Richard Boyd Barrett (57) is typing a text as he greets The Irish Times.
Apologising, the People Before Profit TD for Dún Laoghaire explains he is trying to respond to everyone who has sent good wishes since his announcement this week he is stepping back from politics to focus on overcoming throat cancer.
“There have been thousands of messages coming in from every angle: texts, emails, social media, X, Instagram,” he says. “Really, I am amazed. Even people who quite strongly politically disagree with me have sent very kind messages. It’s heartening. It shows the fundamental decency of people,” he says.
He first noticed a “swelling” on his neck during November’s general election campaign.
“I thought, That’s definitely not good, and when it didn’t go away after a few weeks, I thought there was something fairly serious likely.
“The doctors, as soon as they had a proper look, thought, That’s what we think it is. I got the tonsils out and they did the biopsy at the same time.”
[ Richard Boyd Barrett: 'I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried'Opens in new window ]
The cancer, he says, has spread to lymph nodes but no further.
“So, I think it has been caught relatively early. Cancer – it is a frightening word but it’s no longer the death sentence, and the consultant said the chances [of survival] are eight, maybe nine out of 10.”
Directly after this interview he is going to have two teeth out, which, he says, is necessary before he starts treatment “probably next week”. It will take seven weeks, including radiotherapy five days a week for five weeks, with “three biggish blasts of chemo on week one, in the middle somewhere and at the end”.
How soon after treatment will he return to politics? “I don’t know, is the honest answer. The treatment is two months but, from what I hear, it knocks the stuffing out of you. The last few weeks can be very tough.
“They told me I have to not lose weight but it is also going to be very difficult to eat. That is what worries me most. I hear it can seriously affect your taste buds, seriously affect your ability to ingest stuff, to swallow – that is going to be tough.
“So there’s the treatment and then there’s the recovery time and I don’t know how long that will be. I am not looking forward to it.”
The timing, politically, he says “is very unfortunate”. Issues on which he has campaigned for decades, he believes, are building towards something of an apotheosis.
“I was trying to figure ways I could balance things: get the treatment and still work. But both the medical people and my own comrades were saying: ‘You are just not going to be able to do it.’
“It was put fairly baldly by some of the doctors who said: ‘Look, during this you are not going to be in control of your own life. Your days are no longer going to be your own.’ ”
Biden armed Israel, allowed it all to happen. But now, Trump is unveiling the horrible logic
— Boyd Barrett on Gaza
Asked what are issues he particularly regrets having to step back from, he says the situation in Gaza, the Trump presidency, question marks over Irish neutrality and the housing crisis. All of these are connected, he believes.
“There’s a lot of people very depressed by what’s happening in the world,” he says. “Anyone with a bit of humanity is looking at Gaza and Palestine and cannot believe this is allowed to continue. I think it has opened people’s eyes, shocked them.”
Europe, seen by many as the “liberal counter” to the United States, has “simultaneously supported” what Boyd Barrett calls “the genocide in Gaza and done nothing about it”.
“Biden armed Israel, allowed it all to happen. But now, Trump is unveiling the horrible logic, and it is a great reveal of a pretty monstrous logic, which says: ‘We don’t care about millions of people being displaced, tens of thousands killed – we can turn it into a casino.‘”
He sees leaders across the globe, including in Ireland, planning to increase military budgets.
“They are demanding: ‘We must spend more on weapons and therefore less on housing, less on health and education.’ The bill is always sent to ordinary working people, who lose.
“I think people’s eyes are being opened but are not quite sure what to do with this revelation. I hope they will band together and recognise that solidarity and resistance are our only hope.”
Younger comrades are stepping up. We are very consciously trying to bring on the new generation
The two domestic issues he will miss campaigning on in coming months are housing and neutrality.
“There are people making a lot of money out of the housing crisis who really don’t want to see it solved. Unless we get a movement on the scale we had on the water charges I don’t believe we will push back these forces. I am sorry I won’t be around for a few months to help make it happen.”
A consensus is emerging, he fears, that Irish neutrality should be diluted or even ditched.
“I would ask people to really think about this. We have a proud tradition in Ireland. In fact our identity has come from opposing this stuff. That’s what the 1916 Rising was about – opposing imperialism and [the first] World War,” he says.
“Never has it been more relevant than now that we should be opposing empire and opposing war.”
Party colleague and retired TD Bríd Smith will be helping run his constituency office while he is off.
“And younger comrades are stepping up. We are very consciously trying to bring on the new generation. So maybe this will have an upside in that people will step up. They are stepping up,” he says.
“And I will be back – I’m just not sure when.”
