An interview with Rob Carry

Good afternoon! As part of our ongoing series on rising nationalist stars and voices in Ireland, we're delighted to be able to introduce local community activist, businessman and politician, Rob Carry! 

We've been talking about his amazing work for and with his community, as well as his aspirations and plans for the future. 

ACS: Can you tell us a little about yourself, your background, and where you're coming from?

RC: Sure. So I’m a small business owner (I run a commercial gym, a martial arts club and some other small businesses), all of which are based in Bray, County Wicklow. 

Prior to going into business, I worked in the media. I graduated with a Masters in Journalism back in 2004 on the back of an undergrad degree in History in Politics. I wrote mostly property, travel and other lifestyle stuff but I’d freelance for everyone and anyone. I worked in the media in Australia, Thailand and here in Ireland before wrapping up and setting up a martial arts club. That was my first business, and things grew from there.

I’d also describe myself as a community activist. I’ve been involved in a lot of charity work over the years. We do a lot of stuff involving our martial arts club – it’s become a bit of a hub for the community here in Bray.

ACS: When would you say you first became politically active?

RC: I’ve been a republican and a nationalist for as long as I can remember. I went on a holiday to Donegal when I was a kid and I distinctly recall crossing the border. I couldn’t believe there were heavily armed soldiers from another country telling people what to do. The wrongness of that never left me. The more I looked into it, the more I felt the people of the Republic had, and were, letting down nationalists in the North to an inexcusable degree. 

So politics has always been a huge interest, and as I said I would go on to study it in my UCD days. But being in journalism in large part prohibits direct involvement. It was only when I left journalism that I started to consider jumping in. 

ACS: The political scene in Ireland is changing very rapidly and some might say, going in unexpected directions. What caused you to move away from your former political associations and towards a more traditional nationalist perspective?

RC: Being from a working class background and having an interest in a united Ireland meant Sinn Fein was the obvious home for me when I decided to get involved. I had been sceptical about the party over the years, I didn’t see that their strategy for a united Ireland was likely to work. But when Brexit happened, to my mind, that all changed. Polls started showing that it was something achievable, and I felt the work of preparing for it needed to begin. So I joined the party. 

After about two or three years, I decided to leave. In my time in the party, nobody mentioned a United Ireland. Other members talked about how they had got into Sinn Fein because of its socialism rather than because of its nationalism or republicanism. It wasn’t the party I was expecting to find.

In terms of economics, I would be quite left-leaning. I do believe in a fairer allocation of wealth, but I’m also a nationalist and I believe in furthering the national interest above all else. That just didn’t sit with Sinn Fein’s internationalist outlook, and its ‘Ireland for All’ migration position. 

I remember I went knocking doors in what should be a Sinn Fein stronghold in Bray. Very working class. The main issue being brought up was migration, and the responses of the reps were just dire. ‘Sure didn’t the Irish go everywhere?’ was the level of it. I was embarrassed, to be honest. I had no intention of knocking on doors and pushing a pro-open borders narrative that I didn’t agree with. I shared the views of the people, not of the party.

ACS: Have your previous political affiliations turned out to be of benefit or a burden in contemporary nationalist circles?

RC: As an independent, I haven’t had a whole lot of direct involvement with other nationalist figures. I’ve met a few here but I’ve kind of ploughed my own furrow thus far for the most part. I haven’t had anyone pull me up on being a former member of Sinn Fein. I mean, that used to be the party that soaked up the protest vote so I’d imagine a lot of nationalists have supported them in the past. 

ACS: How have your friends and family responded to your increasingly prominent profile in Irish Ireland communities - positively, negatively, or not at all?

RC: I’ve had amazing support from my friends and family. They’ve been brilliant. They all hopped in to help with canvassing and in general have just been really positive. They all know me well enough and long enough to not be surprised that I’d get involved in public life.

They also know I’m involved for the right reasons. I’m not a self-promotor. I’m not in it for money and I’m not a careerist. Politics for me is just a means of helping people – my community and my country. I think my family recognise that and even though they might disagree with me sometimes, they know I’m just trying to affect positive change.

ACS: How would you say recent changes in Ireland have affected you personally and your local area in general?

RC: A big one would be young people being driven out of the country. Waves of young lads from my club leave every year. Smart, motivated and much loved by their families... just great people. And they’re being utterly let down by the society we’ve created. They can’t have a life here. They’re being treated as if they’re disposable. Every young Irish person that leaves and doesn’t come back is an unforgiveable failure and a black mark against all of us.

And of course my family isn’t immune. We’ve lost more than our fair share to emigration.

I think it’s really a symptom of a failing society – and a society failing in so many areas. But the upshot is we’ve built a country in which our own young can’t see a future for themselves. 

ACS: You're very active in your community - can you tell us a little more about that?

