Norris cuts loose and sheds beard for cancer charity

Following the close shave of the surprise vote to save the Seanad, its most famous son David Norris has shed his trademark beard in gratitude.

The Joycean scholar made good on a pre-referendum pledge to lose the facial hair if the electorate voted down attempts to kill the upper house. He had his beard removed live on Today FM’s Ray D’Arcy show in aid of the cancer support campaign Shave or Dye.

The senator and human rights campaigner was diagnosed with liver cancer four months ago and has pledged to fight the condition as hard as he can. “People should realise it’s not some sort of alien monster that’s flown in on a flying saucer — it’s your own cells. They’re not behaving, but they’re yours,” he said.

On the prospect of losing his beard for the first time in 40 years, the 69-year-old compared himself to Samson in the Bible and mused: “All my strength may ebb away as I have my beard shaved.”

But once it was off, Mr Norris was surprised by the results: “I think I look like Michael Noonan.”

Mr Norris’s barber of 35 years, Tony MacMichael, shaved off the senator’s hair and beard and after the money-raising sacrifice, the Trinity representative, who is undergoing treatment for a tumour on his liver which he has been told is inoperable, went to St Vincent’s Hospital for his third round of embolisation treatment.

The senator was a leading figure in the knife-edge victory to retain the Seanad, which saw anti-Government forces overcome considerable odds to win the battle by less than 2% of the vote.

People can donate €2 to the Shave or Dye campaign, which pumps funds into the Irish Cancer Society and Professor John Crown’s Cancer Research Trust by texting SHAVE to 50300.