Speakers’ Corner: Danny Alvey

He’s a rewild child… APR24

ith the local elections set for Friday, June 7th, we have once again sent out our Speakers’ Corner questionnaire to the local wide-eyed hopefuls.

Starting with the 11 candidates running in the Greystones Electoral Area, we’ll then open the floor to the other 4,387 upstanding Wicklow citizens currently stepping into the ring for 2024.

Up for grabs, 32 councillor seats across this great county of ours, with all the hopes and dreams – plus prestige, pressure, resentment, ridicule and mediocre pay – that such an exalted position entails.

Suffice to say, there are plenty of candidates to choose from, from the strong, silent types who simply, quietly get on with their work in the community to the loud, social media-shagging self-promoters who seem to leave little time for any actual graft. We’ve been reporting on this town daily for 12 years now, and the one thing we’ve become very, very wary of is the black arts of stolen valour. Feckers sticking their flag in other people’s hard work by racing to share the good news first on Facebook, Instagram and beyond, slyly hoovering up all the likes, thanks and praise in the process.

It’s akin to waiting at the finish line and throwing your arm around the winner for a quick selfie, owning their victory online before they’ve even had time to catch their breath.

So, whatever your party loyalties and your political leanings, it’s worth taking a moment to look beyond the glitter. These people will be your eyes and ears – and big mouth – down in Wicklow County Council, after all.

In the meantime, on with Speakers Corner 2024, and Newtown’s Nature Boy himself, Danny Alvey, standing as a Social Democrat. First, a quick bio…

With Deirdre McCormack and Jennifer Whitmore

Danny is a native of Wicklow town, where his family have been involved with the community for generations. He now lives in Newtown with his young family.

Danny first got involved in politics in 2018 as an organiser with the campaign to repeal the eighth amendment. He joined the local Tidy Towns in 2020 and is now vice-chair. In 2021, he and his siblings founded the new environmental charity, ReWild Wicklow, which has grown exponentially to 1,400 volunteers. Danny’s priorities for Wicklow are nature restoration, climate resilience, improved public transport and walking and cycling links and more school places, sports and community facilities for young people.

Enya, Danny, Simon & Ian Alvey – ReWild Wicklow

And now for those merciless, meandering, marzipan-flavoured, mind-bending GG questions…

What inspired you to become involved in local politics? Was there a Road To District Council moment…?
My biggest passions are biodiversity and the local environment. This is what led me to get involved in my local Tidy Towns in 2021 and to co-founding the environmental charity ReWild Wicklow in 2022.

Unfortunately, biodiversity in Ireland is in absolute crisis, the more I learn the more I discover how badly our native habitats and species are doing. To try influence local policy on how we can restore public land here in Wicklow, politics seemed the best way to do that.

I think biodiversity would have been enough of a push, but the reality here in Ireland, and especially for my generation, is that Ireland is doing so bad in so many areas. The housing crisis is a national scandal made all of the Government’s doing as they simply refuse to use a public agency to build public housing on public land, instead over-relying on the private sector. I’ve been living with my parents-in-law for nearly five years now and have had two children while waiting to get our own home. If this wasn’t bad enough our healthcare, education and public transport services in Wicklow are totally underfunded and I see no vision or real ambition to improve them. So, yeah, there’s a long list of reasons for why anyone of my generation would feel compelled to try improve the country, and it all starts locally.

Of your work so far, are there particular achievements that you are particularly proud of?
My three siblings and I set up ReWild Wicklow as a WhatsApp group to chat about local issues back in 2021. By 2022, we’d held a few field trips and recruited some other local enthusiasts and experts and officially founded a new community group. We wanted to try use people power to plant trees and restore habitats in Wicklow.

We had no idea how we’d be received and just how exponentially we would grow! To date we’ve recruited over 1,500 volunteers onto our list, partnered with 24 public, private and NGO landowners to organize 90 volunteer activity days. Along the way we’ve planted over 10,000 trees, not to mention all the peatland restoration, pond digging, wildflower sowing and setting up camera traps to monitor mammal numbers.

