Paul's very 'active retirement'

It's been a few years now since the phrase "active retirement" was coined and former TD Paul McGrath's post-work life certainly fits the bill if anyone's does.Two and a half years ago Paul decided that it was time to hang up his political shoes but since then he has travelled the world with IPU (International Parliamentary Union) providing advice and monitoring elections in far flung places like Cambodia, East Timor and more recently Kazakhstan.A former primary school teacher, Paul spent 20 years at CBS in Mullingar, and entered political life in a roundabout way, going straight to the Dáil in 1989 before joining Westmeath County Council in 1991.By the time he was asked to stand as a Fine Gael candidate, the Ballymore man had become an integral part of community work in Mullingar having grown tired of hearing people say "well somebody should do something about that shouldn't they"."It's a typical Irish response," he said. "People will always complain and look to somebody else to do something about it. I was doing a lot of work in the community and for that reason I was asked to stand. Well my name was put forward if you like. It was a very interesting time because Fianna Fail hadn't won a majority in the elections and there was all sorts of comings and goings and rumours about a coalition with the PDs and so it was two months before the shape of the Dáil was set and a Taoiseach put in place."I remember at the time people were joking that we might have the shortest term in the Dáil for any Fine Gael candidates ever because it was thought that there might have to be another election."It was myself, Louis Belton, Mary O'Rourke and Albert Reynolds and so it was an interesting time alright. And that was also the famous election where the army wives stood and Henry Abbott lost his seat."It was all a shock and a fast learning curve but it's a way of life and I enjoy politics immensely. You would have to feel that way about it because it isn't the sort of thing that you could drag yourself up for every morning, because of the demands, and it is really 24/7, there's no other way to do it."Of course having a teaching career made it easier for me to make the leap because my job was secure. At the time my two children were going into third level education and there were fees that needed paying and so I always knew that I had teaching to go back to."And 18 years later and with a flawless election record intact, Paul decided that it was time to hang up his political mantle. Strangely enough though he has been working ever since."Well I thought that by the time of the last election that it was time to go because I was approaching 60 and thought that in another five years that Fine Gael would be in power and it would be too difficult for me to retire. So I took the chance when I saw it."I had been involved with the IPU when I was a TD and had been at various conferences in Geneva and so that is where the contact with them started."I have to say that it has been an amazing experience and I have got to travel the world. It's entirely voluntary and I don't get paid but I have travelled so much and had all my expenses covered and so I could never complain about money."The work that I have done with the IPU is to give help and advice to emerging democracies. Last year I went to Cambodia for 10 days and worked with newly elected MPs. We were told that there would be 30 people and the first morning we arrived there were 110 people waiting for us."My most recent trip was to Kazakhstan where I was engaged to monitor the elections, which really was fascinating. We arrived and had two days to acclimatise. Then we were given an area to monitor and had to be there at 5am to see the elections begin.We then travelled to 12 different polling stations and monitored the counts and the transfers to the central polling office. I was lucky because as well as having a translator the other man who was monitoring elections with me spoke Russian."As well as his involvement in international politics Paul has taken on several projects closer to home, one of which (the new playing pitch at Gainstown National School) is about to come to fruition."As well as being on the board of Gainstown I am also on the board of St Francis Hospital which is going through a major period of transition. I also work with TEAM (Temporary Emergency Accommodation in Mullingar).The new pitch at Gainstown will be officially opened in the next few weeks which is a fantastic achievement for everyone involved."I have no plans at the moment to do any work abroad but then again this time last year I didn't think that I'd be flying off to Cambodia to talk about government and democracy," he said.