Read The Race for the Áras Online
Authors: Tom Reddy
The Race for the Áras (27 page)
Later in the day she was explaining herself on the
RTE
one o'clock news with Seán O'Rourke. She said that before she took the oath of allegiance the American official said she could not give up her Irish citizenship, and she was assured that this was not a problem, as there was a âunique relationship' between the United States and Ireland. âI was perfectly assured that I could take up dual citizenship, with no conflict with my Irish citizenship,' she said. She also said that she didn't take up
US
citizenship until 1999, not 1997, as reported in the media.
At a rally in Cork, Higgins was asked about Dana's citizenship.
It is not up to me to speculate. It would have been in the public interest if it had been made known. It is clear from what I have read that this is a matter that has a family dispute to it, and that must be very distressing. I have always drawn a distinction between the personal circumstances of my competitors and the political circumstances.
In a two-page spread in the
Irish Daily Mail
, Mitchell talked about himself, the love of his life and the Presidency. It was a revealing interview, showing the love between Gay and his wife, Norma, âmy real director of elections,' and gave him the oxygen that the campaign had not permitted so far to allow his warmth to be displayed publicly.
He told how he had organised a situation so that he could be alone with Norma and propose to her. They had been going out together, and he arranged to pick her up during her lunch break and drive her to St Anne's Park, with its beautiful rose garden.
The interviewer, Jason O'Toole, asks, âDid he get down on bended knee?'
âNo, not quite,' he laughs.
âI must get him to do that,' Norma interjects. âIt's romantic for me, so when I pass by each time I think of the fact that I was proposed to outside that gate.'
âI'm thinking of getting a plaque put up there,' Gay quips.
O'Toole writes:
It's obvious from the good-natured banter between them and their habit of finishing each other's sentences that they are a very close couple ⦠âEverybody knows that the closest person to me is Norma ⦠I said when I was selected at the convention by Fine Gael: “Charlie [Flanagan], you may think you're the director of elections, but everyone knows Norma will be the director of elections.”'
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On the front page of the
Irish Daily Mail
the paper revealed that Gallagher had been a member of the Fianna Fáil National Executive until January 2011âdespite claiming, as recently as that week, that he left two years ago.
The paper's political correspondent, Ferghal Blaney, said they had uncovered a âsmoking gun' letter written on 5 January in which Gallagher tells the party's general secretary, Seán Dorgan, that he is regrettably quitting. âIn it he makes none of the sharp attacks in private that he has since made in public, while campaigning for votes.' The letter of resignation was reprinted in the paper.
A campaign spokesperson countered that Gallagher had not been active in the party for the last two years, and that he had indicated his intention of resigning in September 2010 but had made it official only in January 2011.
The
Sunday Business Post
's political editor, Pat Leahy, took an overview of the campaign, saying that it was now being directed and dominated by the media.
More than any other election in Irish history, this one is being fought out on the airwaves and on the front pages of newspapers. More than ever before, the role played by reporters, editors, radio and television producers and presenters is shaping the course of the campaign. All of the major developments of the campaign have been generated by the media's interrogation of the candidates. Increasingly the candidates are talking about the media's agenda rather than their own.
And it is having an effect. The polls published last week, a RedC poll by Paddy Power and another in the
Irish Times
, showed that media focus on stories unfavourable to candidates usually tends to damage them. The oft repeated claimâby several of the candidatesâthat they wouldn't dream of negative campaigning because it doesn't work is false on at least one account, and in most cases two. Negative campaigning often does work. That's why they do it. Negative publicity has destroyed David Norris and severely damaged Mary Davis.
Gay Mitchell's upfront attacks on Martin McGuinness since last weekendâegged on by influential commentatorsâhave torpedoed his own campaign, rather than the Sinn Féin candidate's. The lesson seems to be: best leave the media to do the dirty work.
Leahy also explored some of the candidates' profiles and media exposure. Dana had largely been ignored by the media, he said.
