It is no surprise that the shamed Senator David Norris is going to take a second shot at the Aras, it is shameful however, that Fine Fail is going to be supporting him. For those not in the know David Norris is potentially the most socially liberal candidate for the Presidency and was involved in a scandal where he gave legal aid to a friend convicted of peadophilia in Israel, something that destroyed his chances and seemed to have doomed him to the political wilderness, and I had previously commented that it was indictitive of a poor pocket of political acumen to not have seen the reaction coming.
However something extraordinary has occured since then. All manner of people not of the Political class have been approached (either by the parties or public speculation) with the interest of running for the presidency. This ranges from Uncle Gaybo (the affectionate nickname of the fatherfigure of Irish Radio, not someone I agree with but I can see the affection everyone else has for him) to the Tyrone County Football Club Manager. Most of these sorts have declined, either through lack of interest in obtaining power, or in the case of Gaybo, wishing to avoid the ludicrous media attention to his private life. In other words they were somewhat decent men, and probably would've made halfway decent presidents (even if I didn't particularly like a few of them). This searching of non-conventional candidates shouldn't come as a surprise, but it does, it displays a certain level of distrust in the political class and the 'old families' of Irish Politics. (I did touch upon the renaissance family structures of Irish politics didn't I? I am sure I have)
Now however, without strong contention for the Aras from outside sources (friends and enemies openly admitted that if Gaybo had of went for the presidency, he would have got it in a landslide), David Norris seeks to worm his way back into political favour and run for the Aras again. And people are taking him seriously.
Please, someone, anyone, run for the Aras, if only to deny this man the representative power it wields... Oh God... I sound like a Republican. Pretty soon I'll probably be rooting for some other candidate because he's 'the lesser evil' to boot. Thus is the corruption of Democracy I suppose.
I doubt he'll win after the controversy. It would certainly be a great tragedy if he did. (I think I would actually even be tempted to become a[n Irish] monarchist, but just for seven years!) Fianna Fail are probably supporting him to impress on liberal Ireland the extent to which they've 'modernized'. Pathetic!
ReplyDeleteIt's striking that, with the three dominant 26-county parties now completely in thrall to liberal, progressive ideology (and so fielding candidates that have little to offer aside from increasingly poor impressions of Mary Robinson) the only party that has actually put forward a serious political figure as their candidate is Sinn Féin, which even with its extreme left-wing policies, draws its core electoral appeal from its assertive stances in favour of Irish sovereignty, the reunification of the island, and the revival of our native language and culture.
ReplyDeleteAdieu, Fianna Fáil. You seem to have forgotten where your strength lay - in the affirmation of the historic Irish nation's rights, duties and dignity. And now the party from which you came, and stole that strength, has come again, to take it all back again.
Someday it would be nice if a political party in Ireland recognised the innate contradiction between the multiculturalist liberal social agenda and Irish freedom, tradition, and prosperity...