The meaning of pro-life abortion argument in Ireland -- what happens once these children are born

Pro-life billboard in Dublin

If you’ve been in Dublin recently, you can’t have failed to notice the throngs of audacious billboards and public transport ads that, well, advocate a stridently pro-life point of view, let's put it like that.

In a year that will be so important for the future of children’s rights, it’s disconcerting in the extreme to see the way in which the discussion has been pivoted onto such a narrow and divisive fraction of the debate. But even more disconcerting is the fact that the image of being pro-life exists as it does in the zeitgeist.

When you hear the term “pro-life”, it automatically conjures certain images, and usually those images are of fetuses on large placards, being carried by the most ardent single-issue campaigners in politics, picketing family planning clinics and challenging politicians about their stance outside Mass. And in the US it’s much more intense.

But not only does the term, and those who vocally self-identify with it, construct a false duality (there are, I daresay, very few people in favor of legalizing abortion who are generally pro-death) it also falls horribly short in scope. Pro-lifers of the kind we have placing billboards seem inordinately focused on unborn babies, but once they emerge into the world, then what?

This is the question we have been failing to ask ourselves for far too long, and in failing to answer it we have done our young people a serious disservice. In the last thirty years we have had innumerable schismatic debates on abortion, but what point is shouting about when life begins if we can’t provide a fundamental quality of life to our children?

In this country far too many children are born to poverty, to social deprivation, to effective pariah status because of who their parents are. In this country far too many children can’t get access to a good education or the basic resources of bettering themselves. In this country far too many children are voiceless when it comes to being given a say and a role in how their communities should be run. In this country far too many children have to grow up too early. And in this country far, far, far too many children are neglected when they should be looked out for the most. Throwing up billboards is doing nothing for them.

It’s easy to say you’re pro-life, but without a fidelity to tackling the problems that face our young people throughout their development then it just boils down to nothing more than emotionally charged, histrionic sloganizing. No matter what their age, children deserve much better than that.

Starbucks Ireland macchi-atone for their "British" sins, but who really cares?

Maybe it’s because summer is closing in, but this week we may have already got the silliest story of the season.

On Tuesday, Starbucks, the most famous thing to take its name from a Herman Melville book now that Moby doesn’t seem to be making records anymore, launched a UK marketing campaign to dovetail nicely with all that Jubilee business. Except, they made a now infamous geography malfunction. Now, social network marketing campaigns can be a difficult needle to thread at the best of times, but whenever you send out a tweet asking what makes proud to be British from your Irish account, you’re just asking for a hiding.

I’m not going to add to the mountain of puns (If it gets to court, will they be represented by a barista? Ha-cha cha cha cha!) but inevitably the quips came thick and fast, some of them about how Ireland is actually German and not British, and some of them funny. But in some quarters it seemed to cause genuine, high-handed annoyance. The Irish Times went as far to say it prompted “outrage." Outrage, I say! Why anyone would be annoyed by such a blunder seems almost as perplexing as people following a coffee outlet on Twitter in the first place.

After all, it’s a well-worn trope that successful people from the Emerald Isle are co-opted as British when they’re successful, and as they’re on the way down they’re Irish. Such custody battles don’t bother me, if anything we should be a bit flattered that the UK want to co-opt our famousers. After all, we take in abroad dwellers as our own all the time, from David Gray to Counting Crows to basically everyone who played football for us in the late eighties.

Ireland seems to have mastered missing the point completely. In the last few days, news eccentric TD Mick Wallace was avoiding tax to the tune of €2 million has been met with a worrying amount of moral equivalency, while last week the country essentially sleepwalked into accepting a treaty that will have far-reaching implications, with just half the country showing up at the polls. But no, it’s the coffee that really seems to get us energized.

Ireland Government's women trouble - why we badly need new gender quota

Irish female politicians past and present

Last week while browsing this website I came across an op-ed from our esteemed political analyst, Patrick Roberts, about his displeasure that gender quotas will be introduced in the next election. And I could not have disagreed with him more.

In theory, I get why quotas might be discomforting, even to avowed feminists. There’s a danger it codifies rather than breaks down the glass ceiling, merely giving women in politics a slightly larger cordon than they already have.

