{"id":500233,"date":"2026-05-24T09:47:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T09:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/500233\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T09:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T09:47:13","slug":"daniel-ennis-former-league-of-ireland-footballer-becomes-a-td-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/500233\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Ennis: Former League of Ireland footballer becomes a TD \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before entering politics, newly elected Dublin Central<\/a> TD Daniel Ennis was best known for his soccer career, during which he played for League of Ireland<\/a> sides Bohemians, Shelbourne and Bray Wanderers.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old, a father of two, whose election gives the Social Democrats<\/a> two TDs in the same constituency for the first time, came to political attention as a community worker.<\/p>\n

A volunteer with East Wall football club Bessborough, he coaches 60 children every weekend. An incident in 2022 as he walked a group of children from different ethnic backgrounds back from a training session played a critical role in his move into politics. <\/p>\n

Protesters outside a proposed accommodation centre for asylum seekers hurled abuse at the children. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the language that was thrown at the kids, aged from six to nine, was horrible and will live with me forever,\u201d he said in an Irish Times interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those behind the protest were \u201cputting themselves forward to represent our community\u201d in the local elections, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had no family background in politics. It was then I decided I would jump forward because we needed positive leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DanielDaniel Ennis, the new Social Democrats TD for Dublin Central, lives in the North Strand with his fiancee and children. Photograph: Alan Betson<\/p>\n

\"DanielDaniel Ennis canvassing in Stoneybatter ahead of the Dublin Central byelection. Photograph: Tom Honan <\/p>\n

Ennis was elected to Dublin City Council in the 2024 local elections and began working in the office of the party\u2019s sitting Dublin Central TD Gary Gannon, who was first elected to the D\u00e1il in 2020.<\/p>\n

When his father, Geoffrey Ennis, died in 2016, his mother warned Daniel the media would run stories about him.<\/p>\n

He spoke publicly before the election campaign about Geoffrey, allegedly an associate of Gerry \u201cThe Monk\u201d Hutch, and suspected of being a member of the gang involved in the robbery of a Brinks Allied depot in 1995. He was questioned but never charged. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnything I know of my dad\u2019s past and, kind of, criminal past, would have been through a newspaper. My dad never mentioned anything to me about that,\u201d he said in a Sunday Independent interview.<\/p>\n

Ennis worked from 2016 to 2023 as a warehouse manager, and then as company secretary, for Dominics Bargains Ltd newsagents in Tallaght. The owner was prosecuted for possessing cigarettes and tobacco without proper tax stamps. <\/p>\n

He came under some scrutiny during the byelection campaign for not declaring his role as company secretary. However, the party said he did not have to because he resigned in 2023, more than a year before being elected to the city council.<\/p>\n

From the North Strand, he still lives in the area with his fiancee, Chloe, and children, Wren and Wylder.<\/p>\n

\"DanielDaniel Ennis and his fiancee, Chloe, arrive to the Dublin Central byelection count centre at Dublin’s RDS. Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

Described by former joint party leader Catherine Murphy as a \u201creal people person\u201d who \u201clights up\u201d a canvass, Ennis states in his profile on the party\u2019s website that his \u201cfamily are the brightest light in my life\u201d. <\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cGenerations of my family have called the North Inner City home and my staunch pride for my area stems from them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before entering politics, newly elected Dublin Central TD Daniel Ennis was best known for his soccer career, during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[34758,9,10,52,106968,18,13,14,89770,6,19,17,11,12,6435,15,16,5,61055,12238,18578,7,8],"class_list":["post-500233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-bohemians","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-dublin","tag-dublin-central-constituency","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-gary-gannon","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-league-of-ireland","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-north-strand","tag-shelbourne-fc","tag-social-democrats","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116628923955714028","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}