The Irish Election Of P-residents
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011Tomorrow, October 27th 2011 sees the end of the political circus that is the Irish Presidential Election. This political sideshow as been running officially now for two months, although some of the characters have been squaring up for over a year and it has been taking our hearts and minds off the job in hand, which is digging our way out of the financial turmoil, in part brought on by the last Fianna Fail government and in part by the greed of the international banking system. Enda Kenny, the Irish Prime Minister, could not have played his cards better than to have this hysterical floorshow distracting us this long while.
It has been a seven horse race, but using the word horse in this contest is a massive term of abuse to our equine friends, with a tawdry a bunch of wannabes as you could ever imagine. To get into the frame you have to be a citizen of the state, over 35 years old and be nominated by at least 20 serving members of the Oireachtas, the Irish Parliament. or if you are of independent bent, you have to have the support of at least four county or city councils.
This election is taking place at the end of the present President’s second term of office. Mrs Mary McAleese for 14 years and Mrs Mary Robinson before her have elevated this position to one with international clout but unfortunately in this new bunch of candidates there does not appear to be one of the same calibre.
The three political parties with 20 or more members of the Oireachtas who can nominate a party representative are Fine Gail, the Labour Party and Fianna Fail. Fine Gail eventually elected Gay Mitchell, a Dublin MEP, as their candidate; the Labour Party elected Michael D. Higgins, a long serving TD and Senate member, although Fergus Finlay of Bernardo’s, my original fancy, put up a good fight. Fianna Fail, still hurting from their 2010 hammering in the Dail elections of 2010, hummed and aghed for months before deciding not to run a candidate. Sinn Fein who did not have enough seats in the Oireachtas (17 only), sought the help of four independent TDs, Michael Healey-Rae and Tom Fleming, both from South Kerry, Ming Flanagan from Roscommon and Finian McGrath from Dublin and nominated Martin McGiunness, the darling boy from Derry. I suppose it does show the political affiliation of these so called independent TDs if ever the shit hits the fan over here.
On top of these three a number of independent candidates sought the support of 20 Oireachtas members. This turned into a Lannigan’s ball with the candidates stepping in and out and eventually nobody in the end being able to satisfy all the criteria necessary.
The independent minded and thicker skinned of the survivors then approached the councils and eventually four of them gained the right credentials. Mary Davis received 13 council nominations, Sean Gallagher received the necessary four. David Norris having tried the Oireachtas path and pulled out and then tried again, eventually impressed four councils on the eastern seaboard to back him and last and least, Dana Rosemary Scallon persuaded four councils to nominate her, one of which was Roscommon County Council, my bete noir, which showed its true colours in spades with this nomination.
So by the 28th September the scene was set for this 30 day tango to take place. Seven candidates, all arguing and fighting among themselves like a crowd of fishwives with not a scintilla of sense or positivity coming from any of them. In order of my preference I will try and paint a brief picture of each:-
Michael D. Higgins, my eventual choice, educated at University College, Galway and Manchester University, who by far outshone all the others, in that he had by far the fewer skeletons in the cupboard. Smoking a spliff in the States 50 years ago as a student and by being a member of Fianna Fail in 1966, his biggest sins. He is 70 years old and that might be too much for seven years in such a demanding role, made so by the last two female incumbants, but not by the previous male recipients of this position. He is the only candidate to be perfectly fluent in Irish which seems to matter to some in this country.
Mary Davis is 58 years old, educated at Leeds University and the University of Alberta in Canada, has spent her life physically educating the disabled. She is a “Committee Woman” who has developed the quango spirit and is officially described as a social entrepreneur, which needs some kind of explanation for me to understand the term, earning your money as an entrepreneur and a quango sitter appear in direct opposition to each other. To put it mildly, Mary, although probably a very nice woman, is neither one thing or the other, I would consider her to be translucent, nothingness personified, which is a pity really as the position calls out for a woman. Most women have empathy in bucket loads, look at the last two presidents and empathy is the keyword of presidency. Men do not seem to have this quality.