But a 30% quota shouldn’t be seen as the solution, but as the introduction of a bare minimum of standards. At the minute, there is a pathetic dearth of women in the Dáil, and an even more pathetic dearth of candidates. Only three constituencies had five women candidates running (none had more than that) and some constituencies had no women running in them at all. Unless you think women are physiologically less able to run for and hold elected office (i.e. insane), that means the current system is failing them badly.

There are all sorts of reasons why there haven’t been enough women in politics over the years, fundamental to them all though was a default patriarchy, a patriarchy that thanks to the 1937 Constitution has been both followed in the breach and the observance. But past practice and policy is no justification to perpetuate it, and in modern times it’s simply not acceptable to call for anyone to call for a fair race when you have a head start of miles.

The thing is, people can say they’re all for equality until their hair turns blue but it requires people to do something about it to actually achieve it. As it stands, political parties are not doing enough to shake off their just-for-the-lads mentality and seek out women candidates, women who are put off by the system as it stands and have taken their much-needed skills elsewhere. And even the ones that are in the political system are in a pitiful minority in the top jobs: three out of fifteen full cabinet ministers and four out of fifteen is a risible number in 2012.

But it’s not just a case of upping the numbers for the sake of it, we badly need the views and expertise of a wide range of people at government level and we only do ourselves a disservice by not listening to them. It’s absolute lunacy that half the voting public don’t even account for a quarter of the representation.

Not that the drive for equality should end with women, it’s just as vital that people of different cultures and creeds and classes participate in the political process and shape it to wider benefit. That requires a level of diversity and outreach that some may find unsettling or PC gone mad or what have you, but if the political system shook itself out of its’ monolithic torpor in the first place the question of quotas wouldn’t need to be broached at all.

In the landmark British sitcom Yes Prime Minister, when an idea very similar to this was proposed at a civil service meeting, all the (male) heads of department wholeheartedly agreed with the idea but one by one suggested problems implementing it. The Foreign Office couldn’t appoint women ambassadors to Arab countries, the Home Office wasn’t suitable because women couldn’t run prisons, Employment was a no-go because of the difficult to manage, burly trade unionists and Defence was out because a woman wasn’t really suitable to run security or rough it with Admirals. As sure as art imitates life, hegemony will always put up a fight, but they’re on the wrong side of this one.

Having traipsed up and down the country as a youth worker, I’ve done projects with a great many fantastic young women, young women who if they were so inclined could go right to the top of the political ladder. A lot of them come from constituencies where women were all but non-existent on the ballot paper, and so the question we have to ask ourself is, will we stand for another generation of talented young woman having obstacle and stymie thrown their way? Quotas aren’t perfect and they aren’t a solution, but we need political parties finding these young women, and we need them too. Our future depends on them. 

Get them while they're young - Catholic Church are experts at recruitment

Initiation into the Catholic club

Say what you want about the failings of the Catholic Church but they are experts at recruitment.

You're a paid up member of the club by the time you can even say "christening", and once you arrive at secondary school, Catholicism is so deeply embedded with ceremonies that contain a large social element and weekly reinforcement, that it will stay with you for the rest of your life, no matter how your views evolve.

You have to hand it to them - it's a pretty successful strategy.

It's a principle we could do with using a bit more. When you get people interested in a topic at a young age and convey a subject's importance early, the better it is for their development, especially if they get to actively participate in it and feel they can shape what goes on.

And at the moment, there is scarcely anything more important than making sure young people get to use their talents, have their opinions heard and get a chance to shape the world around them.

A campaign for the voting age to be reduced to 16 is currently gathering momentum, with a recent conference in Dublin dedicated to it as well as a nascent Facebook support page.

Lowering the voting age is laudable in and of itself - it absolutely makes sense that young people get to have their say on issues like national debt and climate change, especially since it's their generation that will have to deal with the brunt of hothouse fiscal compacts.

But without a massive corresponding overhaul of the way we approach civics and politics in the classroom and beyond, it would almost be like throwing good votes after bad.

A civics class might seem like 35 minutes you'd much rather be spending anywhere else, but it's a subject that is so much more than dry stats.

Giving young people the chance to have a say and a hand in local policies and decisions like health services, education and public amenities makes enthusiastic citizens of them from an early age, and responsible ones too.It stands to reason that young people will have more interest and respect for an initiative if they've helped set it up, or indeed set it up by themselves.

