Daniel Ennis, a 38-year-old father of two, won a second seat for the Social Democrats in Dublin Central alongside Gary Gannon. He built his public profile through a football career with Bohemians, Shelbourne, and Bray Wanderers, and through volunteering with East Wall Bessborough FC. His community work led him into Gary Gannon’s constituency office, where he gained political experience in 2023 and later after being elected to Dublin City Council in 2024. Ennis’ campaign emphasized personal family history, including his father Geoffrey Ennis Senior’s alleged criminal associations. His campaign also addressed questions about his prior employment with Dominicks Bargains LTD and whether it appeared on his council declaration form.
"The 38-year-old father-of-two from the north inner city made his name as a League Of Ireland football player, with Bohemians, Shelbourne and Bray Wanderers. His volunteering with East Wall Bessborough FC put him on the map as a community worker, which ultimately led him into the constituency office of Gary Gannon - the sitting TD for the Social Democrats."
"Ennis cut his political teeth in his football friend Gannon's constituency office in 2023, soon after getting elected to Dublin City Council in 2024. Father of two children Wren and Wylder and fiancé to Chloe, he said he refurbished his grandmother's house during the pandemic. The family lives in this house in North Strand now, around the corner from where he grew up."
"His family connections and past were the main personal stories of his campaign as he spoke publicly about his father Geoffrey Ennis Senior, who was allegedly a close associate of Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch. Ennis was warned by his mother that the newspapers would "run stories about his father" after he died in 2016. "Anything I know of my dad's past and, kind of, criminal past, would have been through a newspaper," he told the Irish Independent."
"Geoffrey Ennis was suspected of being a member of the gang that carried out the audacious Brinks-Allied raid that cemented the Hutch name in gangland history. One of two men arrested shortly after the robbery, he was questioned for two days but released without charge. Daniel Ennis' own past came into sharp focus too in the campaign as his previous employment with Dominicks Bargains LTD from 2016 to 2023 was under question when it didn't appear on his Council declaration form."
Read at Irish Independent
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