Her supporters believe that this is because she is a representative of a conservative brand of Catholicism and Euroscepticism which is disliked by many people in the media. There is at least some truth in this, though not as much as Dana thinks. But really her lack of traction can be explained by the fact that she is at five per cent in the polls.
The candidates are presenting themselves for the highest position in the land more or less entirely on the basis of their personal character and their records. Most people would agree that voters have a right to know about their past and their character, and that's the media's job. But what is unusual by Irish standards is that the process has been led, defined and narrated by the media. It's not just part of the campaign. It
is
the campaign. For Irish politics, that is new.
The
Sunday Independent
's editorial was strident.
Our concerns about Mr McGuinness are not confined to the lies, economic destruction, murder and repression of free speech that Sinn Fein and the
IRA
are so intimately linked with. The central philosophy of a peace process that has brought Mr McGuinness to a position where he can realistically contend for the Presidency was one of moral reservation where lies were presented as truth in the hope that this would serve the greater good.
Across the page the columnist Brendan O'Connor took a philosophical view of the campaign and all its utterances. He asked how the campaign had become
one of the most real, and most gripping, bouts of soul-searching this nation has had in years? â¦
Having spoken about nothing except money for years, in the last couple of weeks we have suddenly started talking about everything, about who we are, where we've been, where we'd like to go next and how we would like to see ourselves.
In the same paper, Mitchell took out quarter-page advertisements, the largest seen in the print media during the campaign.
âWhy vote for Gay?' the advertisement asked. âHe understands the hardship people are going through, he would use his political experience and international contacts to support the Government in generating jobs, and has a strong record of serving the people as a public representative.' The five photographs used in the advertisements were badly lit, poorly posed and without captions, raising questions about who had an overview of the campaign.
In the
Sunday World
the outspoken columnist Paddy Murray hit out at McGuinness. He was proud of the send-off he got from Derry but made no reference to five named people who were killed in the city by the
IRA
when he was a member. âMcGuinness talks about “regrets” but he rarely says sorry. He wants to be our president. I'd say over my dead body, but he might take me literally.'
Mary Davis was the lead story in the
Sunday Times
, which reported that she had received funding for her campaign from the telecommunications billionaire Denis O'Brien and had voted on three decisions concerning his ownership of Irish media when she was a member of the Broadcasting Commission in 2008 and 2009. Davis had ruled herself out of votes in relation to O'Brien's companies when she joined the board in 2004, citing a conflict of interest, as O'Brien was chairperson of the Board of Special Olympics Ireland when she had been
CEO
. The
Times
reported that she had received legal advice in June 2008 that a potential conflict of interest no longer existed, as she had moved to Special Olympics Europe-Eurasia the previous May. Her spokesperson said that any conflicts of interest that may have arisen were made known by Davis to the board.
Speaking to reporters at Limerick Racecourse, where she was canvassing later that afternoon, Davis insisted that there was no conflict of interest between the Broadcasting Commission and its dealings with O'Brien, who has extensive holdings in commercial radio and a controlling interest in Today
FM
, Newstalk and a number of regional stations. âI have acted on the board of the bci with full integrity and taken full responsibility at all times,' Davis said.
The
Sunday Independent
's lead story reported that Fine Gael and the Labour Party, âin what amounts to a shift in tactics in dirty tricks,' now intended to concentrate on Gallagher and his past association with Fianna Fáil rather than on McGuinness.
Yesterday there was a view within Fine Gael that because Mr Mitchell had failed to connect with the public it was to be expected that the Party would support the candidate of its coalition partners. As old hostilities threaten to break out again in Fine Gael, the possibility remains that the coalition strategy will backfire, particularly if voters perceive Mr Gallagher to be a victim of unfair attention by the Government parties.
