The people have final say on president

AUGUST is traditionally seen as the “silly” month for serious news, as national politics take a downtime and the media fills the vacuum by chasing after anything, sometimes going into overdrive, like what is happening with the race to Áras.

First, it was candidate Senator David Norris, a cultured and educated man. He consistently topped the opinion polls to be president, but getting a nomination was harder. He represented the ideals of Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen tradition of politics of the 1790s, of an Ireland representing Catholic, Protestant, dissenter, alike. He was also from the Anglo-Irish tradition. We are not solely Irish and Catholic in our Irishness. He never got the chance to run because of the nomination process and the media scrutiny on something controversial that happened 15 years ago. He was guilty of loyalty and error of judgement for a former partner.

Next up, Gay Byrne. A national radio and TV broadcaster of 50 years’ experience and an excellent communicator. He found himself in a week-long whirlwind to run for president, but he didn’t put his name forward as, again, he knew the media onslaught would be hard and he wasn’t interested in bringing that into his life.