The more often young people do these projects, the better they get at them, the more beneficial public service as a concept becomes to them, the more established and valued youth participation becomes in the wider community. Apathy then has to up sticks and try somewhere else.

But just as important as embedding the concepts of citizenship locally through visible projects and action is a reimagining of how we deal with national and international politics. Nobody would ever say your opinion on music is invalid if you didn't know all the instruments in an orchestra, yet politics as a topic of discussion often has a kind of snobbish high cordon around it, a minimum qualification stipulation. It needs to be taken down.

Whether people think of them as such or not, everyone has political opinions - the key is to make that as relevant and interesting as possible, and give context as to where their ideas fit in the world.

I've run myriad courses over the years designed to do just that with youth groups of very different stripes and every time I do I'm astonished at the level and enthusiasm of debate.

For example, a simulated cabinet I ran with the teenagers of the Donegal Youth Council passed a budget that dramatically increased health and education spending, resolved that nuclear power was not a viable energy source and forsook hosting a major sporting competition to invest in rail networks, all within a few hours. Give young people that chance to talk and take action and watch them fly.

In the Catholic Church, expert HR people that they are, Confirmation is the sacrament that gives the chance for 12-year-olds to reinforce for themselves something their parents did for them at birth.

The secular world too needs to build a foundation for young people, all young people, to be able to participate fully in their communities and make the changes they wish to see, for themselves and for others.

That way, by the time they come to vote at 16 they'll not only be ready, they'll be able and willing too.

Che-nge the record, it's just a statue

Every so often you see a story and think “How the hell is this still a thing?” The furore around Galway’s proposed Che Guevara statue is one such story.

You’d think that the chair of the House Foreign Relations committee would have a loaded plate, what with North Korea in a dangerous state of flux, the war in Afghanistan in its final throes, a cataclysmic situation in Syria ongoing and a band of nuke-happy lunatics purporting to be concerned about Israel getting more baying and mobbish by the day. But Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has still managed to find time to warn of the terribleness of Galway, a city thousands of miles away one eighth the size of a US congressional district, erecting a monument to Che Guevara. It is, she says, “an outrage” that such a thing is being proposed. An outrage! Some would say that a senior congresswoman placing a hold on millions of dollars of development aid funding for Palestine because of their audacious plan to become a country outrageous, but we won’t judge.

She is joined in her outrage by Iron Man wannabe and selector of antique causes celebres Declan “Senor Burns es El Diablo” Ganley, who warned that putting up the statue would be disastrous for tourism, credibility and Galway’s chances of getting a nice summer. And the story trundled on with a comment from the magnificently monikered historian Carlos Eire, who skilfully invoked both the “Bad as Cromwell” card and the “This is pure like denying the Holocaust, so it is” card.
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For the past few weeks people seem to be jumping out of the woodwork any time Che is mentioned in any half decent way, a bit like when someone on Irish Central says something positive about multiculturalism and we get insane rants from...well, you know. What is most galling of all though is not even the arguments themselves, but the double standards at play within them. Lehtinen blasts Guevara as a monster (as many Cuban-Americans understandably do) but the real problem was he wasn’t an American-sponsored monster, of which there have been many. Similarly, Ganley fulminates about the dangerous terrorist who murdered people, but when 2016 comes and the Easter Rising centenary comes around, it’s unlikely he’ll have such strident words for brave rebels Pearse and Plunkett.

Personally, I wouldn’t be in favour of the monument. Not because I have serious objections to Che’s character (I’m actually quite ambivalent about him) but having seen the drawings of the thing, it’s so gawky and out of place I wouldn’t be in favour of it if it had someone unanimously awesome like Steve Allen or Carlton Banks been emblazoned on it. But, monster or not, monstrosity or not, it’s still Galway’s decision to make. Perhaps they should take a leaf out of the American book on this one, and pursue their own interests vigorously, first and foremost.

RTÉ sport's inspirational Colm Murray and his battle with motor neurone disease

RTE sports anchor Colm Murray

The documentary on Colm Murray, RTE's sports anchor, promised to be must-see viewing, and yet extraordinary difficult. 

A documentary about Colm Murray, the much-loved veteran RTE sports broadcaster and horse racing specialist was always going to be an interesting watch, but the circumstances under which it was made tinged it with real pathos. 

A couple of months ago Colm went on the Late Late Show and announced that he had motor neurone disease, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease after the Yankees player who died of MND aged 37.