On
RTE
's Sunday radio programme âThis Week' Mitchell took the opportunity to swipe at Gallagher, Higgins and the media themselves. He criticised Gallagher:
If we choose celebrity over substance I think we are making a very big mistake. I think there are people who are very good candidates but really don't have the vision and experience that I have.
Mitchell went on to say that young people should not be pushed into becoming the
Skype emigration generation while we sip champagne in the Park, reciting poetry. In every job I have done I have brought a sense of experience and innovation. I will be the person to put jobs and the future of the country on the agenda.
He insisted that the Fine Gael organisation was totally behind his campaign.
I'm telling you this now. The likelihood is that I'll win this election. I will let you know in three weeks' time.
He criticised the media too, saying that he favoured intense scrutiny of the candidates, particularly McGuinness on his past record.
I think you should start asking some of them very difficult questions. When I started asking Martin McGuinness difficult questions, people say I am attacking him.
Dana was interviewed by the
Examiner
, which reported that she was willing to renounce her
US
citizenship âif it was the wish of the Irish people.' She also produced her
US
naturalisation certificate, dated 8 October 1999, to counter the claim that she had become a
US
citizen when she ran for the Presidency fourteen years earlier.
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The McGuinness campaign over the coming days was to be held to account for
IRA
atrocities, and in the full and embarrassing glare of the media. Campaigners would admit later that the political dynamic in the Republic was different from that of the North. In the North the Troubles had been analysed, dissected, discussed and come to terms with; however unsatisfactorily, a conscious decision had been made to move forward rather than dwell on the past. But in the Republic legitimate grievance, loss and pain had not been addressed, and there had been no accountability.
On a brisk Monday in a shopping centre in Athlone, David Kelly stood with a framed photograph of his father, Private Patrick Kelly. His father (35) and Recruit Garda Gary Sheehan (23) were shot dead in a gun battle with members of the Provisional
IRA
, which had kidnapped the supermarket executive Don Tidey in December 1983 and held him in Derrada Wood, Co. Leitrim. No-one was ever convicted for their murder. Private Kelly, from Moate, Co. Westmeath, had served three tours of duty in Lebanon and was the father of four young sons, the youngest eleven weeks old when he was shot.
When McGuinness and his entourage came through the main entrance, Kelly confronted him, brandishing the picture of his murdered father. âI want you to get your comrades who committed this crime to hand themselves in to the GardaÃ,' he said. McGuinness responded: âI don't know who was responsible for the killing of your father, but I fully and absolutely sympathise with you. This is in the past. You are heartbroken on account of it, and my sympathy is 100 per cent with you and your family.'
Kelly rejected McGuinness's words. In front of the cameras he said that McGuinness's assertion that he had left the
IRA
in 1974 was âa blatant lie' and that he was âtrying to fool the Irish people.' His father was âloyal to this Irish Republic and I'm loyal to him as a son, and I'm going to get justice for him. Before we can have reconciliation ⦠there has to be truth, especially for people running for the Presidency of the country.'
The following day the brother of the murdered detective-garda Frank Hand said that there was never an apology for the
IRA
's actions. McGuinness's words to David Kelly were not an apology. âThey were an oblique contrition,' he said.
Frank Hand was twenty-five and married five weeks when he was shot while accompanying a cash delivery to a post office in Drumree, Co. Meath, in 1984. His brother Michael told the
Irish Independent
that the idea of McGuinness as supreme commander of the Defence Forces was âan abhorrence'.
I find that impossible to accept. As far as I'm concerned, he has my family's blood on his hands. Both my parents are dead now, but to my mind it resulted in their early death. It broke their hearts and caused difficulty in my family. There were seven of us. He was the middle brother. It was very traumatic.
I accept that he [McGuinness] was instrumental in bringing things about [with the peace process], but I think he has blood on his hands and he's an inappropriate candidate for the presidency of our country, of my country. And particularly for a country where my family gave blood for our country. I can't accept how someone like that can lead the army and get the loyalty of the army and the police when his colleagues were the ones who shot down my brother in cold blood.