September 19, 2004
Numero Uno
You’d swear that the US presidential election was being contested here in Ireland, such is the interest and media coverage. We were supposed to have one of our own this year, since the seven-year term of President Mary McAleese expires next month, but it’s looking increasingly likely that she will be unopposed (in which case, there will be no election at all). Last week, Mary nominated herself for a second term – as a non-aligned candidate, therefore enabling all the major parties to row in behind her (she was a Fianna Fáil nominee last time around). Her decision to nominate herself has effectively scared off the opposition parties from fielding their own candidates - the popular view is that Mary will beat any other candidate, so why spend scarce resources and lots of energy with little hope of winning?
The Green Party flirted briefly with nominating on their TDs, Eamonn Ryan – I’m not sure everybody in the Green Party even knew who he was, let alone the rest of the country. However, unable to scare up the 20 nominations required (from TDs or Senators), he announced on Saturday that he was ending his bid. At one point, it looked like there might be two west of Ireland candidates, but neither now looks likely. The first is Rosemary Scanlon, better known as Dana (former winner of the Eurovision Song Contest) and now a former MEP. Despite the date of the election being known pretty much since Mary McAleese took office seven years ago, the announcement of the time period for which nominations could be made seem to catch her completely by surprise. What’s more, she didn’t seem to really aware of the procedure – despite having run for the office herself the last time around. Since she doesn’t belong to a political party, her best chance of nomination would be to get four city or county councils to nominate her – that’s how she was nominated last time. It was clear that she hadn’t canvassed any of the councils in advance, and during the week, Mayo County Council decided not to nominate her. Galway and Clare have yet to announce but the omens are not good.
In truth, there has been a half-arsed quality to Dana’s political career since she was elected as MEP for Connacht-Ulster in 1999. Though she came a distant third in the presidential election in 1997, she had surprised many people with her easy manner and somewhat naïve enthusiasm. She had also tapped into a vein of unease at the prospect of European laws being imposed on Ireland against the people’s will – coupled with her generally conservative outlook and strong Roman Catholicism, she built up enough of a following to take a seat in the subsequent Euro elections. Alas, as any politician will tell you, winning a seat is only the first part of the struggle – keeping the seat is the really hard part. There’s no real evidence that Dana succeeded in building up a local party machine that would extend her power base. The problem with being an MEP is that the job takes you well away from your constituency, so you either need an army of willing helpers to spread the word on your behalf, or you need to spend every minute of every weekend visiting as many people as possible and being seen to be doing something.
By the time of the Euro elections last year, it was clear that she was in trouble. At a debate in the Radisson Hotel in Galway between all the candidates, Dana’s only issue was the dangers of closer European integration (code for the danger of European social laws, particularly abortion, being imposed on Ireland). Complaining that the government had made no effort to educate the public on the upcoming European constitution, she seemed totally unaware that there had been a government-sponsored road-show travelling around the country for the previous year – even the other opposition candidates corrected her. Even if she had been right, it’s hardly the most pressing European issue for a predominantly rural and agricultural west of Ireland constituency. In county Galway alone, an astounding 191 million euro has been paid to farmers under the REPS scheme alone since it began a decade ago. Farm grants and EU-funded road schemes are what concern many voters and, with apparently little to show for her five years in Brussels, it was little surprise that Dana lost her seat. This election would have been her chance to begin building her profile again – maybe now the end is in sight for Dana the politician.
The other prospective candidate is Michael D. Higgins. In truth, Michael D was born to be president of Ireland – writer, poet, politician with a reputation for political passion and outspokenness, he would have loved the world stage. I remember walking down Kungsgatan in Stockholm on the evening that the European City of Culture was about to be launched, when I spotted Michael D., lost in thought (and I’m sure that they were deep thoughts). I remember thinking, ”City of Culture, couldn’t start it without him”. When he became a government minister during the Nineties, Des O’Malley predicted that “he’d go mad”. He didn’t , though he moved as much as he could to Galway, and set up TG4. Alas, this is his time to run, and he’s not going to get a chance. The Labour Party have decided not to nominate him, unwilling to pitch him against what they figure is an unbeatable candidate.
And Mary McAleese really is unassailable. She hasn’t garnered the headlines perhaps as much as her predecessor, but she knows how to ruffles feathers to great effect. When she took Communion at an Anglican service, and was subsequently criticised by Cardinal O’Connell, it was his reputation that was damaged by the ensuing media debate –the public verdict seemed to be that if a devote Catholic (McAleese was the Roman Catholic Church’s counsel at the New Ireland Forum during the Eighties) couldn’t make an act of reconciliation and solidarity, then maybe the church was more out of touch than ever. And when she met Loyalist leaders in Belfast, it was more than a mere gesture – her family had been burned out by Loyalists at the beginning of the Troubles.
There is one way to solve the problem – limit the Presidential term to seven years and one term only. Fourteen years is too long in any job anyway, and this way, there would always be an election. Won’t do Michael D any good, though.
Posted by Monasette at September 19, 2004 09:03 PM