Better candidates, please

HOW shallow and shaming is the notion that Gay Byrne could be considered as a viable contender for leading representative of the nation, home and abroad?

Apart from the blatant Fianna Fáil political cutism, for what earthly reason could anyone seriously proffer him as a candidate?

Media panache and celebrity kudos are simply and absolutely not the sterling societal stuff of authentic presidential wannabees.

Posturing for little more than self-promo and narrow self-aggrandisement, the so-called “stars” stand simultaneously for everything and nothing, vacillating this way and that to garner viewership, listenership and readership.

Let’s all catch ourselves on, and offer less of the “whacky-tacky”. More of genuine quality and substance of which there is plenty abounding.

It’s true that Mary McAleese served her broadcasting time, but one detects a gulf in class across both arenas — he the consummate chat-show broadcaster, and her the ultimate diplo-mover-shaker, social reformer and legal don. Let’s have something akin to the latter again, please.

Jim Cosgrove

Lismore

Co Waterford