Gehrig is well known for his emotional “Luckiest man in the world” speech in front of a rapturous crowd upon his retirement, and in a sense this documentary was Murray’s equivalent to a heartfelt speech on the diamond. 

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The show tracked the methods in which he was living with and attempting to control the disease, including his participation in a trial for a new drug that could be of significant help, and his trips to a speech therapist.

For me, this proved the hardest to watch. It seemed especially cruel that a broadcaster with a voice the whole nation knows would have that taken away from him, especially as within weeks of announcing his condition he was reporting sports news from behind his desk in a wheelchair. The dramatic way in which his life has changed in such a short few months has shocked and saddened the whole country.

But, in spite of the terrible hand he’s been dealt, Colm wasn’t willing to give in to fatalism. Instead he soldiers on, trying to find a cure, trying to keep himself the best he can and live the best life he can.

For years, Colm Murray was not just a familiar face and voice but a quiet hero of Irish life, dutifully reporting on the sporting moments that have coloured the nation, all without ever putting a step wrong. It is with that same quiet heroism and positive attitude that he battles motor neurone disease. The whole country is willing him on. 

Click here to watch the RTE documentary. 

Ireland needs to get serious about mental health - Kate Fitzgerald and Gary Speed's untimely death starts conversations

Irish Examiner's artwork attempting to highlight this major issue in Ireland

At the tail end of last week I found myself struck dumb by two tragic deaths. On Saturday afternoon I read a touching tribute on the Irish Times website to Kate Fitzgerald, the 25-year-old who had helped make the Irish branch of the Democrats Abroad a formidable force in recent times.

And then, the following day, I heard of the passing of Gary Speed, a 42-year-old veteran Premier League footballer and manager of the Welsh International team. Both committed suicide.

It’s horrible enough when young people die, not least when those young people publicly embodied such admirable qualities as did Kate and Gary. But for them to take their own lives adds a whole other terrible dimension to the sadness.

The most heartbreaking thing of all is how suicide confounds conventional logic. “Why?” is a question the answer of which will always be out of reach. Both these people had so much to live for; Kate was a rising star in a number of fields, while Gary had a wife, two kids, a glittering playing career behind him and a promising management career ahead of him. On the face of it, there couldn’t possibly be a problem. But that’s not where problems lie.
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And that is why we have to get serious about mental health. Really, really serious. We’ve made great strides admittedly from the days where victims of suicide couldn’t even be buried on consecrated ground, but we still haven’t gone far enough. We still think of mental ill-health when we hear the phrase mental health. Stigma still exists, embarrassment still looms large, we’re only too happy to internalise. People who are suffering with mental health issues often want to spare their friends and family an awkward conversation or generally bothering them.

We’re still not talking enough, not nearly enough, about mental health.

A couple of months ago I was facilitating a workshop for the Donegal Youth Council at their AGM, the topic of which was mental health. One thing I found interesting was that while everyone was in favour of better services for people struggling with depression or anxiety, the number went down dramatically when I asked how many would avail of those same services.

To get to where we need to be with mental health, we need to do two vital things: we need first to get friends talking to friends about this subject comfortably. And when we’ve cracked that, hopefully people who need further help can avail of it with all the level of shame and stigma as going to buy a carton of milk.

But until then, we need to be open. We need to accept that this isn’t "Other People’s Problem". We need to accept that this can happen to anyone and that it’s as treatable as a physical ailment.

We need to look out for everyone, even the ones who seem the strongest of will or the life and soul of the party. They may the ones putting on the bravest face. We need to be subject to one another. We need to keep talking about this.

Former Naas Mayor Darren Scully and 'black Africans' - ignorance is no excuse for racism

Darren Scully's political campaign poster

The town of Naas in Kildare is a sort of second home to me, as it’s where a good friend of mine from college now works and lives. As such, whenever I hear the town's name on the news, my ears tend to prick up.

Imagine my dismay then when I heard the unholy reason my ears pricked up earlier this week. The town’s erstwhile Mayor, Darren Scully, made the extraordinary announcement – on local radio, no less – that he was no longer going to be dealing with the constituency issues of "black Africans".

