Election a foregone conclusion as Dragons fail to catch fire

World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com

Here’s a prediction; turn-out for this week’s Presidential election will be the lowest in recent history. It’s been a campaign that has soared like a bee and stung like a butterfly.   And a question; will Michael D Higgins win 70 per cent of the vote? I don’t think so but there will be a huge gap between him and his nearest rival. It will be a facile victory.

So now for the harder stuff. Say if Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil had decided to stand, and put up pedigree candidates, would that have made any difference?

My own guess is it would have tightened the margin but for these elections, the incumbent is always going to be favourite.

Back in the 1960s, Tom O’Higgins ran the outgoing president Eamon de Valera close but then de Valera did not campaign and there was scant coverage of the election in the national media.

Higgins’ advantage is that none of his rivals were in a position to convince the population that they had the stature to be president. Only two of them are public representatives – Liadh Ní Riada and Joan Freeman – and Ní Riada is the only one who has won an election. Freeman was nominated to the Seanad.

Of the others, only one, Sean Gallagher, has stood for election before. But few of the six could point to a life of public service. One of the Constitutional provisions is that the candidates must be 35 or more.

I think that is a nod to seniority. It is seen as a position for somebody who already carries a certain authority in Irish society. And being a Dragon doesn’t ultimately tick that particular box.

Higgins has come under a fair amount of criticism during this campaign and shortcomings in the Áras have been brought to light.

He is a popular president and people like him. He is also diligent – perhaps not so much as his predecessor Mary McAleese but it has been a very public presidency.

Has he made the same mark as MacAleese? Or as Mary Robinson? Possibly not. Robinson was a pioneer, a new type of president who opened up the role and shaped it into the more modern society, and allowed it to be shaped by the Ireland of the 1990s.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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