From Dragon fire to (almost) the farce

He lugs his sense of injustice around like a piece of election literature, writes Michael Clifford.

SEÁN Gallagher has a lot to answer for. He breathed fire into the Dragons. He gave them a shot of confidence and led them from the Den. He foisted them on us, the people of Ireland. And look where it has led? To a presidential election just about managing to refrain from toppling into farce. That is not exclusively the fault of the thunder of the Dragons, but their presence in the race is a major contributing factor.

Mr Gallagher bears no personal responsibility for the presidential campaigns of his fellow TV celebrities, Gavin Duffy and Peter Casey. But surely it was his experience seven years ago in garnering around half a million votes that led his fellow Dragons to believe anything he could do, maybe they could do a little better.