Mayor of Roscommon, Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan
Do you think you have a healthy lifestyle?
I do now. In my late teens, I copped on to the fact that to be mentally healthy, you’ve got to be physically healthy too. I was feeling a bit down around that time so I decided to take up running and watch my diet. I do what I can to stay healthy – I’ve only got one life.
How often do you exercise?
I run about 30 miles a week. I like to run where there are no cars because you speed up when a car goes by, in case you look stupid, and it knocks you out of your stride. I set up a kayaking club too. It’s all very well saying young people are up to this and that. But if you provide them with nothing else to do, what do you expect?
Do you get your five a day?
I do, mostly from fruit. I’m addicted to potatoes too. I’m a vegetarian but not for moral reasons. It makes me think more about what I eat. There isn’t a label in the supermarket that I haven’t read. We like to get it into our two girls’ heads that it’s not about being fat or thin, it’s about being fit.
Do you worry?
I’m terrified for the future of Ireland at the moment. If I wasn’t running several times a week, I wouldn’t be able to stay in this business. I’d suggest to anyone who might be feeling a bit down that they invest in a pair of running shoes and run off all those troubles. When you come home, you wonder what the hell you were worried about.
What do you do to relax?
I listen to sport on the radio; I follow Queens Park Rangers and Sligo Rovers.
What’s your unhealthiest habit?
Politics. I’m in politics because I don’t think things are being done as well as they could be. Trying to change things is always going to be stressful.
If one in four people are in hospital because of alcohol-related problems, it makes you think. Maybe if more people did more exercise, we would have no overcrowding in our hospitals.
