When Galway native Eamon Gilmore was a student in Caltra National School, he never dreamt that he would become the leader of the Labour Party. In fact, he didn’t even like public speaking!

The new Labour Party leader began his days at Garbally College and, despite the best efforts of his teachers, he avoided public speaking as much as possible. But when half of his class were struck down with the mumps just before a major debating competition, it was the perfect opportunity to overcome his fear.

“I was very shy when I started school. Archbishop Cassidy used to force us to go up to the front of the class for public speaking. I hated it; I used to want to run away! But just before an intervarsity debating competition, a lot of our year got the mumps and weren’t able to compete, so they put all the rest of us into a team. So it was us, the First Years, against the Second Year team… and we beat them! We were the heroes of the class after that!”

Following secondary school, Eamon went to University College Galway to study psychology, where he became active in drama and debating. Initially, he says, his interest was in drama but he steadily became involved in the Students’ Union and in his second year he decided to run for president. Following his successful time in the position, he decided to branch out further and became president of the USI, where he stayed for another two years.

Over the next couple of years, Eamon moved to Kerry before returning to Dublin to pursue a career in politics. After working at local level on a water rates campaign, he decided to run for election in 1985 and was elected to the Dun Laoghaire Borough Council.

His political career has blossomed ever since with the highlight coming earlier this year when he was made the leader of the Labour Party. But with power comes responsibility and Eamon is under no illusions about the tough job that is ahead of him.

“This will be a big challenge, but there will be huge job satisfaction. I am relishing the challenge of renewing the party and offering a badly needed alternative in Ireland based on substance. A lot of politics has got very superficial and I think there is a need to come to terms with the big issues in the country,” he says.