The Race for the Áras

by Tom Reddy

  The seventy-year-old actor is a well-known human rights activist and has been described as the best actor never to get an Oscar. A few years earlier he attended the National University of Ireland, Galway, as a mature student in English literature, philosophy and oceanography. During his stay in Barna, on the west coast, he got to know one of his local TDs, Michael D. Higgins.

  On Monday 22 August the former TG4 weather presenter Dáithí Ó Sé was live on RTE1 presenting the annual Rose of Tralee programme. Over two nights, talented and beautiful women with Irish connections from all over the world would vie for the coveted title. The light-entertainment programme was full of dancing, music, poetry, recitations and craic. Politics was certainly not on the agenda. And canvassing for any candidate in any political race while live on air would be firmly frowned on.

  That was until the Southern California Rose, Molly O’Keefe, came on stage. A television producer, she was fondly teased from the audience by family and friends as ‘Mollywood’. She told the packed audience that she was a huge fan of Martin Sheen.

  ‘Did you know there’s a Facebook campaign to make him our next President?’ asked the compere.

  ‘I’m a fan. That doesn’t surprise me at all. President Bartlet was a powerful man,’ said the Rose of Hollywood, lending her support to the online campaign.

  By the following Saturday more than five thousand people had signed up to the Martin Sheen for President site. However, at a public appearance in the United States with his son Emilio Estevez, Sheen insisted that he was flattered but had no intention of campaigning for the office. He subsequently issued a statement to the Facebook campaign confirming his decision and endorsing another candidate.

  I am deeply moved and extremely flattered for the extraordinary interest in my proposed candidacy. And while I might be tempted to fantasize about being President of Ireland, I am totally unqualified for such a responsibility.

  Frankly the bar has been set by two extraordinary Irish patriots in Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese. And I could not hope to better the quality of their service.

  There is, however, one candidate that I most heartily support: my dear friend Michael Higgins. A vote for Michael is a real vote for Ireland. Sincerely, in gratitude, Ramón Estévez, a.k.a. Martin Sheen. Sláinte.

  Facebook had also hosted another Sheen for President page, but it was for his troubled son Charlie—and for the American Presidency.

  On the same day Mary Minihan of the Irish Times explored a previously little-discussed aspect of the Constitution of Ireland with the former presidential adviser Bríd Rosney, who continued to act for Mary Robinson, former President and now United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, who was also one of Nelson Mandela’s select group of ‘Elders’. Robinson had established her own foundation, the Mary Robinson Foundation—Climate Justice, and in that role, and as a patron of Oxfam, she had recently returned from Somalia, a country she had previously visited as President and that was again in the throes of a terrible famine.

  Under article 12.4.4 of the Constitution, former or retiring Presidents ‘may become candidates on their own nomination.’ The other two avenues were for candidates to be nominated by twenty members of the Oireachtas or four local councils. Would Robinson consider entering the field again? She had been asked to consider her position and had been urged to put her name forward again, as confirmed by Rosney.

  It would not be accurate to say she was inundated. It would be accurate to say her office is getting calls about it, and it’s a live issue on Twitter, but she has made it clear she will not be nominating herself.

  For the first time in weeks the Sunday papers carried nominal coverage of the race for the Áras. There was analysis and some comment but nothing to inflame or upset the candidates or their hawk-eyed teams of media advisers.

  On Monday 29 August, Seán Gallagher set out his stall in an article written at the invitation of the Irish Sun. His message was honed, referring to his own unemployment—something that many in the lower social demographic groups who read the Irish Sun could associate with—and to his plan to support work initiatives and build on the country’s successes. It was a positive message of hope and ‘can do’, and there was an absence of the woolliness of thought and aspiration that had been expressed by candidates previously. ‘I’ve been unemployed through no fault of my own three times since the early eighties,’ he wrote, saying that unemployment, which prompted feelings of despair and hopelessness, ‘is eating away at the very fabric of society and of communities.’ For Gallagher, unemployment

  was certainly the key issue that I have come across during my listening tour of the country. Of course I have been told that the President has no say in economic policy or financial matters. That is true. I understand the constitutional role of the first office. But I also understand that at times of crisis we need to play to our strengths. And make sure that we use all players on Team Ireland.

  That is why if nominated and subsequently elected President I will roll up my sleeves and get down to the task of making Ireland work … In order to help turn this ship of state around we need all hands on deck. Mine are willing and I believe able.

  The Sunday Independent columnist Eilis O’Hanlon, in the absence of any news or new developments about the race for the Áras, provided a thought-provoking piece about the campaign so far and about the type of candidate the electorate would embrace come 27 October.

  All we need now is for Mr Tayto and Bosco to announce their candidacy and the rot would be complete. And it might just be an appropriate development too, since the presidency has, if we’re honest, become a rather silly job.

  It wasn’t always so. Until recently, the Aras was a retirement home for those who had done the State some service. As such, it had a certain dignity to it. They did their duty. They dined well.

  Then along came the Marys. Not so much a breath of fresh air as a gale: they gave the office glitz and glam.

