AS I SEE IT
BY MARIANNE HERON
The Presidential race has been a bit like that song: There were 10 green bottles hanging on the wall. What started out with a row of colourful possibilities, some welcome Bob Geldolf to Michael Flatley, others less so Conor McGregor and yer wan with the tasteless handbag, Maria Steen (baby blue, what was she thinking?).
Now with the withdrawal of FF candidate Jim Gavin we are down to just two candidates.
We have become used to having a choice since the days of President Patrick Hillery 1976-1990) when the Presidency was a shoe-in reward for service in politics. Since then the two Marys Robinson and McAleese and outgoing Michael D have done us proud, each enhanced the role of Head of State in their own unique way.
They have set the bar high, raising our expectations for an imaginative approach to the role.
Now we are faced with a limited choice, one political nominee and one independent, the latter with the backing of the parties of the Left and also with Sinn Fein’s ‘game-changer’ support, when they weren’t prepared to put up a candidate of their own.
For me there’s the uncomfortable feeling that, while we are meant to be voting for an individual, the party backing the winner of next week’s election will see this as a political victory.
We need a wider choice of candidates in future and perhaps we need to change the present restrictive and cumbersome section process where, to stand, individuals must have either the backing of 20 members of the Oireachtas or four local authorities. Maybe we need a more rigorous vetting process too, to avoid candidates being felled by skeletons falling from their cupboards, for when they fall the political consequences can be far-reaching.
Campaigns, interviews and debates are meant to be a way to get to know presidential candidates better and to see how each of them might perform as head of State. It seems to me that the way TV debates are conducted currently are a very poor way to gain that kind of insight. They are more about savaging by hot shot interviewers like News talk’s Kieran Cuddihy, who fired-off a hail of accusations about missteps years in the past with little opportunity for candidates to talk about their vision for the Presidency.
The candidate who is most adept at dodging verbal bullets is likely to be seen as the winner.
Aggressive probing by interviewers can be a turn off. In the Virgin Media debate I found myself wondering if Heather Humphries’ fringe was getting in her eyes and worrying how Catherine Connolly’s likening Germany today to the Nazis arming for the Second World War and Holocaust might go down with our ally, who along with the rest of Europe is strengthening defences against Russian aggression.
We are living in extraordinary times with instability caused by President Trump’s unpredictability, with menace from Putin on our doorstep in Europe and with Israel’s eradication of Gaza, peace deal now notwithstanding. At home there is the need to pave the way for a united Ireland, (not just by pointing a ballot box at us like a Kalashnikov without building practical foundations and trust) and the need to resolve the housing and infrastructure crisis. What kind of President do we need in these circumstances?
Perhaps we need someone reassuring, capable of bringing us together in accord, rather than intellectual fireworks and searing critiques. Someone who will build social participation rather than stirring alienation and division of the kind we are seeing in Europe with populist rightwing movements like Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France and Nigel Farage’s Reform in Britain.
We need someone who can foster unity and be prepared to encourage all the work that needs to go into making sure that it would be an Ireland inclusive of all traditions.
Ireland has changed enormously in the last 50 years: we have a new identity and we need someone to speak to who we are as a people as our last three presidents have done, uniting us rather than provoking division.
A week, a day even, can be a long time in politics. The turnout next Friday will be a barometer for our support for the electoral system. In 2018 it was just 43.9% down 12.2% – this time around it may show need for change.
