EAMON DUNPHY has labelled David Norris a “clown” who would besmirch the office of the president – and reckons Facebook is a poor guide of the public interest.
Norris has long indicated his intention to support of four city or county councils in order to appear on the Presidential ballot paper as an independent candidate when the election to succeed Mary McAleese is held in October 2011.
In his column in today’s Irish Daily Star, however, Dunphy has lashed out at Norris’s ambitions, saying the senator comes across as a “playground show-off”.
“Dignity is notable by its absence,” Dunphy wrote. “[Norris] is in love with the sound of his own voice and that’s hardly what we want in Áras an Uachtaráin.
“Norris has always been an attention seeker, but the President of Ireland should be someone who is content to spend much of the time in the background. I can’t see how that would sit well with Norris.
“There have been photos of Norris doing everything from cavorting with models dressed as rugby players, to throwing frisbees around, to whizzing along the street on rollerskates, to messing about with finger puppets.”
While almost 15,000 people may have ‘Liked’ a Facebook page supporting Norris’s bid for the Presidency – with over 3,500 people declaring such affiliations in a similar group – Dunphy believes the site is hardly a barometer for good intent.
“Well, if we let Facebook pages dictate how we run the country, we’d have public hangings, Thierry Henry in Mountjoy and headshops in Dáil Éireann,” he writes.
He does, however, acknowledge that the senator is “a courageous man in his crusade for gay rights” and commends Miriam O’Callaghan’s decision to “nip the speculation in the bud” when she was suggested last week as a contender for Ireland’s highest public office.
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