  They made the presidency sexy.

  While ‘sexy’ had never been a defining term for the Presidency, a reinvigoration and reinvention of the role by both women engendered a media fascination and column-inches of coverage.

  Also, as part of the paparazzi endorsement, pictures at public engagements of the two President Marys had helped redefine the role as the dull and turgid pictures of the presenting of credentials of newly appointed ambassadors were complemented by pictures of a fashionable President at social and community events. Both Presidents had expanded the scope of their office outside the rigid role set by the Constitution, making it reflective of the people they represented and of an increasingly confident and aspirational country.

  The Presidency, O’Hanlon contended, was all about saying nothing, however eloquently expressed.

  Thousands of words all amounting in the end to: ‘Ireland is lovely. Please visit/invest/don’t kill US (delete as appropriate).’ Constitutionally there’s the occasional exciting opportunity to refer a bill to the Supreme court, oh joy, or dissolve the Dail—which has proved contentious in the past—but mostly it’s having tea with foreigners and waving at friendly crowds.

  Somewhere along the line, we decided, therefore, that we were content with anyone who was vaguely photogenic and looked good in a frock …

  We want to be mothered by our presidents these days, so even though we’re looking for a man to take over we want one who can read US a bedtime story and tuck US in rather than one who looks as if he’ll send US to bed without any supper.

  It could be that a candidate may emerge who can redefine the presidency in a robust way for the more muscular 21st century in the way that the Marys did so effectively for the soft, politically correct fag-end of the past century but I’d be lying if I said I was hopeful.

  In the same edition the news pages revisited Gay Mitchell’s stance on abortion and quizzed his spokesperson, John Downing, who was quoted as saying that Mitchell was ‘disappointed and concerned’ that more than four thousand Irish women went overseas eac
h year for an abortion. ‘Gay would prefer they sought help here, keep the child, and that they look for help here rather than feeling obliged to sneak off for abortions overseas,’ he said. The colourful phrase was used in the headline.

  He added that Mitchell’s views were pro-life but were ‘tempered by compassion’ and that he was strongly concerned about the rights of the unborn but also about protecting the well-being of the mother.

  Chapter 9

  NON-DECLARED AT 25 TO 1

  ‘Michael D leads but 1-3 want David Norris for President’, said the page 1 headline reporting on an opinion poll in the Sunday Independent. A sub-heading said that few people attached any negative images to him, despite controversy. The poll would send out political shock waves, igniting a new debate about Norris’s decision to resign, and would also define the weaknesses and strengths of the candidates.

  The Millward Brown Lansdowne poll on 4 September showed that Higgins commanded the lead, with 32 per cent of first-preference support, nine points ahead of Mitchell, followed by Norris, who had 18 per cent, despite having withdrawn from the race. It found that 34 per cent of the people asked would favour Norris re-entering the race. Jody Corcoran wrote:

  The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan, last week moved the order for the presidential election, which will be held on October 27. The closing date for nomination of candidates, however, is September 28, which gives Mr Norris almost four weeks to reconsider his position … The clear interpretation is that many people wish to see Mr Norris in the race for the presidency, even if they do not support him themselves.

  Those polled were presented with a series of words with which to describe the candidates, both positively and negatively. They included inspiring, proud to have, modern, trust, vibrant, honest, boring, conservative, uninspiring, old and unknown (unrecognised).

  Norris polled well, topping the poll as the most vibrant candidate, at 14 per cent, only one point behind Higgins, level-pegging at the top of the poll with Ó Muircheartaigh, tying in third place with Davis in reference to honest, behind Higgins and Ó Muircheartaigh, and was joint best known with Higgins. He barely featured when voters were asked if he was boring or conservative or even old.

  An associate director of Millward Brown, Paul Moran, analysed the results. He explained:

  Incredibly, over two weeks after his withdrawal from the race, David Norris was still attracting the support of 18 per cent of the electorate (we included his name on our ballot to see if there was any residual support following his August 2 announcement). Evidently there is. Given his self-imposed exile for the month of August, as other candidates ratchet up their campaigns, his strategists must wonder what might have been.

  Is it that the electorate are seeking a return, or that they are not entirely comfortable with what is currently on offer? … Perhaps it is a case that they have seen the presidential menu, and have merely decided that what’s on offer doesn’t suit their palate.

  … Both Mary Davis and Sean Gallagher (at 13 per cent and 11 per cent respectively) are struggling to build any kind of momentum. If these results were to be replicated come October 27, they would swiftly be eliminated.

  The results of the opinion poll were phoned to Norris in Cyprus by his former campaign co-ordinator, Liam McCabe. Norris tweeted about the poll and sparked speculation that he might re-enter. ‘David Norris is greatly heartened by and appreciates the continued support being shown to him by the Irish public.’

  One former supporter, however, the independent TD Finian McGrath, counselled him against returning to the race. ‘I accept there is a genuine desire among a number of people for David Norris to run, but I wouldn’t back him again,’ he said. ‘I think it would be the wrong decision, because I think, probably, something else would come out.’

