughs Alison Gilliland. ‘It’s only used for important civic events. This is a replica, it’s the “every day” one, it is a lot lighter.’ It’s still very beautiful, with a dozen Tudor roses and intricate knots made of 9ct gold. But given the historical significance of the original chain, which dates back to 1698, it’s probably best if it only comes out for very special occasions.

Besides, Gilliland has enough to get used to without hauling around a huge hefty necklace. Although she’s known for a couple of months that she would be the 353rd Lord Mayor of Dublin, her new year-long position was only officially revealed two weeks ago and Gilliland had only told some of her closest colleagues.

‘I was conscious that agreements can all fall down,’ she says. ‘Also, I’m the type of person that until the chain was around my neck... I had said it to my immediate team why I was leaving but I didn’t tell anyone else.

‘Its exciting news but you don’t want to distract from the former lord mayor’s tenure and anyway, I had a day job to keep focused on.’

A former primary school teacher, Gilliland is a full-time official with the teaching union INTO, with whom she is a senior learning and equality officer, although she is currently on a career break.

She joined the Labour Party in 2009 and was elected to Dublin City Council in 2014, and is chair of its housing strategic policy committee.

Gilliland was elected unopposed thanks to a council voting pact between Labour, the Greens, Fianna Fáil and the Social Democrats. Called the Dublin Agreement, it sees the four parties sharing power on the council until the next local elections in 2024. In her speech on June 28, when she took over from the Green’s Hazel Chu, Gilliland firmly set out some of her objectives for the year ahead.

‘I’m only the tenth ever female Lord Mayor but I’m hoping to give a priority to women and girls’ issues and that will encourage them to feel more included in our city in its decision-making,’ she said. ‘And also to get involved in activism and politics.’

The housing crisis and helping the city move out of the Covid-19 restrictions, she says, are two other priorities. But it is clear that gender equality is close to her heart. ‘I know up until the early 1900s women wouldn’t have held official leadership positions,’ she says. ‘But it’s still pretty devastating that we haven’t had all that many lord mayors. My tenure is only the second time a woman has handed over to another woman.

‘I feel it’s a bit like claiming leadership roles for women; there are so many amazing women out there who could be in leadership roles, but it’s not happening.’

She has high hopes for her party colleague, Ivana Bacik, who ran in Thursday’s by-election for Dublin Bay South. ‘I’ve been out with her