On a more local level, I’ve been vice-chair of Newtown Tidy Towns since 2021 and, again, I’ve championed biodiversity initiatives that can also bring the community together.

Newtown’s little litter pickers with Jen Quinn, Paul Kavanagh, Barry Coad and Ms Kieran

Last year I worked with resident associations all across the town and the local GAA club to sow a corridor of wildflower patches. It was so successful and colourful we turned it into a walking loop that’s been viewed over 14,000 times on Google Maps. This year we added to this by launching a Dispersed Community Orchard, and planting 90 fruit trees in estates and green patches across the town.

Looking forward, what are the main goals that you would like to achieve over the coming years?
There is so much potential in Wicklow and so many ideas and initiatives I would like to support! I’ll have to pace myself, but in summary here are the projects I’d like to work on:

East Coast Greenway: I’ve been on this committee since 2018 and sufficient funding has finally been allocated to really start exploring viable routes. I believe a route can be found between Wicklow Town and Greystones that will allow families and visitors to experience this incredible 20km coastal stretch, whilst at the same time protecting and restoring some of the nature in this sensitive wetland area.

Expand Wicklow Mountains National Park: Last year I collected over 3,000 signatures to put pressure on the Government to stop clear-felling in so many of the valleys in the mountains and instead add them into the National Park. There is so much potential up there for nature but also recreation and eco-tourism.

Wicklow Town: The new Local Area Plan is currently being worked on and I made a submission to focus on zoning for more sports facilities and an all-in-one community centre, as well as upgrading the Rockey Road at Junction 17 to alleviate traffic issues and finding practical, realistic solutions to erosion at the Murrough and conserving and improving the Leitrim River area.

Newtownmountkennedy: I’m working with the Tidy Towns and Coillte to hopefully turn the Mount Kennedy Wood into a Neighbourwood Scheme with improved trails, bridges and biodiversity in the wood. The football club also badly needs facilities and I’ve been working with them on their first Sports Capital Grant. I’d also love to see new footpaths linking to Mount Kennedy Wood and Kiladreenan Church. We also need to start planning for a new secondary school in Newtown that could cater for the future population of children in Newtown, Roundwood, Kilpedder and Ashford.

Rathnew: The density of houses going into Rathnew, including future plans for Tinakilly, is not being matched by facilities, the village needs new sports facilities, cycle routes for schoolchildren and school places to name but a few!

Ashford: The village deserves to have its playground returned and I’ve been working with Jennifer Whitmore TD to lobby the Council to use a CPO on the land. If elected as a Councillor I will make this a priority for my term.

Roundwood: The growing village badly needs more public transport options, facilities and parking spaces in the main street…

I could go on and on, but, for now, these are the goals that first spring to mind.

To turn a fine Mayor Quimby quote into a question, ask not what you can do for your county, but what you can do for your county…?
From my experience, local community development is about bringing groups together to get the most they can from the local Council and central Government grants. I have professional qualifications in fundraising and non-profit leadership and management and a great track record in local grant applications so far. I see my role as a Councillor as being the opportunity to facilitate and support the great community and sports groups we have in the district to work towards a shared vision of facilities and services that will benefit us all.

If being a politician doesn’t work out, have you got a Career B in mind? Dancer? Magician? Traffic warden…?
My day job working with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul will continue; it’s a great organization and I’ve been working with them as a fundraising manager for nearly eight years. In terms of community activities, if it’s not already blatantly obvious, I just love planting trees and trying to bring nature back!

Either way, after the June election, I will continue working away on the rewilding projects we have around the county now. Once you plant it, sow it or dig it, nature does most of the work after that. Returning every few months or years to see what’s changed gives me the most joy!

Finally, Trump or Biden?
Biden. He is not perfect but how any sane American citizen can even consider voting for another four years of the circus show that is a Trump administration just beggars belief! His denial of climate change and wish to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement (again!) means he is an unconscionable threat to the very future of this planet.

You can find out more about Danny Alvey here, and follow on Instagram here, Facebook here or X here, and get in touch on email here. You can find out more about ReWild Wicklow right here, and over here.