Freeman’s U-turn over Aras bid

Just seven months after dismissing talk of running for president, mental health advocate Joan has an election war chest and a campaign team

IN the forthcoming presidential race, it seems Michael D Higgins may not be the only candidate to perform a dramatic volte face about his Áras aspirations.

For Senator Joan Freeman – who this week met members of Carlow County Council to drum up support for her bid – has also had a profound change of heart about running for election.

In an interview with the Mail early this year, the founder of the suicide prevention charity Pieta House, denied she had any designs on becoming our head of State. In fact the prospect didn’t seem to fill her with enthusiasm.

‘Well, I haven’t been asked to run for the presidency and to be honest I don’t think I’m the right candidate,’ she said in January. ‘The president should have a political or legal background – it’s not a popularity contest. Nor do I think that being president would allow me to pursue my vocation and campaign for mental health improvements.’

When the Irish Mail on Sunday contacted her about her change of heart, she declined to comment.

Of course, like Michael D Higgins, Senator Freeman is free to change her mind and in due course it is likely she will give her reasons for her surprising U-turn.

Unlike some of her rivals, Freeman

‘For vulnerable children, services are appalling’

will only give interviews if and when she secures her nomination. Presumably then she will explain how she was persuaded that the admittedly restricted power of the presidency could be deployed to further her life-long crusade regarding mental health.

The mother of four adult children last month told Waterford County Council she had savings of €10,000 and a team to look after her election war chest.

In her first public statement on her vision for the presidency, she said she would be a ‘courageous president’ who speaks out ‘against injustice’.

There is no doubt that the mental health campaigner, 59, has the energy and commitment for public service. Almost singlehandedly she founded Pieta House in 2006, when the scourge of suicide and self-harm was shrouded in secrecy and shame. She funded the first centre in Lucan after the suicide of a family member, using her home as collateral and borrowing €130,000. It was an enormous financial risk as her children were still at school. As Pieta House’s reputation grew, Freeman created the annual Darkness Into Light fundraiser, which also increased public awareness of the mental health crisis.

‘I still can’t believe what happened with Pieta House,’ she said. ‘I saw this huge gap in the health service but to be honest I opened in Lucan thinking I’d only be serving the area and maybe parts of Leixlip or Maynooth. When I finished as CEO, we had nine centres and two in the pipeline. Now there are 15,’ she said.

Upon her appointment to the Seanad in 2016, she severed her links with the charity. She helped set up the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Mental Health, one of the first such committees in Europe, and became its chairwoman.

‘Most of the senators in here have multiple interests but I’m afraid I’m a one-trick pony,’ she explained. ‘I believe the State is guilty of neglect in the area of children’s mental health. For the most vulnerable children, the services are at best inadequate, at worst appalling,’ she said.

Freeman has also established suicide prevention charity Solace House in New York, while her company, the Freeman Health Group, trains businesspeople about mental health care. Her various endeavours will attract media interest should she become a candidate. However, given her track record, it’s likely she will take it all in her stride.