This article is from page 6 of the 2006-10-31 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
SÍLE deValera is looking forward not back, albeit with a bit of trepidation, a tiny bit of sadness but most of all with excitement.
Come the next election, the woman who has dedicated three decades of her life to politics can look forward to fulfilling ambitions of a normal social life and looking at politics with an objective eye.
As the Junior Minister at the Department of Education prepares to step down from her position on December 8, she said that resigning was not as big a decision as deciding not to run in the next election.
The Clare TD told The Clare People that she suggested the step down to the Taoiseach last November when she told him she was not running in the next election.
The former Minister for Arts was first elected to the Dáil 30 years ago.
As she approaches 52 years of age, she has few regrets about the 30 years of sacrifice she has made for her career.
“I would have liked to have gone into more study. I was elected at 22 and maybe if you could plan to go in at 30 you could build a life outside before entering.”
She admitted, however, that her early years in politics gave her opportunities that she may not have otherwise had if she made her way into that career later in life.
Come next summer, she will leave that life behind to fulfil her educational ambitions.
The grand-daughter of Eamon deValera already holds a degree in history, politics and psychology, a higher diploma in history and is a postgraduate in career guidance. She is a qualified psychologist.
“There will be a certain amount of sadness. I have been in Clare for 25 years, and represented Clare for 20 years in February.
I will continue to keep all my contacts in Clare. It has meant too much to me to cut all those ties,” she added.
Minister de Valera laughs as she recalls how some TDs now approach her with a wry smile as they tell her how they envy her life change.
“I look forward to a life I can plan and I am looking forward to privacy. I found it hard to plan a private life. I am very lucky to have friends. I have often promised to meet up and find I can’t at the last minute.
“It (politics) is very tough and I can say that now. It is all-consuming time-wise,” she added.