JOHN McGAHON UP AND COMING
SENATOR John McGahon has put in four years in the Seanad and hopes to retain the Fine Gael seat in Louth after veteran TD Fergus O’Dowd steps down. He missed out on a Dáil seat in 2020, which was a chance to follow uncle Brendan
McGahon, a TD in Louth for 20 years. Elected as a councillor in 2014 at just 23, McGahon Jnr became a senator at 29. Now at 33 he says the party can retain all 11 Dáil seats being vacated, including in his constituency.
Who was John McGahon when you entered politics and who is John McGahon now?
I think when I started out, I was a bit naive, perhaps took everyone and everything at face value and now I have just learned human nature a bit better and to understand where the other person or argument is coming from and how their experiences shape their life perspective.
Describe your party’s past 13 years in power.
It’s been a rollercoaster and a huge amount of challenges were overcome by Fine Gael in Government. Of course they have been challenges and you are never going to be able to satisfy everyone. But anyone looking at the last 13 years and providing a fair and unbiased assessment would say that overall, we got the biggest decisions right.
What’s your assessment of this time of renewal for Fine Gael with a new party leader?
I think it’s really exciting to be honest. We have a wealth of experienced TDs, who have given decades of service, deciding to call it a day and that’s provides a huge opportunity for new TDs and Senators who hope to make it to the Dail, to step up and into their place. It’s really important that for those of us trying to make that step up and fill those voids, look to those who went before us and learn from their experiences in politics and if we can combine that with some youthful determination, hunger and drive, well I’d be very excited about the future of my party.
What has been your highest moment in politics?
My re-election to Louth County Council. I was elected in 2014 with 764 first preferences, I was 5th out of 6 and in 2019 I doubled my vote to 1,357, the highest vote ever achieved by my party and elected on the
first count. It was just a testament to five years of solid hard work and I was really delighted with it.
What was your lowest moment in politics?
Losing the general election in 2020. Nothing compares to the awful feeling of losing an election. It’s a job everybody knows you are going for, there are hundreds of posters that advertise the fact, and they all know you didn’t get it. That’s tough.
What was the biggest lesson you have learned in politics?
To realise that I can’t achieve results for every single person that comes to me with an issue. It used to really annoy me that there were some things I couldn’t fix or resolve and I was thinking I was making a mistake or what was I doing wrong. But I’ve learned that there’s some issues when people come to you that just can’t be resolved and as a result, I just try my very best to get a result. I take it as far as I can and then if I can’t do anymore, I’ve learned to call it a day.
Is politics too male-dominated?
It’s gotten a lot better within the last ten years. Take Louth, in 2014 local elections, we ran 14 candidates of which only two were female, in 2024, we are running 11 candidates and eight are female.
How will you retain Fergus O’Dowd’s seat?
I think my work over the past ten years in Co. Louth will help me hold the Fine Gael seat.
If you could change anything about Fine Gael, what would it be?
A few years ago, I would have said a refocus on our membership, but with John Carroll as our chief executive, we have seen a real emphasis put on membership engagement and making sure our membership are at the forefront of the party and I think that change in recent years has been excellent and it’s a trend that’s set to continue.
Will the party retain every seat of the 11 resigning TDs so far, and potentially 13 seats?
I really believe so, when you look at the constituencies and see the quality of councillors we have in those constituencies and around the country. It’s clear to me that they will be able to hold and win those Dáil seats.