  The Sunday Times on the same day published another pulse-taking exercise, by Behaviour and Attitudes, which showed Higgins with a very strong lead of 35 per cent, twelve points clear of his nearest rival, Mitchell, with 23 per cent. Crowley, who had just withdrawn his name from any speculative lists, polled a respectable 17 per cent, ahead of Gallagher, with 13 per cent, and Davis, with 12 per cent. The poll was conducted using a random-dialling technique, surveying 1,001 voters in all forty-three constituencies.

  Meanwhile in Sinn Féin there was a growing debate about running a candidate, as Fianna Fáil seemed to be about to leave the field open for a republican candidate. The following Saturday the party would meet in Belfast for its ard-fheis, where it was expected that the Presidency would be an issue for consideration.

  A number of senior party figures, including the Dublin North-West TD Dessie Ellis and the party’s chief whip, Aengus Ó Snodaigh, were putting their support behind a call from the Kerry TD Martin Ferris to field a candidate. The party president, Gerry Adams, and the Cavan-Monaghan TD, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, were understood to be uncommitted. ‘We are a growing party in this state,’ Ó Snodaigh told the Sunday Times, ‘and if there are more people looking to support us we should put somebody in the field. It has to be somebody of calibre. Somebody who held an elected position now or previously needs to be considered for a job as important as President.’

  When questioned he said he didn’t believe that either Martin McGuinness (Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland) or Gerry Adams could afford to leave their leadership positions. Ellis was in favour of choosing a candidate from Northern Ireland, while Paul Donnelly, a member of Fingal County Council and the Sinn Féin by-election candidate in Dublin West, suggested that Martin McGuinness, Mary Lou McDonald, the Dublin Central TD, or Michelle Gildernew, MP for Fermanagh South Tyrone and former Northern Ireland Minister of Agriculture, would make exceptional candidates.

  In the same day’s Sunday Business Post, Pearse Doherty of Sinn Féin was reported as saying that whether or not Fianna Fáil ran a candidate, Sinn Féin should join the race.

  It’s important for us to remember that there is no candidate in the field that shares the values or thinking of Sinn Féin, with its all-Ireland agenda, which is highly critical of the austerity measures. Because of the field of candidates we have at the moment, and those candidates are in support of the direction this Government has taken, it is crucial that there is an alternative voice and that people have the opportunity to vote for that voice.

  He refused to speculate on who they would consider as their candidate. ‘The only thing we can say with certainty is that Gerry Adams will not be standing.’

  To borrow a phrase from a previous candidate, ‘on mature reflection’ Gay Byrne had recently written about his decision not to contest the Presidency, and they were salutary words for all the candidates.

  You could almost hear his legendary radio voice in the Sunday Independent. Revealing a deep hurt and disgust at how he had been treated by the media, he said:

  There sure are some malevolent, malice-filled, dangerous souls who delight in the chance to destroy, undermine and denigrate, what I’d call the News of the World mentality—do anything for a story, and you end up with the hacking scandal …

  In my case, these people had 40 years of Late Late Show and 30 years of The Gay Byrne Show to fall back on for ammunition, and they went scurrying to it with gusto.

  Every five minutes there was some clown on the phone asking me could I stand over what I said on either show about such-and-such in 1976, 1983, or 1968.

  I’ve been accustomed to pretty regular maulings by the press through the years, and I’ve always considered it part of the job, but for anyone new to the game it must be deeply upsetting. The level of misinformation, half-baked conjecture and loony theorising that goes on is breathtaking.

  But Kim Bielenberg in the Irish Independent threw a bucket of cold water over Gaybo’s preciousness.

  Just as journalists were doing their duty when they reported on David Norris’s views on paedophilia or Gay Mitchell’s stance on the death penalty, they acted in the public interest in examining life on Planet G
aybo …

  To compare the journalists who delved into his past with the guttersnipes who hacked the phone of murder victim Milly Dowler, as Gaybo did with his News of the World reference, was facile …

  As one pundit pointed out, when Mary Robinson was running in 1990 she had to answer probing questions about her declared support for the nationalisation of banks, in part based on quotes from eight years previously.

  The probing, but hardly malevolent, interviewer was none other than Gay Byrne himself …

  We may complain about their hard necks, but at least most seasoned campaigners do not go around moaning about the media when they find that they don’t have the stomach for a long fight.

  Mary Davis secured her first local authority endorsement when Galway County Council gave her its support. The specially convened meeting carried the motion, with fourteen voting in favour and Fine Gael councillors abstaining. She was one of six independent candidates to address the council, the others being Seán Gallagher, Dr Pat Jones, Richard McSweeney, Dermot Mulqueen and Gary Smiley.

  It was the first endorsement of a candidate by any local authority and was an important milestone in the race for the Park. ‘I’m thrilled to have won the very first nomination here in Galway,’ Davis said before posing for photographs in Eyre Square in front of the flared sails of the Galway Hooker installation. ‘It’s onwards and upwards from here.’ Sligo County Council gave her a second nomination.