‘Politicians don’t know how people are feeling’
Dublin footballer Philly McMahon talks to Barry Egan about coping in a pandemic, and whether he’d run for election
HE may be an eight-time All-Ireland winner, but Dublin footballer Philly McMahon is also a man with a huge social conscience.
And while the Ballymun native has been a vocal critic of the Government’s Level 5 restrictions, he understands the massive threat Covid still poses to the world and closer to home.
In fact, last weekend in Dublin he attended the funeral of a close family member who died because of Covid-19. He stood outside the crematorium — “unable to celebrate the life of the person we lost”.
Last summer, another person close to the 33-yearold died due to Covid. He was not able to attend that funeral either.
“We are now the longest country in lockdown in Europe,” he says. “There is a disproportionate group of people who are really struggling with lockdowns — this one in particular.
“We need to now look at the outcome of all these lockdowns and push huge money into supporting people before there is a pandemic in mental health. “This is what is coming.” Politicians do not face the same economic struggles of ordinary people during this crisis, he says, explaining: “They can’t get down to the level of what these people are feeling, losing their jobs, their businesses, their homes, struggling to cope.”
Vaccinations are the key to Ireland getting back to some sort of normal, but the footballer feels the whole process badly needs to be speeded up. “Micheál Martin as leader of the country needs to be banging on the table and asking: ‘Where are the vaccines? Why aren’t we vaccinating 24/7 Monday to Sunday? Get this done now!’”
He is also concerned that a huge cohort of problems are being forgotten about because of the pandemic. “Why are we not hearing about the other issues like addiction, crime, suicide, unemployment, levels of depression and anxiety and so much more?
“Who am I to say that politicians are right or wrong? But what I am saying is in hindsight we will be able to look back and see what worked and what didn’t work. But we can’t keep doing the same things and expect different results.”
Being a successful athlete doesn’t make you immune to struggling mentally at this time. His own business, the Bedo7 Fitness Club in Ballymun, remains closed, and that takes a toll.
“It does get to you. You try not to allow it to drag you down. You can try to find ways to keep your company alive. Day by day, I am thinking: ‘How do I make my company survive by adapting?’” he says.
Images of students partying in Limerick hit the headlines last week; does he feel people have been too judgmental about young people rebelling against restrictions by having parties?
“You could look at it from one end that this is what students should be doing normally, enjoying their student life, but we are not living in normal times. Having parties doesn’t make sense.”
He is also concerned about the pandemic’s effect on lower-income areas. “Let me give you another example. The prisons are heavily populated with people from Ballymun and from other communities that are struggling with poverty. So, you get someone coming out of Mountjoy tomorrow, they would have normally struggled to be an abiding citizen trying to get a job, but now there is no work with Covid. Companies are shut. So then you have those people coming back and having to sell drugs or commit crime. Covid ramps everything up.”
He sounds like a politician. Would that not push him to go into politics?
The answer is blunt: “How would I make a difference?”
The issue he’d have in a political party is that “the agenda that you are fighting for isn’t really yours. It’s the party’s.
“Certainly, change is needed. It is great to see three parties now. But I think the problem we have is that politicians are there for a certain term and they want to do what they can do for that term. There is no longevity. I have been asked a couple of times. But I always say the work I do will make a bigger change without being a politician.”
If Sinn Féin asked you at the next general election to run in Ballymun, would he? “Probably not.”
Couldn’t he effect change more as a politician?
“The crazy thing is when there was an issue a few years ago with the drugs culture in Ballymun and the local hurling club wrote to Minister Catherine Byrne about kids being groomed to carry drugs, four of the TDs, councillors in the area, reached out to me. So I don’t know what the future holds for me in terms of what I am trying to achieve in terms of my purpose socially.”
‘It does get to you. You try not to allow it to drag you down’