‘I'm an accidental politician' — Tipperary councillor Annemarie Ryan on politics, family and her favourite place

In a quiet corner of Tipperary town, a much-loved local amenity sits. Dating from the Norman times, the Tipperary Hills (known locally as The Hills) is a peaceful spot for walkers, including local Sinn Féin councillor Annemarie Ryan who says it is one of her favourite places in the county. This journalist met up with Cllr Ryan to chat to her about Tipperary, her political career, and life outside of politics. 'I've gotten into a routine where I drop the kids to school early, and then I go up The Hills on my own, and that's my little bit of headspace before the day starts,' she explains. 'I find that walking around The Hills, it's different every day. Some days you go up there and there'd be a low-hanging cloud over the Glen of Aherlow, or there's mist, other days it's rainy, some days it's sunny, and as you walk around, you get to meet the same people. Read more New Tipperary artwork with intriguing phrase 'it is the way it is…was…will be…is it?' unveiled 'It grounds me before the day starts, and having that on our doorstep, it's a big space and there's so many different routes and paths,' she added. Cllr Ryan was first elected to the Tipperary-Cahir-Cashel Municipal District in 2019 as an independent candidate under the March4Tipp banner, before joining Sinn Féin before the 2024 local elections. She describes herself as an 'accidental politician', having first gotten involved in community activism with the March4Tipp group, which was formed to protest neglect, high unemployment, and the delays in bypassing Tipperary town. In 2018, more than 5,000 people took to the streets of Tipperary town calling for change in the town. 'With March4Tipp, we were just a bunch of community activists, none of us came from a political background. There was a big debate going on about do you stay outside the system and challenge it that way, or do you move into it? So we decided to run, and we optimistically ran three candidates,' she said. 'I was the only one that got elected, and honestly, it was a massive culture shock because I don't come from a political background, and I didn't understand really what it meant to be a councillor, nor did I understand the systems, the amount of work involved and what is expected of you. 'I would always say I'm an accidental politician,' she added. Cllr Ryan said that one of the biggest surprises that she faced after her election was how much legislation is involved in the decisions they make, and that many of the decisions are pre-determined at national level. 'The longer I am a councillor, the more I see the diminishing role of local councillors and the decisions that they make at a local level, so it's been a massive learning curve. 'Local councillors, we all work for our community, but it's still political, and that's the part I don't particularly like. I'm not politically driven, I'm community driven,' she explained. Sinn Féin councillor Annemarie Ryan says the Tipperary Hills hold a lot of memories for her. © Katie O'Donovan. Throughout her career as a county councillor so far, Cllr Ryan said that she has learned to use her voice more and stand up for her beliefs during debates in the council chamber. 'There are times, that being a member of Sinn Féin, or even before that with March4Tipp that I would be clashing with the major parties on decisions and on the direction of the way things were going, and I found that quite difficult at the start. 'I'm more used to it now but I still find it quite difficult when we have conflict in the chamber. You just have to learn to speak out and I think I can, but I don't like that element of it when there's conflict. But it's part of the job,' she added. She also said that going into politics, she thought she would be able to solve everyone's problems, but has since learned that this isn't always the case. 'The hardest thing is if somebody rings you looking for help, and you have to tell them that there's this much you can do, but there's not much more you can do,' she explained. Read more Almost 900 Tipperary first-time buyers receive support through Help to Buy scheme 'At the moment, housing is so high on my workload, there are so many people in insecure accommodation, and sometimes I feel helpless that I can't help them. I can advocate on their behalf, I can push for policy changes, but realistically, those policy changes that would deliver more houses are at the direction of the Government.' Read more Almost 900 Tipperary first-time buyers receive support through Help to Buy scheme With so much on her plate as a councillor, and as a mother to two teenage children, Cllr Ryan says that The Hills gives her a place to relax and take a breath. When she's not on-duty, aside from heading on walks, she loves to binge watch a good boxset, as well as reading and listening to podcasts. At the moment, her go-to podcast is Emma Barnett's Ready to Talk, as well as BBC's Woman's Hour. 'I love the odd break away too, even if it's just a city break for a night. 'I'm lucky, my sister is here, my mum is here and the extended Shiner family is all around, so we meet up and we go for coffee, go to Dundrum Woods, so it's things like that just to get a bit of headspace,' she said. Before she leaves politics, Cllr Ryan said that delivering the Tipperary Town bypass is the biggest goal she would like to achieve, along with the delivery of a space in the town for teenagers. 'I'm working on delivering a teen space with the council and with Canon Hayes Sports Centre, we're in the middle of hopefully doing a redevelopment of the whole space, and it's really crucial to me that we have a teen space. 'I have teen children, but at this stage, I would say realistically, by the time they're no longer teens we might have a teen space, and we also might have a bypass,' she said. Delivering more housing for Tipperary town, as well as tackling empty and vacant buildings in the town are also part of her priorities. The Sinn Féin councillor said she undertook a study of the vacant retail properties in the town in 2022, and was in the middle of doing a follow-up study. 'I know from my initial findings, we have a lot less vacancy in the town centre than we used to have, but we do have a problem with long-term vacancy of the same buildings. 'Over 70pc of the buildings that were empty in 2022 are still empty now, so there's a problem there, and the question is, what is that problem?' she asked. Looking around The Hills, Cllr Ryan said that when she was a student in St Anne's Secondary School in the 1980s, the amenity was a place to mitch off school, but that as her kids grew up, it came to hold new memories. Read more Locals object as substation for Tipperary solar farm set to more than double in size 'There would be times when you'd fly up The Hills to avoid a class, so I do have memories of using The Hills to mitch — maths class in particular — and then sneaking back into St Anne's again,' she laughed. 'But also, when my kids were younger, like a lot of kids, we'd go up with a bit of cardboard and slide down the hill by where the soccer pitch is, so there's those memories too,' she added. For Cllr Ryan, The Hills has changed with her over the years — from a place to escape the occasional maths class as a teenager, to somewhere she brought her own children to play, and now a place where she can take a few moments for herself before the demands of the day begin. It is those different memories, she says, that make the quiet corner of Tipperary town one of her favourite places in the county. Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme