‘Scrapper’ D’Arcy is confident of victory
MICHAEL D’ARCY JNR GREW UP IN A POLITICAL HOME. HERE HE OUTLINES THE BACKGROUND THAT MADE HIM THE MAN HE IS AND THE FUTURE HE WANTS FOR CO WEXFORD. INTERVIEW BY
SITTING at his kitchen table in his farmhouse in north Wexford, Michael D’Arcy Jnr seems far removed from the cut and thrust of national politics.
The walls of the family kitchen and the hallway are covered with photographs of his two teenage children and he is quick to point out that family and not politics is his life.
The son of one of the county’s longest serving politicians, Michael (Mick) D’Arcy, Fine Gael is in the Hollyfort man’s blood.
Michael D’Arcy Jnr turns 50 next month and having lost his seat in 2011 on his birthday (February 26) and won it back five years later to the day, he is hoping his next February election doesn’t repeat the pattern.
‘Daddy started from here in the late 50s when his Dad Timothy – who was a county councillor – passed away very suddenly. He was left with a family and with his mother to look after as well.
‘ That was in 1958. He was proposed by Michael Hart from Campile to be a member of Wexford County Council and was on it for 15 years, even though he was a very young man in his early twenties. A lot of the people who were there were participants in the Civil War and the War of Independence so it was an incredible crossover from his time in Irish politics where he started – an amazing environment to establish himself in.’
Michael was reared by his mother Marie and father. He attended Ballythomas NS and CBS Gorey and played football and soccer growing up, representing Wexford at every underage level in both sports. He also played at every level for Co Wexford football.
‘We had a really good team in Kilanerin. We won five senior championships in a very short period. I have great friends from football and within the GAA.’
He is chairman of Kilanerin GAA Club and said he has seen first hand how crucial GAA is to the fabric of Irish society.
Michael said he knew his playing days were over when a 19-year-old opponent turned to him on the pitch during a match and told him his grandfather was friends with him.
An injury sustained to his throat in 2001 saw him suffer paralysis to his laryngeal nerve on one side. ‘I was spinning off a guy and I got an elbow in the throat as I was turning. I couldn’t speak for six to eight weeks. I got back playing for the county senior football final and I always say the Anne’s robbed that one on us.’
At this time he was speaking in a way that was just about audible. One vocal chord didn’t operate in 2002 he went for surgery and synthetic fibres were placed into his voice box. ‘I felt a bit sorry for myself. I was in a six bed ward. Three of the four other patients had cancer of the throat so that was another life lesson which thought me that I was pretty OK.’
He can’t raise his voice or shout. ‘For me it became obvious that it was more important what I had to say than what I sounded like.’
He has farmed since he was 17 and says he is always scratching his head when people say Fine Gael are out of touch with rural Ireland.
‘Here we are down a country lane on a farm so I always dispute that. What the challenge for rural Ireland is - is that some areas are really vibrant and are doing very well and other areas are not.’
He said his father was in politics from 1958 to 2014 (56 years) and was a minister on two separate occasions. ‘ The remarkable things he saw (in that period) and what we can’t do is allow the boom and bust politics that he saw over his period to continue.’
Michael Snr retired in 2014 from the town council when it was abolished, ‘I always said I wouldn’t. Having seen it it’s a tough life and a tough business. My father continued farming and I came home in the late 80s and took over the dairy farm and he continued in politics until 2002 as a national level. He was away a lot. I always said that I wouldn’t do it.’
Opportunity knocked for Michael when he was in his mid-thirties. Having studied Law he decided not to complete his studies to become a practising solicitor (‘it wasn’t for me’), he decided to follow in his grandfather Timothy and father’s footsteps and run for a council seat. ‘In 2002 Wexford had no Fine Gael TD. A lot of people were asking me if I’d run.’
He stood in his first county council election in 2004 and topped the poll in the county. ‘I wasn’t able to gauge or judge how well I was doing. It was a difficult election for me because
Fine Gael ran five candidates in a four seater. We lost a seat but I got elected,’
He really enjoyed his time with the local authority. ‘I liked the varying nature of it because I subsequently went into the VEC and on my first day I became chairman and I liked the administration side of it.’
He liked being able to help students who have left school early find a pathway to further education. ‘If we allow people to fall through the cracks of society, of education they don’t get an opportunity for employment. They have a huge negative in terms of their life.
He had ambitions to be a TD and although in opposition in the council, he got down on the ground, giving people a hand. ‘I started working as a politician full-time, while still trying to farm. I was very busy and was playing football as well – badly! I wanted to become a TD as I wanted to make sure that Co Wexford would be better represented. We are a very compartmentalised county: Gorey, Enniscorthy, Wexford and New Ross. I got votes all over the county – even though I was considered Mick D’Arcy’s son.’
2007 was a difficult election for Fine Gael after a very poor election in 2002. ‘I was a county councillor running against two front bench spokesperson. I got elected on the last count. It was a very good feeling. When I went to Dáil Eireann – because I had been there with Daddy I knew my way around – but I was starting at zero. Politics is very important to me and I like to think I do a good job in politics, but it shouldn’t overtake your life and some politicians make that mistake.
‘A lot of people think a seat was handed to me but that wasn’t the case because my Dad lost in 2002. I chiselled out a seat for myself in 2007. I lost in 2011.’
D’Arcy felt the loss deeply. ‘I did hit me, of course it did. I was told I got the highest vote in Ireland in a five seater ever but didn’t get elected. I got killed on transfers and the Mick Wallace wave just came. I got 8,500 votes in 2011 and I got 700 votes less in 2016 and I got elected. These are the quirks and vagaries that happen but I think losing made me a better politician. It isn’t all glory.’
He got a call from Garret FitzGerald and was put forward to the Seanad.
‘It’s really hard to dust yourself on and move on. I was feeling a bit sorry for myself and Garret detected it. From a personal perspective my sister Shirley had gotten sick before that and that is the real world and that is why I don’t allow politics to be my life. Sometimes politicians say it was like someone dying but it wasn’t.’
He had almost five years in the Senate. ‘Garrett passed away before the Seanad election was over so sometimes things are a little bit poignant. The Seanad was a very good learning curve. The difference with the Dáil was if you wanted to see a minister or grab somebody it was much harder from the Seanad.’
It was serendipity that saw him put on the banking enquiry when there was a mix up with the vote and two senators from the government and two senators from the opposition were appointed instead of one. He was finance spokesperson for the government in the Seanad and got great profile from the role. ‘I am a scrapper. You have to be tenacious and resilient and it gave me profile.’
He attributes being the only government TD to turn up to the Vincent Browne debate in White’s Hotel in 2016 as being a major moment in his campaign. ‘I think I relate well to people. I just heard unbelievable stories. I had heard many but it’s different when it’s put to you on a platform and I think people saw that I am empathetic and I will scrap it out for people.’
Since being elected Michael has carved out a key role as a finance minister responsible for insurance and financial services and has a constituency office in Gorey and Wexford where he does clinics and is in the Dáil Tuesday to Thursday.
Being an insomniac has helped his demanding job. ‘I am not a big sleeper. I have a really unusual sleep pattern. I can go to sleep for five minutes and I’m fine. It’s like the fast charger for electric cars. The kids are still going to school