Dustin the Turkey to 'run for Irish presidency'
The iconic turkey has announced his intention to run for the position and is prepared to challenge Fine Gael candidate Mairead McGuinness and independent TD Catherine Connolly after their recent campaign confirmations.
Dustin told RTE Entertainment: 'Look, I'll be honest with you – I am willing to move to a smaller property, I will go to the Phoenix Park and I will embrace it. Olympic boxer and brand ambassador Jack Marley with Dustin the Turkey at the relaunch of Chadwicks Sallynoggin. Pic: Conor McCabe Photography
'I can do stupid poems in Irish like your man, Mickey D Higgins, and funny enough, Michael D said to me, 'Dustin, you should go for it and I'll leave my wardrobe here at Áras an Uachtaráin because it is the exact same size, it will fit you', so I can just go straight up.
'Now, he has bit more of a Ned Kelly then me but I'd be straight into Áras an Uachtaráin and you know, my First Lady, or Vogue Williams as she is known, would be great, too.'
This is not the first time Dustin has declared his intention to be Ireland's head of state. In 1997, the singer and tv host ran against Mary Robinson in an ultimately unsuccessful bid for office.
He continued: 'The short answer is of course I will be running for the presidency, I am not ruling myself out because the people of Ireland have been good to me and I should be giving back to them.
'I ran against Mary Robinson and she was a good president but she put a light in the window and left the door open and that's a dangerous thing to do on the north side.
'Then we had Mary McAleese and then we nearly had a lad from Cavan, that's how bad this country was getting but Mickey D stepped in and I think he was a good president apart from the stupid poems as Gaeilge but he is a good, honest man.' Dustin the Turkey also ran for presidency in 1997. Pic: RTÉ
Dustin announced his ambitions while opening the newly refurbished branch of hardware shop Chadwicks in his native Sallynoggin, Dublin.
The veteran bird is supporting his local hardware shop as a way of repaying the neighbourhood that raised him before he gained fame as the host of RTE kids show 'The Den'.
Dustin added: 'The people of Sallynoggin raised me. It is one of those communities where you can leave your back door open. Now, you'll get robbed, but you can leave your back door open. They'll even rob the back door.
'When Chadwicks told me they were refurbin', I put in a tender for it, right? But apparently, some Eastern European builders got it because they turn up in time and charge a fair price and come back if there's anything wrong with the job.'
Despite his big ambitions, Dustin is not limiting his campaigning to just the Irish presidency.
He believes he could fall back on the vacant Liveline position left open by the recent departure of Joe Duffy, should his Áras bid fall through.
He said: 'Me and Joe get on well. Joe was the ringmaster of a circus full of clowns and I'd be able to continue that on Liveline. You get all the nuts and madsters coming on and you just say, 'dear god, dear god, dear god . . . I don't know what to do' and you get a quarter a million a year. It's that simple.'
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