Mick Clifford: Maria Steen’s late bid for presidency lacks the groundwork to succeed
Presidential elections should demand grit, planning and sacrifice — not last-minute declarations or vanity bids dressed as democracy
Presidential hopeful Maria Steen, right, claims to represent a constituency that is not served in the current political firmament. File Picture: Sam Boal/Collins
In the course of this beauty pageant, one councillor pointed out that, of the 14 applicants, only three had contacted him prior to the meeting. The other 11, who expect to be taken seriously and who are pitching for votes, didn’t even canvass the voters.
Try doing that in a run for office in the local GAA club, not to mind a local council or Dáil, and see how you get on.
Ok, so maybe some of these contestants consider it all to be just a bit of craic. But then we have the whingeing.
Everybody — from Conor McGregor at one end of the spectrum of absurdity, to a serious-minded person like Maria Steen — complains about an election they say is “undemocratic”, that doesn’t let the people have their say because the nomination process is effectively blocked by parties which hold elected office. Block on, say I, if the alternative is an open season.
How could you have a serious contest for the highest office in the land if it were flooded with candidates who are either at a loose end, want to flog something, see a campaign as a means of raising their profile, or would avail of the platform to introduce a new song or maybe do a bit of Irish dancing?
Realistically, there was only one serious potential candidate in Tralee: Maria Steen.
She is a conservative campaigner and a highly able debater. She claims to represent a constituency in the State that she says is not served in the current political firmament.
Her main input into public life has been around referendums concerned with abortion, same-sex marriage and, last year, the family/care poll, the last being the only one in which she was on the winning side.
She told the councillors that she felt “compelled” to run in order to “speak out against the media- and NGO-driven consensus which dominate so much of our politics, and which was rejected in the 2024 referenda”.
Even if one were to accept her characterisation of how the country is run, it is also the case that the cultural issues which have periodically convulsed the political system do not feature when it comes to elections.
Whether it is referenda like those last year or policies such as water charges, the main parties simply absorb what is being said by the electorate and carry on. To that extent, for good or ill, the country is largely governed from the centre. This is a source of irritation to those who hold strong views on cultural issues, but it is also something of a bulwark against the kind of vacuous politics now on show across both the Irish Sea and the Atlantic.
In the history of presidential elections, the only successful candidate to arise without an established political party was Mary Robinson in 1990.
Still, maybe there is room in a presidential election for somebody speaking out as Steen says she is doing. She may yet get a nomination, but it could equally be posited that she is not serious about her candidacy.
In the history of presidential elections, the only successful candidate to arise without an established political party was Mary Robinson in 1990.
She represented shifting currents in Irish society, but her campaign was a slog. She began in January, surrounded herself with serious people, and kept going all the way to November. Sure, she copped a lucky break when problems arose for the favourite, Brian Lenihan. However, her hard work ensured that she was equipped to take advantage of the luck.
Another outsider who ran a serious campaign was the businessman Seán Gallagher in 2011. He began his campaign in April. He also had already done some spadework, including the retention of a team.
Arguably, it should not be an easy ride for an outsider to get a nomination to run. If there isn’t much work and commitment involved, we could end up with a joke president like McGregor.
Robinson’s long campaign is an excellent template for anybody serious about taking on the established political parties.
If Steen was as compelled as she professes herself to be to speak out on behalf of the silent, she would have begun early in the year. Instead, she declared interest in late August.
She told Kerry councillors that her late entry was “less than ideal, but it was not an easy one [decision] to make given the potential effects on my family”.
Those who feel compelled to perform a public service always have to make such sacrifices
The steep mountain she left herself to climb has her scrambling around for some excuses.
On Monday, she said that Simon Harris, in instructing councillors not to nominate any other candidate, was attempting “to undermine the constitutional power and privileges that you [the councillors] enjoy”.
The previous day, in the Sunday Independent, she wrote that Harris is “impeding basic democracy”.
Harris is just protecting his patch. As it is, he will have a serious job to convince people to elect Heather Humphries after 14 years of Fine Gael in executive power. Why should he do anything that would, in effect, lessen whatever chance his candidate has?
The reality is that somebody of Steen’s calibre, and politics, would have had every chance of nomination and a realistic shot at winning had she put in the work.
If she believes that there is a large swathe of people out there who want to flock to her standard, her support would long ago have been conveyed to various councillors — some of whom wouldn’t need any persuading.
Instead, she and a hatful of other Independents appear to have woken up one sunny summer’s day and concluded that it would be good to be the president.
There is a prevailing trend among supporters of firm ideological positions, on both left and right, to big up their case on social media, propagating the notion that there is far more support for what they believe in than actually is the case.
Steen hasn’t done this, but plenty of her supporters have — as have those backing other Independent candidates. Yet, the online noise is no substitute for person to person interaction.
That takes time, hard work, and strategic input. If you have a serious platform, you’ll get the best out of what you have to offer.
There are flaws with all aspects of the democratic process, and there is unfairness that must always be addressed.
But if anything comes out of this election, surely it is that at least the system is designed to provide an opening for an outsider who has something to say and is serous about saying it.
Managing that against parties that eat, sleep, and drink politics requires hard work. It’s a slog, but democracy deserves no less.
