Holly Cairns: 'I really feel like now is the time that the tide is turning in Irish politics'
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Holly Cairns is a politician who has been surprised by politics. But even more surprisingly, she is willing to admit it.
It has been a sharp learning curve and an even steeper rise to leadership for the Cork South-West TD, who was first elected at local level just four years ago and now finds herself at the helm of the Social Democrats.
The farmer, businesswoman, environmental activist, abortion rights campaigner, disability support services worker and proud British bulldog owner this week added leader of a political party to her string of accomplishments.
But just like her much-commented upon accent, Cairns is hard to categorise and certainly doesn't match any stereotypes.
The new leader of the Social Democrats is just as comfortable in Wellingtons as she is in stilettos.
"I have multiple different types of shoes for all occasions," she says with a half-smile.
"I certainly didn't have the right outfits for the Dáil when I started. I had to stock up on them after the election," she tells the during an interview in her office, which is fittingly located on the third floor of Agriculture House on Kildare Street.
Having grown up on a small dairy farm on Turk Head peninsula — her mother milked about 16 cows before she had to diversify into beef, broadleaf forestry and a seed production company — Cairns gets particularly exercised about an agricultural policy focused on intensification that has been pushed by recent Governments.
"The current policy has resulted in loads of small farms, like my family farm, becoming unviable and having to be sold up to a bigger farm. It's just this kind of really false narrative and the worst part about it, I think, is that the result is that the very communities that will be the most affected by climate change feel they have to be more scared of climate action, because of a Government policy and a false narrative that pits environmentalists against farmers.
She hits out at most politicians who prefer to "avoid the reality for as long as possible because of short-termism and votes."
"There's no kind of forward thinking, forward planning, and there'll be nothing for the next generation to farm. That doesn't just affect farmers, because everybody eats, and as consumers, we have a right to know that our food is produced in a fair and ethical way," she says.
It has been a whirlwind few days of endless media interviews, TV appearances, press conferences and of course her first head-to-head with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar during Leaders' Questions in the Dáil for the first-time TD turned political leader.
Cairns, 33, admits her "brain is melted" after the past few days, and when asked about whether she had thought about succession before Catherine Murphy and Róisín Shortall announced they would be standing aside she questions aloud: "Was that only last week?"
"I've only known Catherine and Róisín for four years, but they've had such a big impact on my life. So yeah, it just felt kind of emotional."
Cairns says she had to first speak directly with her team in West Cork before finalising her decision to put her name forward for the leadership, but she knew in her gut what the outcome of that chat would be.
"The only way I can describe it is like, if you flip a coin, and then you're like, 'oh, no, I didn't like that answer'. It was like, okay, I do want to go for it."
In congratulating Cairns on her new role, Varadkar also took a swipe at his newest opponent, reminding her that "most new parties do not survive their second leader".
But it left Cairns unfazed: "I was kind of just more focused on asking him about housing.
Now, halfway through her first Dáil term, she is still far from fluent in the kind of language so easily spoken by many in Leinster House, although her fresh attitude and straight talking has been noticed around the House.
"The blatant avoiding of answering questions, like it's just unreal, you could ask question and they will talk for five minutes about something else until the clocks run down and I just feel like I might as well have gone banged my head off a wall for five minutes instead of coming into the chamber.
"That did surprise me, and that might be a tiny bit basic, but I was like, 'what'?"
Changing how politics works was among the main motivations in putting herself forward to lead the Social Democrats.
She points out that previously people would have identified themselves as Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil as much as they did Irish, but the financial crash and the housing crisis changed that.
"I really feel like now is the time that the tide is turning in Irish politics," says Cairns, who was the only female TD be elected across all of Cork county and city in the last general election.
"The results of the local elections [in 2019] saw a huge drop in Sinn Féin councillors, and then a three-week general election happened [in 2020], and they nearly won the election. It occurred to me, people really decide what way they're going to vote when it's called.
"When you're busy, when you're struggling, things are going on, you're not thinking about who am I going vote for.
"I think when this election is called, that's when people will be saying to themselves, what kind of change do we want. And I think choice is important. And I really want to offer another choice to to Irish voters," she says.
Having made such a strong opening pitch to gain more members, candidates and ultimately Social Democrat elected representatives, Cairns will have to deliver. She will be expected to substantially build on the 21 current councillors in the next local elections.
With the party hovering at between 3% and 4% in the polls, Cairns will be under pressure to boost support in the lead-up to the next general election, especially among her own generation who she has repeatedly stated will be less well off than their parents.
Cairns made her way into politics after becoming involved in the campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment in 2018. She tells how having never canvassed politically she found herself knocking on doors seeking a 'Yes' vote in the historic referendum. It was on the very first door that she understood how attitudes can be changed through discussion and involvement.
The 2019 local elections, her first foray into politics, also provided her with a critical lesson.
The first count had put the independent hopeful Finbarr Harrington ahead by just one vote, but a recount swung the outcome in the opposite direction.
Over the four days of the recount, she got many texts, some apologising for not having cast a ballot, and others relieved they had made the effort.
"I remember this one woman messaged me saying, 'I got home from work, I was absolutely wrecked and wasn't going to bother voting. But my two daughters made me go out and vote for you. So I did it. And I'm so glad that I did'.
"Oftentimes when I speak to schools, I will say to them in my first ever election I lost by one vote, but I called a recount, and I won by one vote. The importance of getting out to vote can't be underestimated."
Changing attitudes is something that she hopes can also be achieved through the upcoming citizens' assembly on drugs. She lost her own brother Sam to a drugs overdose just a few weeks after she was elected to the council in 2019.
"I wasn't really aware of the cultural feeling around it, that it was so shameful, until my brother passed away and it was just people saying to me, 'you shouldn't be ashamed'. But I wasn't.
"That was a kind of realisation for me that if there's so much shame around something like this, how can you go and seek help when you need it, if you're supposed to be feeling ashamed? If we continue with that, then we're going to lose more people and that's just not acceptable anymore."
Hitting out at a lack of action from successive Governments, she adds: "More people die from drug-related deaths than they do from road traffic accidents. It's just like it's not being prioritised."
Government inaction is a running theme of the interview, with everything from disability services, housing, Sláintecare, climate change and domestic violence refuge spaces all being raised as areas where ministers have failed over the years.
As the interview draws to a close, she jokes that this has been her first media engagement since becoming leader where the Labour Party hasn't been raised.
A merger with Ivana Bacik's party has been rumoured for almost as long as the party's existence and been posed repeatedly since she took up her new role on Wednesday.
For Cairns the priority is recruitment, but not from within the Labour ranks.
"One of the reasons I wanted to go for this position is to try and appeal to people who might not feel interested in politics. I do want to say to them, please reconsider, think about it, because even if you don't feel like politics is for you, politics affects you.
"So it's worth having a say, and having your vote and obviously, every vote counts," she says, knowing more than most the truth in that statement.
Any other ambitions?
"I'd like to see more women in politics 100%, at a local level, at national level, at every level.
"Not having to be the sole voice of women in Cork in the Dáil, that might be nice," she says with a wry smile.