9 hours ago
If our Geraldine can thrive in Trump's Washington, she might be a worthy winner of the race for the Áras
It's been no fun trying to whip up any sort of speculation about the forthcoming presidential election. The kites aren't flying the way they used to.
It seems the vicious nature of recent campaigns is making potential candidates think twice about taking a tilt at the Áras, while the political parties, still weighing up their options, hope a shorter mobilisation might limit carnage.
Nonetheless, some interesting names are floating about.
A number of
Fianna Fáil
stalwarts have been mentioned: former taoiseach
Bertie Ahern
, former minister Mary Hanafin and MEP
Cynthia Ni Mhurchú
while Barry Andrews, her colleague in Brussels, has graciously ruled himself out.
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Then there was talk of the party sounding out the former
SDLP
leader,
Colum Eastwood
, who said he wouldn't rule out running when he was sounded out by the BBC.
The MP for Derry's Foyle constituency said he was mulling over his prospects because 'people have asked'.
Fianna Fáiler
Micheál Martin
was quick to say he wasn't one of them. 'There's been no contact with me, there's been no engagement that I am aware of from the Fianna Fáil party and it hasn't been on the agenda at all,' he said.
A candidate from outside the fold remains a distinct possibility.
There are whispers in political and diplomatic circles about Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ireland's ambassador to Washington. Fianna Fáil sources say her name is getting a lot of traction.
A hugely experienced diplomat with an impressive CV, Byrne Nason spearheaded Ireland's successful campaign for a seat on the UN Security Council in 2020. She is a former second secretary general in the Department of An Taoiseach, which made her the country's highest-ranking woman public servant at the time.
She received Concern Worldwide's annual Women of Concern Award for 'her outstanding career as a female leader within the diplomatic and Civil Service and her unwavering dedication to advocating for women's rights at home and abroad'. She was awarded the freedom of her native Drogheda in 2020.
A Fianna Fáil source said: 'There really is a dearth of good candidates out there. Geraldine would be an inspired choice. She would be a candidate of stature and if the party rows in behind her campaign we could be on to a winner. And she'd have the Louth vote sewn up.'
Here's another interesting one. The businessman and founder of the homeless charity Tiglin, Senator Aubrey McCarthy, is also a name which keeps coming up when the presidential election is discussed. Senator McCarthy, who was elected to the Upper House for the first time this year, has not ruled out a run.
One Leinster House observer tells us how Kildare-based Aubrey 'has been noticed on the Ferrero Rocher embassy circuit of late'. Meanwhile, he is holding a big bash in The Elms in Punchestown this weekend for friends and sponsors who helped him in his Seanad campaign.
What better way for Aubrey to kick start a new campaign, if he really is thinking of throwing his hat into the ring?
But surely
Seán Gallagher
has to be a long shot? The businessman who unsuccessfully contested the last two presidential elections – he looked set for victory in 2007 until his campaign imploded amid controversy over his connections with Fianna Fáil – was seen a number of weeks ago in the Dáil bar with Cathal Lee, a key member of his campaign team.
They met a number of independent senators, according to our source. But it seems unlikely he would go for the hat-trick of runs.
On the
Sinn Féin
front, Northern Ireland First Minister and party vice-president
Michelle O'Neill
has yet to rule out a run for the Irish presidential election.
She said at the
North South Ministerial Council
that the party 'is working its way through deliberations on putting forward a candidate'.
Fine Gael
seems to be quietly coasting towards the campaign with front-runner
Mairead McGuinness
keeping a low profile while questions rage over which other candidates might join her on the ticket.
But nothing has been decided yet. MEP
Seán Kelly
hasn't indicated whether he will contest the party's nomination. He is due to address the Association of European Journalists in Dublin next Thursday.
Guests will be wondering if he chooses this occasion to bow out or make his first stump speech.
And finally, Dr Mike Ryan, the Sligo-born public health specialist, is being lined up as a keynote speaker at next month's MacGill Summer School. The former deputy director general of the
World Health Organisation
– he became a household name during the Covid crisis and is an outspoken voice on the humanitarian cost of Israel's assault on Gaza – is being courted by a number of parties, including
Labour
, as a consensus Left candidate.
If he makes it to Glenties, his speech may reveal all.
Fox news
The sad news of a fox perishing in the fountain outside Government Buildings in Dublin on Tuesday was one of the most-talked-about topics of the week.
Not least because many of us feared it was Mildred, a fox regularly sighted strolling around Leinster Lawn haughtily ignoring the political and media wildlife trying to take her photo.
Not to be confused with the other Mildred Fox, who was an Independent TD for Wicklow from 1995 to 2007.
