Kehoe puts his trust in the people as D-Day draws close
FAMILY MAN PAUL KEHOE TELLS OF HIS PASSION FOR POLITICS, SPORT AND HIS NATIVE PARISH OF BREE. INTERVIEW BY SIMON BOURKE
IT was Paul Kehoe’s daughter who saw them first. Protestors, outside their family home, bringing grievances, anger to their place of residence.
Sinéad, who was eight at the time, alerted her mother and the family were quickly evacuated from the house.
‘The most difficult thing in my whole political carreer was when I’ve had protestors outside my house. I had them there two Saturdays ago and I’ve had them twice previously. I knew who the two previous ones were but the most recent ones wouldn’t identify themselves,’ Paul says.
And it’s the impact on his children which concerns the Fine Gael TD the most.
‘On two occasions I’ve had to remove my kids from the house because they’re young, I don’t want to scar them. It is difficult, I’m the public figure, but it’s difficult on my wife and my kids as well.
‘The first time we had protestors my eight-year-old saw them, that was very tough. When you’ve to shield your children away from your life, when you’ve got to explain that politics is not bad, politics is good.
‘To see them outside my own gate; your house is your kingdom, it’s a place where you should be able to close your door and have your own personal time. Unfortunately people don’t think that way. It’s quite sad when people have to resort to doing that.’
Paul’s children, Sinéad (who’s now 9), Eoin (8), and Emma (5), have never known a time when their father wasn’t in politics, wasn’t in Dáil Éireann. A TD since 2002, he has been Minister of State at the Department of Defence since 2011, an integral part of the Government for almost a decade.
Yet prior to being elected for the first time at the age of 29 his career had taken him down many different routes, all of them with an emphasis on the rural life he enjoyed as a child.
‘I studied Horticulture in Kildalton College in Piltown for two-and-a-half years. Then I attended the Teagasc Institute in Clonroche, worked there for a year. I enjoyed the work, the outdoor life. From there I went to the UK and did farm management for 17 months,’ he says.
‘I came back to work in Ireland, was in the forestry industry for a long number of years, before I worked in the Cleary and Doyle group right up until 2001 when I gave up the job to take on elective politics.’
And having been at it for nigh on 18 years, politics, being a politician, is now Paul’s job so much so that, if the worst did happen and he didn’t get elected, he’s not entirely sure what he’d do.
‘I don’t think beyond February 8, that’s D-Day, but whatever happens, happens. I don’t have a farm to go back to, I don’t have a company to go back to, I don’t have a career to go back to.
‘I have left everything behind to concentrate on politics. To me, as a politican, that’s your job, that’s what people elect you to do. I have given absolutely everything up, I have sacrificed my life, and I don’t regret it in any way, to do what I have done. To help, assist and deliver.’
He’s never happier when delivering for the people in his local community, to the people of his home village, Bree, a place he can’t help but champion at any available opportunity.
‘I was born, reared, and went to school in Bree. I’m so proud of that place. My own parish means so much to me. It’s been fantastic to be able to give something back to my parish in the position as I’m in as a Minister.
‘It is a place where I always say, “it is the best parish in the whole country”. If you want a model parish come to Bree and you will get it. Because it’s a place that has eveything for everybody.’
The youngest of nine, Paul grew up at a time when children in rural Ireland were afforded a level of freedom unimaginable in today’s society. And he says his childhood was all the better for it.
‘Life was great, absolutely brilliant. Your community was your community, you had your school, your GAA club, your church and they were the pillars of life. You thought nothing of going to the other side of the parish to see your friends, even if it was five or six kilometres away. Your mother never asked you why you were going.
‘Would I allow my own kids to do what I did? I wouldn’t give them the freedom and everything like that, I would be more protective of them now, because the threats there today weren’t there at that time,’ he says.
This love of community, of interacting with people, means the Fine Gael TD is in his element during election time, during those long hours spent canvassing in both rural and urban Wexford.
‘People ask me, “do you get a hard time at the door?” There are some great people out there, they might not be supporting me, or they might be, but there are some fantastic people out there. I get empowered by talking to them. People think when you’re canvassing you must get a hard time. But I don’t experience that.’
And when an election comes round it’s not just Paul who swings into action; the entire Kehoe family gather up their resources, including his 86-yearold mother, Bernadette.
‘You’re canvassing from 10 in the morning until 8.30 at night. I have my brother, sister, wife, in-laws, out. My own mother is 86, she can’t do a whole lot of canvassing, but she is out on the campaign trail as well.’
Right now his entire focus is on February 8, on convincing those who have yet to make up their mind that he deserves their number one, but when he’s not in election mode, or engaged in ministerial duties, he unwinds by watching his favourite Netflix show.
‘I like The Crown, and I’ve just watched The Two Popes. I’m interested in watching what happened in their lives because they’re public figures. I like reading biographies or autobiographies, books on history.
‘And I love walking, during the summer I could be up at 6.30-7 p.m. and do eight kilometres a day. I listen to podcasts, history, stuff from the RTÉ archives. I love listening to them, could listen to the same one two or three times to make sure I didn’t miss anything.’
Sport also plays a big part in the life of Paul and his family. Having played underage hurling as a corner-back (‘I won’t say I was decent, but I played’), Paul is now happy to cheer on from the sidelines.
‘I have a huge interest in GAA. I just love the connectivity people have to it, how they immerse themselves into their local community. I love all sports, whether it be rugby, soccer, GAA, hockey, whatever.
‘Sport is an outlet for everybody. I love going to Enniscorthy Rugby Club on a Saturday afternoon, it’s a way of switching off for me. My own brother Des is a selector at Ballyhogue GAA, I go to their games too.’
Annual trips to Lourdes remind him of how ‘fortunate’ he is but ultimately, Paul says his life with wife Bridget, who works as a nurse, is incredibly ordinary, far removed from the public perception of your average politician.
‘People see politicians as different. We’re not different, we all do the very same things that everyone else does. Sleep, eat, go home, watch TV.
‘Bring the children to school, collect them from school.
‘I still get up in the middle of the night when they’re sick, all of that. I still have to wash up, hoover, bring out the bins, clean the fire, make the beds, the same as everybody else, there’s nobody any different in this life.’
Counting his role in the development of St Patrick’s Special School in Enniscorthy as one of his greatest achievements, Paul also speaks fondly of being elected for the first time in 2002 and having both parents there on the day, seeing them both interviewed by RTÉ when he was just a ‘raw young fella’.
And he hopes that come ‘D-Day’, come February 8, there will be more cherished family moments to savour.
‘I put the trust in the people, as I’ve always did. And I hope they will return me for what I did for them, for the constituency, the community. I’m not cocky, I’m ordinary like everyone else. This is my job interview. Life is about risks, no matter what you do in life there’s a risk attached to it. I’m hoping that the people of Wexford will give me another opportunity to serve them.’
I HAVE LEFT EVERYTHING BEHIND TO CONCENTRATE ON POLITICS. THAT’S WHAT PEOPLE ELECT YOU TO DO. I HAVE GIVEN ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING UP AND I DON’T REGRET IT IN ANY WAY