His reason? He had experienced aggression and bad manners from black constituents. When it was put to him that what he was doing was the essence of racism, his defence was that he was just being honest and forthright, that he didn’t think of himself as racist, that he has black friends and has great craic with the black taxi drivers talking about football, basically crossing off every square on the “I’m Not Racist But” bingo card.

Now there are some flat out, irredeemable goons in the Irish political sphere, but Scully really does shine out among them.

For starters, if he had a problem with rude people at clinics, he should have said so. If he’d said “I’ve been getting some grief at clinics, and I won’t be taking that anymore” then that would have been fine, so why the arbitrary targeting of black constituents?

I absolutely refuse to believe that black people are his or anyone else in professional politics’ sole transgressors. After all, without white people being aggressive and ill-mannered about political issues there’d be no such thing as talk radio.
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And then there’s the issue of a public representative literally making discriminating decisions about who he serves based on a prima facie judgement which is as repugnant to his vocation as it is to humanity. His attempt to justify himself (there were some people from “other backgrounds” living in the area that he also did not deal with) only goes to show how ridiculous his views are.

Sadly though, Scully’s views are emblematic of a way of thinking that still exists, however outdated. A way of thinking that maintains it’s OK to say whatever drek you like so long as you’re “just expressing your opinion” or “just being honest”. A way of thinking that carelessly throws monstrous generalisations around in reference to the industry and motives of entire nationalities and ethnicities. A way of thinking that luxuriates unashamedly in its own narrow-minded conceit. I see it and hear it in all sorts of places, sometimes even within the comments section of this very website. It’s pathetic.

The most galling thing of all though is the sickening hypocrisy that lurks around the corner from this kind of feckless, witless bloviating. A friend of mine told me this week that there are reports in some local conservative media outlets in Canada that have been hostile to recent Irish arrivals, questioning their work ethic and such. If those reports became plentiful enough to be covered back home, those same fools who castigate the blacks and the foreigns here would be up in arms about how shoddily the proud Irish people are being treated, how at least when we went places around the world we worked for our keep dag nabbit, and how the Canadians are just a bunch of Brit lovers anyway, before rallying for a boycott of maple syrup, bacon, Due South, ice hockey, Gordon Lightfoot, politeness and Robin from How I Met Your Mother.

And while Darren Scully as Mayor jettisoned black Africans who live in his own town, if Paul McGrath was signing his book in Naas, or Samantha Mumba was opening a club in Naas, you know full well he’d be over to them so quickly he’d leave a plume of cartoon smoke behind him, with a corral of photographers in tow.

Naas is a commuter town, and as such it is inhabited by great swathes of people who originate elsewhere, both from other countries and from other parts of this country. Far from diminishing your environs there is great joy and value to be had from people living and working and playing with people who aren’t all necessarily from the same townland as you. And, in the same way Irish people have brought that joy and value to all corners of the world, my own life would have been a whole lot duller without the wide cultural influences I’ve been exposed to as a child, things like British TV, American politics, Jewish comedy, oriental cuisine, Latin music or black culture in general.

This week marks the anniversary of JFK’s death, and in an all-too-pertinent clip about Civil Rights he said no country can be free unless its citizens are free also. As Irish people and citizens of the world who know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of unfair and unfounded abuse, we must not tolerate such blind, mendacious prejudice when it happens to other people. It’s time for the likes of Darren Scully, and the woodwork emergers backing him up, to step out of their caves. They might learn something.

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The Democratic Unionist Party neurosis - dribbling while Northern Ireland burns

DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson

There are times when I look at the Northern Ireland I remember as a child and marvel at how far we’ve come, how in so many ways we’ve managed to look beyond old obstinacies and petty rivalries and create a more open, tolerant society.

This week was not one of those times.

Despite making great strides since their bogeymen days, to the point where they seemed positively reasonable during the last Assembly election, the DUP have managed to consolidate all their crazy into one manageable weekly repayment. Exhibit A: the ever-tiresome capital punishment debate.

A recent law in the UK means that if a public petition gets more than 100,000 signatures, it has to be debated in parliament. Inevitably, hang ‘em and flog ‘em got on the agenda, but among those most keen for the debate were DUP MP’s David Simpson, Gregory Campbell, Jeffrey Donaldson, Jim Shannon and Sammy Wilson, who tabled a parliamentary motion on the matter.