RC: I heard someone mention before that if you want to meet a nationalist, you’ll find them in your local Tidy Towns. And there’s definitely a truth to that. If you’re a nationalist, then community work and charity work should be a given. So I run charity fundraisers for different charities, and earlier this year I established a youth mental health charity, Cabhair.

It’s a simple model – we fundraise and then use that money to pay for mental health services for young people, who otherwise would be facing months on a waiting list. We pay for them to go private, basically. It’s something I’m very proud of, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it develops.

ACS: What would you say are the greatest challenges facing the mental health of young Irish people today?

RC: I mean it’s hard to even picture what it must be like for young people growing up today. They’ve a phone in their pocket with a complex algorithm designed to manipulate them into staring at a screen all day. If they do something stupid, like we all do, a camera will likely be on them and the footage circulated to thousands. Then there’s the ludicrous standards their phones tell them to live up to… it must be really, really tough for them.

And then there’s the fact that the streets are getting less safe, drug abuse is on the rise and of course the damage done by lockdowns. There’s also the not insignificant fact that when they look to the future, they’re wondering whether they’ll be in the box room when they’re forty or living on the other side of the planet without their family and support network. There’s no end to the challenges facing young people, and it’s no surprise that so many struggle with their mental health.

ACS: Do you have any advice for parents reading this who might be worried about their childrens' mental health?

RC: At Cabhair, we don’t have a clinical role – we’re fundraisers. We pay external professional, private therapy providers to look after these kids. We just pick up the bill. So I’ve no clinical training in mental health so I’m not huge on giving out advice. But what I would say is do your best to keep the lines of communication open and don’t be afraid of asking direct questions if you’re worried. But it’s so tough – doting parents that do all the right things can lose someone. I’ve seen that myself. 

Therapy isn’t a magic wand, either. I don’t feel that it has the capacity to save everyone by any means. I do think, though, that it can be a useful tool for some and I also believe that access to therapy is the absolute minimum a young person in the depths of a mental health crisis should expect.

ACS: If people ask why they should vote for you instead of another, perhaps more established candidate, how would you respond?

RC: In my view, we have a lot of politicians that are really, really great at getting themselves elected. They’re good at climbing the greasy pole of party politics and elbowing themselves to the top of the mountain. But that seems to be an end in and of itself for these people. They don’t have any discernible principles. We’ve parties that have literally nothing to separate them. What do they really stand for? Self-aggrandisement, money, power, acceptability; and not a lot else. 

We all have our flaws but I can say, I’m not in politics because I want to be a politician. I’m in politics because I can’t stand politicians. I have my views, I have my principles and popular or unpopular, I’m guided by nationalism – what is good for the people of Ireland. 

ACS: How have you found dealing with the various individuals and groups in the modern Irish nationalist movement?

RC: I haven’t had a massive amount of involvement with them. I’ve chatted with a few on the phone, met some at protests and went to meet with one or two. The ones I’ve met have been sound – you can always find common ground with someone – but I tend to not get too involved. There likely will be a time in the future when the best move will be for nationalists to start working more closely together, but I don’t think we’re there just yet.

ACS: Can you envision setting up your own political party to gather disaffected Sinn Féin voters?

RC: There are actually a couple of ex Sinn Fein elected councillors in Wicklow who still hold seats. Really, really great representatives – Gerry O’Neill in West Wicklow and John Snell in Rathnew. There are also other independent councillors like Joe Behan in Bray that has done mammoth work, in particular for the more senior members of our community. Then there’s Ian Neary in Bray East, from Independent Ireland, who I would also have a huge amount of time for. 

So there is a core of great independents in Wicklow. Whether gathering them into a political party would be a worthwhile aim, I don’t know. But these lads work effectively with each other on the council, they’re a growing power bloc and they’re putting it up to Government party members – just this week in nominating Maria Steen, for example.

I think that’s a really positive development and hopefully there will be more standing with them after the next local election. 

ACS: In the mid to long term, tell us about where you'd like to see Ireland and the Irish Ireland movement going.

RC: There’s a wave sweeping across Europe – Germany, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, the UK... old political orders are being up-ended, driven mostly by Europe’s failure to tackle migration. Ireland’s political system is always late to the party – we’ve only just moved away from Civil War politics towards the type of Left-Right split that has dominated most other parliaments around Europe for 100 years. So I see migration-related change being driven at a European level, more so than by changes in support for domestic party politics. 

But regardless of where it comes from, I’d like to see the penny drop regarding housing – we can end the crisis within the lifetime of this Government by slashing inward migration and changing ownership laws. We can deal with doctor wait times, shortage of school places, pollution, traffic and a host of other social problems by doing the same thing. 

There’s also a really cool resurgence in peoples’ appreciation of Irish culture, sport, music, language, art and food. I’m not sure what started it, but it’s amazing to watch and long may it continue.

We’re starting to remember who we are, and that can only be good.