Healy-Rae split: A family feud casts a shadow over Kerry's most powerful political name
Danny Healy-Rae behind the counter with Michael Healy-Rae at the Healy-Rae Bar in Kilgarvan in 2024. Picture: Dan Linehan
“I wouldn’t like to give you a comment,” said the man in the white van, parked outside Michael Healy-Rae’s shop in Kilgarvan.
“I would know Michael and Danny well and I do a show of work for them, they’re decent men and I wouldn’t want to fall out with them.”
That was a common sentiment on a wet day in the quiet Co Kerry village, with almost all of the people the met declining to talk about the rift between Kilgarvan’s TD brothers.
Few would give their names, and many claimed to have no opinion at all.
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In April, Independent Kerry TD and minister of state for forestry Michael Healy-Rae resigned from Government, during a confidence motion sparked by its handling of the fuel protests.
He and his brother Danny, also an Independent Kerry TD, had signed up at the start of this Dáil to support the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael coalition, but in the heat of the protests, Danny had called for the replacement of the leaders of both parties.
With Michael’s ministry depending on a two-votes-for-the-price-of-one deal, he resigned in dramatic fashion the day of the confidence vote, exiting Leinster House with a clenched fist and a tale of “people begging on the side of the road [and] grown men crying”.
This week, however, he told Radio Kerry it had not been his brother’s place to call for a change in leadership in other parties.
“When those words were issued, that is what cost Kerry a ministry for agriculture, that is a fact,” Michael said. “I was pulled overboard by the situation.”
Kilgarvan, a picturesque village about 12 miles east of Kenmare with a population of about 300, is a tidy and pretty place, offering stunning views over the Roughty valley, even on a rainy day when the looming Bird Hill is obscured by mist.
The village is dominated by one name, with Jackie Healy-Rae’s Bar — named after the late TD patriarch — at its heart.
Danny’s picture — “Vote No 1 Healy-Rae Danny — I’m on your side” — is over the canopy, while his branded and battered 06 KY Toyota Fortuner is often parked outside.
Out toward the Kenmare Road, before the parish church, is Michael’s combined Maxol garage, Mace shop, and post office. Framed election posters adorn the wall of the shop’s dining area, and beside the garage is Healy-Rae Park, a six-bungalow crescent opened in June 2003 by then Kerry mayor Michael.
The petrol station boundary is marked by a giant portrait of Michael — “Your No 1 TD Healy-Rae Michael — hard work, experience, common sense” — on the gable of a house.
Across from Jackie Healy-Rae’s, in O’Reilly’s Bar — “Home to Ireland’s first round pool table” — the barman and the three regulars professed to have heard nothing about any disagreement in the Healy-Rae camp.
“Are you sure that happened at all?” asked one man, while the others struggled to keep straight faces.
Up the hill beside Michael’s shop, Ciarán Gribben, a Co Down exile living in Kilgarvan, said he wasn’t surprised at the recent rift.
“Sure Michael and Danny never really got on with each other, that would be an open secret around here, and now they’ve fallen out completely,” he claimed.
“A lot of people here won’t talk to you; they want to keep their heads down. The two boys are seen as the men to go to if you want something done, and people are afraid to cross them.”
In a field outside the village, a man repairing a fence offered a Biblical observation: “Yerrah, show me one man who had a brother and didn’t have at least one falling out with him.
“The media should leave them alone, and don’t be trying to make ordinary people say things to make stories for ye,” he said.
On one of the village’s housing estates, a woman in her 40s said she had no interest in politics, but she knew the brothers.
“They seem all right. They’re very influential around the area, and they employ a good few people,” she said. “I don’t want to get involved, to be honest.”
In another estate, while the chatted to a man in his 60s — “No way am I saying anything” — a van bearing the name of Roughty Properties Ltd, Michael’s company, drove very slowly around the estate.
In a telephone call, Independent Tralee county councillor Sam Locke, a close ally of Michael’s, said he felt currently — “my hand on heart” — that if he were out canvassing in the next general election, he couldn’t see himself asking for second preferences for Danny.