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Never mind the fact there isn’t a shred of evidence that the death penalty does anything but regularly kill innocent people, never mind the fact that the state reflectively killing people is an inherently bad idea, not least in a state with its fair share of ruthless killings over the years, never even mind the fact that the death penalty is expressly against the rules for any country in the Council of Europe. Then again, if some of the DUP MPs weren’t known for being mad, they wouldn’t be known for anything at all.

One of those MP who’s never had a problem with notoriety is Jeffrey Donaldson, Enoch Powell’s apprentice and Daniel O’Donnell lookalike. For most of his career he’s been known as one of the great intransigents, although he’d mellowed somewhat in recent years. That was, at least, until he took issue with a new rule affecting the Royals and their marital choices. Basically, Jeffrey isn’t happy future monarchs can now marry Catholics, so much so that he and a group of other Orangemen delivered a letter to Downing Street about the matter on Remembrance Day. This is in the same week that a Spotlight documentary on Northern Ireland TV revealed that the Orange Order reprimanded two senior Ulster Unionists, leader Tom Elliot and Minister Danny Kennedy, for attending a Catholic requiem mass for murdered PSNI officer Ronan Kerr.

And if that wasn’t enough Peter Robinson gave us a brief glimpse into the past by threatening his resignation this week. The reason? The Justice Minister David Ford is considering a new emblem for the prison service, one that may not have a crown on it or any reference to Her Majesty. That’s it. In an atmosphere of enormous social and economic problems, it’s good to know the biggest party in Northern Ireland have got it covered.

Prayers for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi from the most Christian man I know

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi

Not a great deal happens in east Donegal by and large, but one of the more bizarre stories of last week happened a couple of miles down the road from me.

At Sunday Mass in Raphoe last week Fr Dinny McGettigan, in addition to praying for the recent dead, also prayed for Colonel Gadaffi. It raised a few eyebrows elsewhere in Ireland, and indeed beyond, but it didn’t surprise me at all, because I’ve known Fr Dinny for years. 

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In fact, he was my school chaplain at Deele College in Raphoe for five years. He was my religion teacher for the last two, running classes that had a satisfying catechism : talking about football ratio. In the area he is known mainly for three things: power-walking with a luminous vest on, getting people’s names mixed up (he called me Seamus for extended periods of time) and being the most relentlessly Christian man there is. 

A couple of years ago, he was attacked in the middle of the night by a burglar who stabbed him several times in the head and chest. Once well enough again, he went to the assailant and told him he forgave him, and pleaded leniency when the case came to court. I’d never heard anything like that before and haven’t since. 

The reason I write this is because while an apparently eccentric comment made by an apparently eccentric priest is inherently newsworthy, the person behind it often gets lost in the “And finally” jollity. In praying for Gadaffi, Fr Dinny cuts to the heart of genuine Christianity: if you can’t pray for the worst among us, then you’re missing the point completely. 

Regular readers will know I’m no great clericalist or defender of the faith, mainly because the Catholic Church has deviated so wildly from the original message of Jesus. A Church that literally claims to be “Universal” has become defined by the people and ideas it rejects. Men of God should be above all else compassionate, thoughtful and merciful. Thankfully, in Fr Dinny, we still have at least one.

Michael D poised for victory in long presidential race for The Aras

Michael D Higgins

As I write this on Friday lunchtime, Irish time, it is looking likely that Michael D Higgins will be the ninth President of Ireland.

Although official counts will not be announced for a few hours yet, early tallies are suggesting Michael D surging ahead, with erstwhile poll favorite Sean Gallagher in a distant second and Martin McGuinness in third. According to a Red C telephone poll carried out on behalf of RTÉ, the last week of the campaign has been the difference between a two horse race and a near assured victory for Higgins, with over half of the 28% of people who switched their vote in the last few days drifting away from Gallagher. 

Given the scope and function of the Presidency, such campaigns always seem unusually hard-hitting and dramatic. In 1990 there was Brian Lenihan’s “mature recollection” and Pee Flynn’s outrageous comments about Mary Robinson’s new found interest in her family. In 1997 there was Adi Roche and allegations of bullying, and Mary McAleese being a tribal time bonb. And this year, perhaps because of the volume of candidates, the mud flew higher and faster. There was Norris and his letters, Davis and her state boards, Higgins and his age, McGuinness and his IRA past, Mitchell and his general disagreeability, Dana and her family feud, and the fact her husband and brother drove on a puncture.

