Gaybo seems to lack fire in the belly

LET’S get one thing straight: to win the presidential election, a candidate is going to have to want it.

And Gay Byrne doesn’t sound like a man who wants it badly enough.

On the surface, Byrne would make an excellent candidate. He is a broadcasting institution, with a national audience at his fingertips, a sizeable portion of whom hold him dear to their hearts. Last week, he comfortably topped a poll of 4FM listeners when they were asked about their preferred presidential candidate. Yesterday, he topped a Sunday Independent/Quantum Research poll of 500 people on the same issue. It put him at 34%, 12 points clear of his nearest rival, Labour’s Michael D Higgins.