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“IT’S AN INSULT to the office of president, if you’re willing to run for everything, but you won’t run for the office of president.”
Former Fianna Fáil Minister Mary Hanafin spoke about her party’s lack of candidate at the MacGill Summer School on Saturday night.
“I firmly believe that the largest party of the country, which is the largest at local level, largest at national level, largest in Europe, should be running a candidate.”
Last month, she said she “would happily” contest the presidential election but added that was ultimately up to Taoiseach and party leader Micheál Martin.
“You have an obligation to give the people of Ireland a choice. It is the politicians who give you that choice.
“It’s the people who elect the president at the end of the day. But you can only do it out of the ballot paper of candidates,” she said.
Two-time presidential candidate Sean Gallagher, who contested the 2011 and 2018 elections, joined Hanafin on the panel discussing the upcoming election.
There was also an impromptu appearance from the audience by Colum Eastwood, a nationalist MP in Northern Ireland who is “considering” becoming a presidential candidate.
It was suggested last month that Eastwood, who was party leader of SDLP up to 2024, could also be a possible Fianna Fáil candidate due to links between the two parties.
But when The Journal asked Eastwood about this, he said “there’s been nothing from the leadership of Fianna Fáil”.
“I obviously spoke to people within Fianna Fáil and the Labour party, and outside of those political parties, who have asked me to consider it and that’s what I’m doing.”
The two potential candidates differed on their views of opening up the vote to Irish citizens who are residents of Northern Ireland.
Only Irish citizens who are residents of Ireland can currently vote in the presidential election.
When asked if this should be extended, Hanafin said “not yet and not in isolation”.
“There’s not enough understanding between communities within Northern Ireland and North-South.
“When you look last week, you look at the effigies, you look at the bonfires, you realise there’s still a journey to go before we get any kind of real understanding and real political understanding.”
This view was contested by an audience member who said “it is a little bit hurtful as an Irish person from the North to hear Mary cite bonfires last week as a reason why I should not have a vote. That’s nonsense.
“There are many people like me who are Irish, who have only ever been Irish, that live in the North who would like to have a say.”
In response, Hanafin said: “My point was there needs to be a greater understanding of the shared island before we get that far.”
Eastwood told The Journal he agreed that “there isn’t enough understanding” and said “that is something that the next president should be focused on”.
“But that doesn’t mean we should be denying the opportunity to vote for people in the North.
“I think it would be a very positive thing actually if Irish citizens living across the border… were able to play their part in this election.”
To progress this, Hanafin said that there was “huge scope for extending cooperation” and by doing this, it would “help to break down boundaries”. She cited North-South bodies already in operation such as Tourism Ireland.
Former candidate Gallagher said that the “connectivity between the diaspora and Ireland… is totally untapped”. He added:
“I don’t think it needs to be a vote, but I do think there needs to be a reach out and an embracement of the diaspora.”
When asked if he was going to stand for the presidential election for a third time, Gallagher said: “No is the answer. Not because I have any fear but because my life has moved on. My time was my time.”
The former Dragons’ Den panellist had already said earlier this week that he would not be running.
Mentioning Trump, he joked: “It’s not lost on me what I was trying to do in 2011.
“That 14 years later, one of the greatest challenges the country has is from a president who is an entrepreneur, a TV personality and in real estate – the three things that I was at the time.”
Gallagher predicted that “social media, and now AI, is going to be a deciding factor this election”.
In 2011, a false tweet linking Gallagher to Fianna Fáil was read out by present Pat Kenny during the last debate of the campaign on RTÉ’s Frontline programme.
“I can say that I was, most likely, the first victim of fake news in a presidential campaign,” he said.
Mentioning the case he subsequently took against RTÉ, he said that every single election since will be governed by “RTÉ guidelines that did not exist” before this.
This case resulted in the public broadcaster apologising and paying, what was reported as ‘substantial damages’, in settlement.
Social media was raised a number of times during the night’s discussion.
Hanafin said that having contested an election before, “hardens you” for the presidential campaign.
But added: “Unfortunately, what you can’t do is harden yourself against social media.”
Hanafin said she doesn’t look at social media but gets people to track it for her “to see if there’s something that needs to be answered”.
“The only thing you can do in a campaign like this is to keep a million miles away from it and let your loyal team of supporters take the abuse on your behalf.”
She said the difference between general elections, with hundreds of candidates, and presidential elections, with a handful, is that there is more time to focus on one person.
“It’s like 10 green bottles, except instead of getting them to fall, they just shoot them – one after the other – to see who’s the last person standing.”
“It is a vicious campaign.
“If I was lucky enough to be standing, I would love to win. I actually wouldn’t mind losing if I kept my reputation.”
She said that the mainstream media “have a really important obligation to make sure that the campaigns are professionally, efficiently and respectfully run”.
So why would anyone put themselves through such a grueling election, asked host of the discussion journalist Dearbhail McDonald.
There are three basic motivations that drive people, according to Ian Robertson, emeritus professor of psychology at Trinity College – to be liked, for achievement and power.
“You need strong values – you need to be compelled by something that is bigger than yourself. You need to have an appetite for power,” he said.
“You maybe don’t need to be liked too much. Needing to be liked can be a terrible impediment for being effective.”
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