It was supposed to be ‘business as usual’ when it came to the Presidential election. Michael D. would keep us guessing for as long as possible and then declare his intention to go for a second term, just in time to make it difficult for anyone else to get the qualifying TDs or Counsel votes. The centre parties of Labour, FG and FF have no appetite for a troubling election and so have reverted back to the old system of political jobbery that existed before the two Marys. It doesn’t really matter does it? We have had two referendums in the near past and two more coming up (women and blasphemy in case you had forgotten) local and Europeans next year with the ever threatened General Election if Leo and Michael can’t agree. As noted by Eamon Delaney in his article(The Times, 20/07/18), surely that’s enough democracy for anyone. It probably would have gone to plan with Michael D. enjoying general support or at the very least a level of indifference but for Mary Lou’s intervention.
The new leader of Sinn Féin saw an opportunity and has cleverly won a tactical victory against the old centrist parties by declaring that her party will field a candidate for the Presidential election. By doing this she has wrong footed her opponents and shown them up to be a comfortable cabal content with the old anti democratic system of promoting an agreed candidate without bothering the electorate. Mary Lou has demonstrated that there is clear water between the old discredited parties and the new invigorated SF and I would be astonished if the SF candidate wasn’t a young woman. This would give her gender and youth attraction and establish SF as a modern party of the future. I disagree slightly with Eamon Delaney’s conclusion that their candidate would not break too free, “… from the moorings of that particular party.” (The Times, 20/07/18) A second option to promoting the usual party line is to offer the electorate someone who a broad church can support. This takes the wind out of the sails of the opposing parties and reassures the general public that SF has left the guns behind and is a respectable party that can be trusted to enter a future coalition. Have the parties of the centre been caught knapping on this one?
reference: The Times, 20/07/18, Eamon Delaney, Comment
Update 28/07/18
According to The Times Sinn Féin has set out its stall for the forthcoming Presidential election by describing its ideal candidate as a woman who will challenge the ‘patriarchy’ that still governs Irish society. The selection committee chairman goes on to mention women. young people, gender pay and the two recent referendums. You read it here Leo and Michael better start looking over your shoulder, you are about to be overtaken.
The Times, 28/07/18, Ellen Coyne,