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And then there was Sean Gallagher. As with Lenihan, it wasn’t so much the charges that were thrown at him so much as the way he reacted that precipitated a turn away in support. His responses to McGuinness’ accusations on The Frontline, accusations about Fianna Fail and fundraising he really should have prepared for, were all over the place. In the ensuing melee, he gifted phrases like “no recollection”, “envelope” and “bagman for Fianna Fáil”. His reaction to Frontline audience questioner Glenna Lynch, the objectivity of whom he tried to question, was disastrous. 

But at the end of the day, Gallagher’s connections to Fianna Fáil, or the apparently “money resting in my account” state of his finances, weren’t in and of themselves reasons to vote against him. The fact he was a stunningly uninspiring candidate who, to quote the template for Presidents everywhere, Jed Bartlet, “made being unengaged into a Zen-like thing” should have been enough. And yet, it took a coven full of Galway Races Tent incantations to finally put people off him. 

The Presidency isn’t the only vote going down today of course, with a by-election and two referenda also being counted. While Labour look good in Dublin West, the referenda are likely to go 1-1, with the Judges Pay referendum passing and the Oireachtas Inquiry referendum getting defeated quite decisively. In other words, today has been a complete cataclysm for Fine Gael. Failing to get a second TD in Dublin West is one thing, but failing to pass a key piece of legislative reform is a big dent for them. And Gay Mitchell potentially finishing this election on single figures is wading in to condiments poured on cuts territory.

There’s many hours to go before we know for sure and certain what’s going on, but at this stage there can be little doubt that Michael D Higgins is set to take up residence in Aras An Uachtarain. There’s less doubt still that he’ll do a terrific job when that declaration is made official.

What’s the point of a United Ireland? - Martin McGuinness' presidential campaign raises questions

Martin McGuinness

Last week’s column on Martin McGuinness has, to say the least, prompted a great deal of debate. While a lot of it was regarding the rights or wrongs of the circumstances of McGuinness and by extension Republicanism in general, some involved the nature and rationale of the conflict itself. But really, what possible reason could there be for a united Ireland?

There are certainly no logical reasons for such a move. In a lot of cases, it seems to me, the desire to unite Ireland comes from a deep-seated case of geographical obsessive compulsion: Ireland is an island, that stands alone on the north Atlantic, and having another country administering a small part of it is just plain messy. The anti-partition school of thought in favor of a United Ireland is related to this, in as much as they claim every political problem from social inequality to the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa could be solved by scrubbing the border.

And then there’s the good old irredentists, the ones who maintain the Brits are occupying the six counties and that Ireland is for the Irish, whatever the hell that means. None of these have any real life application. I’ve lived on the border basically all my life and I don’t understand the fervency towards what is and has always been an infeasible pipe-dream.
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The reality is that green post boxes in Strabane will not make Strabane any happier or more prosperous a place to live in. It will not make the villages between Strabane and Derry that paint their curbs red, white and blue and brandish union flags and ensigns any more favorable to Ireland, or any less attached to Britain. It will not change the fact that whatever the nationality of the people who live in those villages, they can probably trace their family roots as far back on this island as anyone.

Besides, a lot of Donegal Catholics have Scottish planter lineage too who converted at some point along the way. They’re hardly more Irish because of that. Britain handing over the deeds to Northern Ireland would not have any positive transformative effect. Combining our forces will not create a land of milk and honey.

As the recent Life and Times survey bears out (see link above), this isn’t a niche opinion. Most people in Ireland, northern Catholics or otherwise, are much more concerned about tackling social and economic matters than eternally gazing through a national prism. Besides, Ireland has always been much more complex and interwoven than the irredentists like to imagine.

Taking Donegal as an example, we have much more tangible connection with Glasgow than we do with Cork, lovely a place as it is. It’s much easier and quicker to get to Glasgow from Letterkenny than it is to Cork too. People where I’m from who live in the Republic often do a lot of their shopping, socializing and even working across the border, the presence of which forms no impediment to traveling or interacting. In Padraig Pearse’s proclamation nearly one hundred years ago, he talked about freedom and liberty, about equal rights and opportunity, about pursuing happiness and prosperity.

As our access to the world and its different cultures becomes greater and greater, so long as we fight for those principles does it really matter what flags are flying overhead?