A number of people have been in touch since we reported the sad death, wondering how a creature as strong and agile as a fox could drown in relatively shallow water.
Former
Green Party
minister
Roderic O'Gorman
has the answer. It was a fox cub, probably still getting used to going out exploring on its own.
O'Gorman's office in the Engineering Block looks into an area at the back of Government Buildings, near the service and maintenance areas for Leinster House. There is an open basement area under the block where a family of foxes resides in a hidey hole under the pipes.
'I saw them originally about three weeks ago just peeping out of the den – still very small. But they are growing up fast.' he told us on Friday. 'When I see them now, it's just them on their own, so they are obviously big enough for their parents to let them out.'
O'Gorman shot a video of them running around the place last week. 'I saw four of them playing then, but when I was looking down on them this morning [Thursday] there was only three.'
The Merrion Street/Kildare Street campus is their playground.
'They can go through to the courtyard through the arches. One of them must have gone in there, which is awful.'
Three government ministers held press conferences in the courtyard on Tuesday morning – Paschal Donohoe, James Browne and Jim O'Callaghan. There were large media contingents at the briefings. Strangely, nobody noticed the dead fox in the fountain.
It was switched off the following day and thoroughly cleaned.
'It's great to see such amazing wildlife right here in Leinster House in the very heart of Dublin, but it's awful sad to see us losing one of the family,' said O'Gorman, the only Green TD in the Dáil.
Just don't tell Danny Healy-Rae or Michael Collins where the rest of them are.
Mildred, we are assured, is still around.
Welcome to the wildly inaccurate Rose county
Don't cry for me, Ballymena...
Maria Walsh
, a former Rose of Tramore, told the EU Parliament in the Brussels town of Strasbourg this week that Ireland and Europe must stand with victims of hate-fuelled crimes and 'show that diversity is a strength, not a threat'.
The Fine Gael MEP for Midlands-Northwest referred to recent public order disturbances in the North during the 'One-minute speeches for matters of political importance' slot on Monday.
With just 60 seconds to get her point across, Walsh, reading carefully from her one-page script, didn't notice a glaring error in her opening line. A microphone malfunction at the start wouldn't have helped either.
'Recent riots on the island of Ireland, which began in the town of Ballymena in Co Leitrim have morphed from concern about a tragic sexual assault allegation into xenophobic violence against migrant families,' she began. 'As Amnesty Northern Ireland director Patrick Corrigan said, we are just one petrol bomb away from racially motivated murder.'
Luckily, Sinn Féin's eagle-eyed observers spotted her geographical gaffe and, in the spirit of comradely co-operation, a member of the comms team took to social media to point it out. 'Could someone please provide Fine Gael with a map of Ireland?' Luke O'Riordan asked, attaching a video clip of the moment.
As it happened, the error was spotted a couple of days before this generous intervention. The clip Walsh posted to her own account had already been seamlessly edited with no reference to Leitrim, the Wild Rose County.
AK-47 is reloaded and the safety catch is off
Former Labour leader
Alan Kelly
is enjoying something of a renaissance these days, what with chairing the Oireachtas Media Committee and a nicely blossoming Dáil double-act with Minister for Justice
Jim O'Callaghan
.
Kelly has suddenly become the man with the inside track on issues of concern in the world of law enforcement. He says he has told the minister more about what is going on than his Garda Commissioner,
Drew Harris
.
He was talking about the overdue remedial work on Garda stations, particularly those affected by asbestos. Why has the Commissioner not given the minister details of people at risk and situations where the State may be exposed to claims?
'Does this not create a huge risk that you really need to put close to the top of your pile as regards the issues the Commissioner hasn't told you about? Maybe you need to have a truth and reconciliation meeting with the Commissioner. Perhaps you need to sit down and say, 'Hey Commissioner! Do you know what, you're out the gap there on the first of September. Is there anything else in the long list of issues that you haven't told me about?''
The following day, Kelly told the Dáil that he was the first person to inform the Minister that undercover gardaí supplied guns to Evan Fitzgerald, the young man who took his own life at a Carlow shopping centre on June 1st.
He said he rang O'Callaghan on June 3rd to let him know of the involvement of undercover gardaí. 'Is it correct that I had to tell him to go to the Garda Commissioner and ask him about the full details in relation to this case?'
He has already revealed information about garda holsters, importation issues with guns, drugs in HQ, thousands of missing fingerprints.
'I can guarantee you many of the other issues still have not been brought your attention,' he said, ominously.
'So I would encourage you to have that truth and reconciliation meeting very soon. Otherwise, I'm going to be coming in here on many many more issues that you're not bloody well aware of.'
Justice Questions might be worth watching in the future.
