Hats of all shapes and sizes thrown in the ring for Áras race

IT was once considered a place where old politicians went to retire – but now there is a major reluctance by people even to let their names be put down as possible contenders for the Áras.

In the past we were quick to ask whether America had no-one other than a reality TV star to put forward for its highest office, but closer to home we have found a major reluctance by seasoned politicians to do so. OK, there was one who made no secret of the fact that he would have loved to be a president for the people – thank God, common sense prevailed and we didn’t have to go over the Mahon Tribunal and the implosion of the Irish economy without any soft landing, as had been promised.

Instead, we had Sean Kelly throwing his hat in the ring, taking it out again, throwing it back in and then taking it out yet again for the final time. There was Conor McGregor making a plea for politicians across party lines to support his bid for a right to contest the election, but again, thankfully, that never materialised. Again, did we really want a repeat of his recent court cases played out all over again?

Last week, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin eventually offered his backing to former Dublin GAA manager Jim Gavin hours after Ireland South MEP Billy Kelleher threw his hat in the ring.

To say Jim Gavin was chosen because of his GAA background and the fact that he is considered Dublin’s most successful football manager only tells part of the story about this man, who is also a former senior Air Corps officer, in other words, a pilot, and is also the current senior public servant responsible for Irish aviation safety.

Billy Kelleher is the politician who likes to pride himself on the fact that over his long career in politics, 32 years to be precise, he has never lost an election for either the Seanad, Dáil or European Parliament, and has also served as a minister for enterprise, trade and employment.

Catherine Connolly, who was the first to throw her name in the ring, is a relative unknown to voters east of the Shannon but has been an independent TD for the Galway West constituency since 2016. A former member of the Labour Party, there was somewhat of a spat among her former party colleagues last week when former Labour Party leader, Alan Kelly, came out and said he would not be supporting her as a candidate, while party leader Ivana Bacik, begged to differ.

Fine Gael thought it had done all the hard work by selecting seasoned politician, former MEP and EU commissioner as well as former broadcaster Mairead McGuinness, but after early indicators showed she would win the presidential election, she withdrew her candidacy on health grounds.

That left the way open for Sean Kelly to throw his hat in the ring again, but with former colleague Heather Humphreys, who had pushed for a mandatory auto enrolment pension scheme during her time as a government minister, deciding that retirement was not for her after all, Sean’s bid came to an end yet again.

The last time we had an election, in 2018, was the first since 1966 than an incumbent, Michael D Higgins, had to contest an election, which he did and successfully won with 56% of the votes. The previous time was when Éamon de Valera, one of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, barely fought off the efforts of Fine Gael’s Tom O’Higgins, and won by just over 10,000 votes, on a margin of 50.5% to 49.5%.

I can vividly remember the first time I ever came in close contact with a president. That was back in 1980, and I was working in the Clonmel Nationalist. I had received a tip that President Hillery, who served as president from 1976 to December 1990, was going to be attending a race meeting in Clonmel.

However, before going there he was also going to call to a well-known bone setter in Tipperary, renowned for his skill in fixing ‘a bad back’. This wasn’t going to be an earth-shattering story by any stretch of the imagination, but on the other hand a photo and a few lines would make what is known in the business as a nice ‘colour piece’.

As soon as President Hillery arrived, I got out of my car, ignored a few plain clothes detectives who had been sitting in an unmarked garda car close by, and started taking photos of the man.

He exploded with rage, got back in his car, and promptly directed his driver to go back to Dublin, where, I later learned, he had quizzed the garda commissioner as to how a member of the press knew where he would be. Naturally, the garda commissioner got on the gardaí in Clonmel, who then got on to the editor of the newspaper, and after ‘lengthy’ discussions the story was killed.

I haven’t had too many stories scrapped because of outside influence during the past 40 years, but on this occasion there was an upside: I was never stopped for speeding or any other road traffic offence during the remainder of my time with that newspaper – and as a young, irresponsible reporter at the time, that was a good thing.