15-07-2025
Dustin the Turkey: "I will run to be president of Ireland"
Dustin the Turkey has said that he intends to run for the presidency of Ireland and has claimed that out-going President Michael D Higgins has endorsed him for the role.
With former EU Commissioner Mairead McGuinness confirmed as Fine Gael's candidate and Independent TD Catherine Connolly expected to launch her campaign tomorrow, the singer, tv host and occasional carpenter has said that he "owes it to the people of Ireland" to make a bid to become head of state.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, Dustin said, "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.
"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.
"Sometimes you see her and you don't whether to snog her or throw her a bale of hay - with teeth like that, she looks like she won the Grand National last year."
Dustin, who harboured presidential ambitions before when he ran in 1997, added, "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 was speaking as he opened the newly refurbished branch of hardware shop Chadwicks in his native Sallynoggin, deep in South Country Dublin.
A chip off the old block, the famous turkey, who rose to fame as a host of RTÉ kids show The Den alongside Zig and Zag, said he decided to support his local DIY outlet because he wanted to give something back to neighourhood that made him who he is.
"You hit the nail on the head there," he said. "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."
Another high profile position in Ireland waiting to be filled is the new host of Liveline following Joe Duffy's departure from the role last June, and Dustin is more than ready to take over.
"Me and Joe get on well," he said. "Joe was the ringmaster of a circus full of clowns and I'd be able to continue that on Livelive. 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."
