The Republican primaries are providing some fun, but they've got nothing on Ireland's current presidential race. Polling day is on 27 October and so far seven candidates are in the race for what is an apparently (mostly) ceremonial post. Here are some of the fun candidates.
First, there is David Norris. The first openly gay person to hold office in Ireland. If he wins later this month he would apparently be the world's first openly gay head of state. He also did a lot to rehabilitate James Joyce's reputation in Dublin (including through one of the first guides to Joyce's Dublin, a copy of which I got from Gould's bookshop). Norris has had some hurdles to overcome in his quest for the Presidency. There was a letter he wrote (while an Irish Senator) seeking clemency for a former boyfriend who had been convicted of illegal sexual activity with a 15 year old boy in Israel. Then there was his controversial views on an appropriate age of consent. Now there are the revelations that he was being paid a disability allowance (for 16 years) after stepping down as a lecturer at Trinity College, at the same time he was a Trinity representative (elected by alumni) in the Irish Senate (Seanad). And, of course, will he have a partner living with him in the President's official residence. Norris has gone from frontrunner to also ran in the opinion polls after these episodes.
Second, there is Martin McGuiness. It's not immediately obvious why McGuiness, a deputy first minister in Northern Ireland, and former IRA chief of staff during the Troubles, would want to opt to run for the ceremonial post in the southern republic. Most speculation seems to be around capitalising on, and boosting, Sinn Fein's good performance in this year's Irish election (9% of the national vote), or a desire to be President when the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising comes around. Irish Presidents hold office for 7 years. The latter is unlikely as he has little chance of winning. Nevertheless, he is running third out of seven candidates in recent opinion polls behind Labour's Michael D. Higgins and independent Sean Gallagher. And this despite some savage attacks on McGuiness because of his IRA background.
Then there is Dana Rosemary Scallon. Dana won the Eurovision song contest in 1970. She has had a successful musical and political career (as a Member of the European Parliament). In 1991 she re-located with her family to Birmingham Alabama. Sometime thereafter, the exact timing is a matter of intense controversy, Dana became a US citizen, a fact that has become just one more controversial turn in this remarkable campaign. Scallon sees her dual citizenship as an advantage, helping to build links between the two countries, though she is also willing to relinquish her US citizenship if the people of Ireland want her to.
Other candidates have also been touched by controversies, Labour's MIchael D. Higgins, the frontrunner, lost his closest adviser perhaps over concerns about his past as a tobacco industry lobbyist. Fine Gael, the party of current PM Enda Kenny, and senior partner with Labour in the governing coalition, has a candidate Gay Mitchell who is now described by the media as "embattled".
The amazing thing about all this is that it is supposed to be a ribbon-cutting role. Still it's bloody great entetainment if you like electoral politics.
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