In our first edition of the new semester, we feature one of our own who has gone from fresher to first citizen in just 20 years. James Geoghegan was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin in June of 2024. Speaking of his varied role, he said, “You go from fulfilling long-standing obligations of the Lord Mayor, including declaring yourself admiral of the sea, to meeting with the Gardaí commissioner to hosting an afternoon tea. Every day is different, but (being Lord Mayor is) a great honour.”
The Lord Mayor spoke of his time in UCD, including Erasmus, which he described as “one of the best decisions I ever made.” He spent a whole year at the University of Liege in Belgium, where “you got a real community of friends, and by doing that, a different kind of experience than you might have in Ireland.”
While not the first Lord Mayor to graduate from UCD, Geoghegan may be the first College Tribune reporter to reach the highest office in Dublin politics. Speaking of his time with the Tribune, he said, “I called into the office to Colin Gleeson (then Editor, now Irish Times reporter), and I just told him I wanted to write articles. He told me all my suggestions were rubbish and then sent me to do a few different things. I did a lot of the current affairs for the Tribune.” The Lord Mayor also “joined a youth political society and … played Olympic handball for a couple of years. I made friends out of that, and I worked a part-time job when I was at UCD.”
After graduating with a BA (politics and sociology) in 2008, Geoghegan graduated from Kings Inn as a practising barrister. But politics is now a full-time role for him.
Inclusivity featured strongly in the conversation with the Lord Mayor. He opens the Mansion House for autistic children on Sundays, which he calls “a play date with the Lord Mayor.” He says that families love that it is something that the whole family could do together. “A family that might have one autistic child and other children that are neurotypical, and everyone could have the day out”, he said.
Following on from the work of his predecessor, Geoghegan wants to make Dublin the “first autism-friendly capital city.” He believes it will be “something that all Dubliners can be really proud” of, adding that he is “trying to embed that within Dublin City Council itself so that we’re not just relying on whom might be the Lord Mayor.”
Geoghegan is the 356th Lord Mayor of Dublin, but only 10 of his predecessors are women. He agreed that historically, the number of women in power in Dublin “has been poor,” but he noted that “in the last (Council) term, there were five Lord Mayors and two were women, which is progress”. He said that there was gender parity on the current City Council but spoke of the need to have the Council reflect the diversity of Dublin life. “We need to ensure that we encourage young people, women, people of ethnic minorities and those whom have disabilities … join in politics.”
While Lord Mayor is his most significant political achievement to date, he is keen to use his time in office to provide leadership on “the challenges in our city centre”.
He acknowledges that “everyone shares an interest in making sure that our capital city is a clean city and is a city that people want to come into.” Dublin has seen changes in “how commercial premises present their waste.” One of his first meetings was with the Garda Commissioner about police patrols and engaging with policing. “I hope that my legacy of being Lord Mayor, for however long I serve it, will be that I’ve given it my all, of really tackling those two big problems of having a clean and safe city.”
Dubliners are proud of the city, which he describes as “why the city centre is so elevated politically”, and “people are really concerned that we will lose parts of our city if we don’t rejuvenate particular parts of the city, such as Talbot Street and Parnell Street and getting the Ambassador Theatre open.”
The Lord Mayor acknowledged the structural challenges for citizens, tourists and students alike. On housing, he acknowledged that “there was a degree of hopelessness about the level of houses being delivered and whether that could meet the supply that was needed.” But he said that it has begun to turn a corner. “500 people every single week now are becoming first-time buyers, so if you’re a student in UCD wondering if you’re ever going to be able to own a home in Ireland, the evidence is, at the moment, that change is finally afoot.”
He is also “concerned about both the perception and the reality of how Dublin feels from a safety perspective”, saying that “if you talk to any businesses, nightclubs or students, they’ll all say the same thing to you. You know we are fearful working in our business, and like you just said there, we’re fearful leaving a nightclub or walking on the road, and this has to stop, and the only way to stop that is by having an increased police presence in our city centre.”
He wants to reclaim the spaces where “crime and anti-social behaviour incidents are thriving”, saying we need to “fill them with things for people to do”. “When we had 20,000 people on O’Connell Street celebrating the homecoming of our Olympic heroes, nobody talked about crime or anti-social behaviour. If we’re having pride … marching down O’Connell Street, crime and anti-social behaviour aren’t issues”. He also spoke of the need to “have a thriving nighttime economy in our city”. “I don’t understand why there is no late-night Luas for example like there is at Christmas time”, he said.
But to deliver effective leadership in Dublin, the Lord Mayor said, “I have been of the view that we need directly elected mayor for Dublin”. Geoghegan noted that he doesn’t have executive function over the running of the City but can influence how the city is run. “One of the things that you learn quickly when you become mayor is that you do have a lot of soft power”. Dublin has a transport agency, the garda commissioner, the HSE, and a city manager and “a directly elected mayor can get them all talking to each other”, he said.
Finally, “embrace everything” is the advice the Lord Mayor has for the current generation of UCD students. Looking back on his life, he said, “I’m thirty-nine years old now with three children, and I don’t have any regrets about the social things I decided to do (at university).” He said, “Most of the life-forming things that I did had absolutely nothing to do with internships and academic success … it was the Summers of J1 in America working at fish boat bait and taco shop in Santa Cruz, spending a summer in a campsite Biarritz living in a tent on pasta and tomato sauce every day. Travelling to Pamplona for the running of the bulls like these are the life experiences you won’t get when you’re in your thirties worrying about your mortgage and everything else; just don’t regret things and just do everything.”
Hannah Costello – Co-Editor
