Presenting United front before taking to the Parklife
Michael D Higgins did quite the opposite of course.
The poetic president-elect pared back on the rhyming couplets and iambic pentamber to stay on message throughout the most prosaic of campaigns.
Labour Party handlers, you suspect, drilled the importance of succinct, unflowery answers into their candidate as the campaign stretched in front of them like a long season.
You’d like to think however that he’ll now bring a bard’s flourish to the Áras if not the verbosity of old, for which he was renowned.
Tonight, a little over a week until he takes the oath of office in front of the nation and becomes the country’s ninth head of state, he’ll sit where he always has in Terryland Park, watching his beloved Galway United.
One of my favourite writers is David Remnick of the New Yorker magazine. He’s written about sport — check out his piece on the Tyson v Holyfield fight called Kid Dynamite Blows Up – as well as politics.
I’m reading his book on Barack Obama at the moment, The Bridge, in which Remnick carefully pulls at the many threads that make up the character of the States’ 45th president.
From the peripatetic childhood shared between Hawaii and Indonesia, the strange estrangement from his wanderlusting mother to the problems of being a young black man raised by white grandparents. Four years on from the last Democratic primary elections, it is now a familiar song. Though no less intriguing.
If we were to do the same with Higgins, piecing together his life’s jigsaw — and no doubt someone already is, in some form, in the face of a publisher’s deadline — Galway United would warrant a place on the book’s table of contents, higher than that which they occupy in the League of Ireland table.
The Terryland Park outfit finished the regular season rock bottom of the Premier Division after a miserable run. Their club president was labelled a political millionaire by one of the half dozen opponents he defeated, David Norris, because of the massive vote he dragged in.
United have a mere six points to show for their own bruising league campaign.
Higgins has been president of the club for the past few years. Later, Galway will take on Monaghan United in a crucial play-off match in the Airtricity League which will decide which side plays in the Premier Division next season.
On Tuesday, Roddy Collins offered the top flight side a lesson. They beat United 2-0 in Gortakeegan placing one foot in the Premier Division. They go west to the City of Tribes expecting to be celebrating on Shop Street tonight.
I think I’m safe in saying that it will surely be the first promotion–relegation battle witnessed by a president elect.
Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh was more interested in picketing outside Darby O’Gill and the Little People in protest at stereotyping of the Irish, rather than cross the Liffey to Dalymount.
Erskine Childers came from sailing stock, it’s safe to assume — his father being the proud owner of the Asgard.
Douglas Hyde, as founder of the Gaelic League, would probably have pulled the curtains — to quote a few League of Ireland snobs I’ve endured through the years — if a domestic soccer game broke out on his front lawn.
Dev had no more interest in League of Ireland football than Churchill’s economic policy.
Mary Robinson wasn’t one for The Showgrounds or elsewhere as far as I’m aware.
Her successor Mary McAleese seemed more at home with her heels scuffed by the red carpet of Croke Park and Aviva Stadium — or not, as the case with England skipper Martin Johnson may be.
Higgins though has a Galway season ticket in his wallet along with a Labour Party membership card. Obama proved the myth that presidents don’t carry wallets or cash was not entirely true when he stumped out €50 for a round in an Offaly pub last summer. But, whatever about the wallet, Higgins may have to relinquish both the season tickets and the political membership next week.
“It will be a crucial match and hopefully we can win it. I have been overwhelmed by the reception I got when I returned to Galway so hopefully I will get to meet many more on Friday evening in Terryland Park,” he said this week.
It’ll be a nice way to go out — one of his last real acts as a private citizen. After that, he’ll be the president of every League of Ireland club.
Twitter: @Adrianrussell
