Scramble for Park has demeaned office

EVER since Mary Robinson became President in December 1990 the effectiveness and dignity of that office has been enhanced.

Mrs Robinson, and her successor, incumbent President Mary McAleese, used the position to give a platform to campaigners more used to waiting, silent and ignored, on the sidelines.

The office evolved into something more proactive than was traditional. The presidents encouraged communities and campaigners to have the courage to pursue their ambitions and both made significant contributions to making the machinery of State far more relevant to everyday life. It is not overstating the case to say that they did more than the great majority of politicians to encourage Irish people to be less deferential, less accepting of the world as they found it. They encouraged people to believe that they could change and by doing so change the world.

During President McAleese’s two terms the role she, and her husband Dr Martin McAleese, played in building trust and mutual respect between all of the communities and nationalities on these islands can hardly be underestimated. Where so many sowed division they encouraged change and trust to build solid and lasting unity. For this alone their contribution should be seen as exceptional.

What a pity it is then that an office once little more than symbolic but now an active and positive agent for change has become the subject of such a dispiriting, ham-fisted scramble.

The only good things to come from the campaign so far are the realisation by Fianna Fáil that there would be no point in running a candidate and, equally, the reluctant acceptance by prospective candidates from the RTÉ gene pool that this is a serious office and that a career in show business may not be the preparation for a head of state.

Micheál Martin has paid a heavy price for this though. His flirtation with Gay Byrne, despite the very publicly stated ambitions of MEP Brian Crowley, has greatly undermined his ability to rebuild the old party.

The bizarrely vainglorious decision of Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú to seek a nomination despite the very clear party decision squanders more of whatever credibility he and his party had left.

Last night’s television announcement by Senator David Norris that he is to re-enter the race brought the farce to a new level. Just as at Lannigan’s Ball he stepped in, he stepped out again and who knows what will happen next. It must be assumed that Senator Norris realises that the circumstances of his earlier withdrawal will haunt his campaign. Even someone who has spent a lifetime flitting between the rarified atmospheres of the Trinity common room and our Senate must realise how exposed they would be in such circumstances.

Sinn Féin, updating an old party principle — England’s difficulty is our opportunity — have just committed but they have waited until less than six weeks before the vote to enter the race and even at that they could not find someone born in this Republic. They are expected to nominate Martin McGuinness in the coming days.

This campaign has, with a few honourable exceptions, been a tawdry affair that has done nothing to improve the standing of the office or the image of the country.

And there is no end in sight.