David Norris, a 68 year old Joycean scholar who was educated at Trinity College in Dublin and has more or less championed gay rights in Ireland for 38 years. He will, if elected, be the first openly gay head of state in the world. A gifted man who has unfortunately turned this whole charade into something less than a fairground attraction, using his snobbish airs to their full malfunction. Typically his gay history caught up with him when it was reported that he had sent a letter on parliamentary paper, pleading with an Israeli court for clemency for his erstwhile lover, Ezra Nawi, who had been convicted of the statutory rape of a 15 year old boy. Norris was highly fancied at the beginning of the campaign but as each of the 30 days has ticked by, so as his support. Certainly if elected he would make an entertaining President but I think gravitas matters more and that is why Higgins is my man.
As far as the other four candidates are concerned I cannot separate them, they are all equally poor in one or more characteristic or other. I would not and will not honour them with a transfer vote. They are:-
Sean Gallagher, aged 49, who says he is an independent but he is in fact steeped from head to toe in Fianna Fail politics, which he has been trying to disassociate himself from for the whole of the campaign. Educated at Ballyhaise Agricultural College in Cavan and at NUI Maynoth, he is another of these political/professional entrepreneurs who looks as though he has never done a days work in his life but has attended many a committee meeting. In the last week of the campaign his approach seems to have burst through and he held a massive lead going into the last few days, but as with all things Fianna Fail, his past caught up with him and brown envelopes containing nothing less than 5,000 euros came tumbling out of the cupboard.
Martin McGuinness born in 1950 and is currently deputy First Minister in Niorthern Ireland. Although never having been troubled with anything other than a basic education, he preferred the School of Hard Knocks and the University of Life, he is a very able and now serious politician. However as with everybody who takes the violent approach, his being through the IRA, the past always catches up. The majority of people cannot stand the way the IRA sought their way through the morass and as the campaign went on he was more and more often confronted with the families of IRA victims. None more so than the family of Garda detective Gerry McCabe who was shot dead in Adare in Limerick in 1996. I can forgive McGuinness most things but I learn that he is a member of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association and I can never trust a man who will not have a drink. Probably his claim to fame is that he had a cousin, Patrick McGuinness, who taught my daughter French at Oxford University and did an excellent job.
Gay Mitchell is 59 years old and was educated at Dublin Institute of Technology and at Queen’s, Belfast. He is a career politician who has served Fine Gail all his life without distinction. The best that can be said of him is that he is small and insignificant, which just about sums up the qualities necessary to become a political big wig in Ireland. His denials of truths are historic and legendary and the only thing going for him is that his cousin is a famous Dublin gangster.
Last and least is Dana Rosemary Scallon, born in 1951 but answers to any age between 20 and 30 and whose only claim to high office is that she won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1970. A fellow Derry child along with McGuinness she also received a scant education. Her music career gave her the propulsion she needed to enter politics but her campaigns on the Catholic ticket, especially her opposition to abortion, contraception and divorce, especially in this clerical abuse atmosphere have led to a massive drop in sympathy for her cause. Her failure to win over support as led to all kinds of nonsense, not least her reports of an attempted assassination attempt when a tyre burst on her car. Her lack of intelligence and the patronising old fashioned way she has with voters does not help her cause either. She will be lucky not to lose her chance of the government reimbursing her election expenses as she is forecast to receive only about 1% of the vote and this amount could be in the region of 200,000 euros. Not to be sniffed at in these impoverished times.
So there we have it, a right collection of toe rags and I do pity the state of Ireland’s adult qualities if this is all they can put up, but it may be that the Presidential Office is not worth the seven years at 249,014 euros per annum after all the candidates have mauled themselves to death after 30 days and when the media can tell everybody when was the last time each candidate had picked their nose or even worse. The wise man or woman is better to steer clear and leave it to the eejits.