Labour myth-makers fail to rewrite the true history of the presidency

THE Labour Party likes to spin a tale about how it single-handedly ‘transformed’ the office of the President.

In the Labour fantasyland life began and ended with the Mary Robinson presidency. In this parallel reality it is also an unquestioned truth that Labour, and Labour alone, is responsible for putting competition into presidential elections.

The 'how Labour saved the presidency' myth would be entertaining if it wasn't so blatantly self-serving. At the start of a year in which we may have a presidential election, it is worth putting a few nuggets of reality on the scales of Irish presidential history to weigh against this Labour revisionism.