“Because of the manner in which he came out, without discussing it to ourselves or to his brother, I take a very dim view of that,” he said.
However, another Michael ally, Independent Listowel councillor, Liam “Speedy” Nolan, said it was “way too soon” to talk about the next election, and he was hopeful the brothers might yet be reconciled.
Michael’s son, Jackie Jr, who had been his father’s ministerial special advisor, is an Independent Kilgarvan councillor, while Danny’s daughter Maura and son Johnny are both Independent councillors based in Kilgarvan.
Jackie Jr said relations with his cousins are unchanged and remain friendly. He added that he had seen a different side to his father when he was a minister.
“I think everyone would acknowledge that he was very good in the role, he has proven his ability to govern, his willingness to govern, and his capability to govern, and I hope he will be back in that position again,” he said.
“Look, we are where we are. The position we find ourselves in is the same one we were in for the last 14 years, and I think we got on pretty well. We have good influence, and we’ll continue to do our best for the people of Kerry.”
Maura said: “For now, ‘tis probably best for everyone to say: ‘No comment’”.
Michael and Danny Healy-Rae both took the ’s calls, but declined to make statements.
The first generation of the Healy-Rae political dynasty in Kerry started with Jackie, a colourful politician whose origins in politics were rooted in Fianna Fáil.
He became involved in politics in the 1960s, working on several Fianna Fáil election campaigns, not only in Kerry, but across the country.
In 1973, he was co-opted to Kerry County Council and was re-elected in 1974. He was a councillor until 2003, when new rules were introduced that stopped TDs and senators from also holding council seats.
He left Fianna Fáil in 1997 as part of a bitter row that saw the party refusing to nominate him to contest the general election for Kerry South.
Jackie Snr won the seat and was a TD for Kerry between 1997 and 2011.
Upon his retirement in 2011, his son Michael won his seat. Jackie Healy-Rae died in 2014 aged 83.
Michael Healy-Rae was elected at the 2011 general election and has been re-elected in every election since.
A father of five, aged 59, he was first elected to Kerry County Council in 1999. Often branded “Ireland’s wealthiest TD”, he is a postmaster, a petrol station operator, and a plant hire owner.
He is also one of the only TDs in the Dáil to double up as a reality TV star, with his appearance on causing controversy after it emerged he received over 3,600 votes from a phone in Leinster House.
Following the November 2024 election, Michael was appointed minister of state for forestry at the Department of Agriculture.
He dramatically resigned during a confidence motion over the Government’s handling of the 2026 fuel protests.
He later criticised his brother, Danny, for calling for Micheál Martin and Simon Harris to be replaced on the day before the vote of confidence.
Michael said his brother's comments had "cost Kerry" a Government ministry.
Michael's son Jackie, 31, was first elected to Kerry County Council in 2019.
He was convicted of an assault in 2017, which he denied.
Jackie Jnr served as Michael's special adviser in the Department of Agriculture from 2025 until he stood down from the Government in April 2026.
At 71, Danny is the older of the two Healy-Rae brothers. He runs a pub in Kilgarvan, named after his late father, and has six children.
Danny first entered politics in 2003, taking Jackie’s seat on Kerry County Council.
He remained on the council until 2016, when he joined Michael in Dáil Éireann. He immediately hit headlines after his election to the Dáil, saying in May 2016 he “doesn’t agree” with suggestions about climate change because “God above is in charge of the weather”.
He participated in Government formation talks with his brother Michael following the 2024 general election.
However, he was this week accused of “pulling Michael overboard” and out of Government following an explosive Radio Kerry interview on the eve of a confidence motion in the Government as he called for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to oust their leaders over their handling of the fuel protests.
Danny's eldest son Johnny, 41, was first elected as a councillor in 2011 and was re-elected in the last local elections.
He took the seat vacated by his uncle Michael when he was elected to the Dáil.
The eldest daughter of Danny, many see Maura Healy-Rae, 35, as the one most likely to become the next Healy-Rae TD.
She was co-opted onto Kerry County Council in 2016 to fill the seat her father vacated when he was elected.
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