The Race for the Áras (21 page)
Read The Race for the Áras Online
Authors: Tom Reddy
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Speculation continued to mount over who, if anyone, Sinn Féin would nominate. The
Evening Herald
's front page on the previous day said that the party wanted Mickey Harte, whose name had featured in media speculation. âThe party are on the verge of nominating a candidate with Harte thought to be the first choice,' it wrote. A party spokesperson couldn't confirm the story.
Harte, the most successful manager of the Tyrone Gaelic football team, leading it to three all-Ireland titles, was reported to have been approached. His family had been struck by tragedy earlier in the year when his daughter was murdered on her honeymoon. He was now the third possible candidate speculated about who had a strong
GAA
backgroundâoften formerly seen as a prerequisite for a career as a
TD
, as it provided community standing and a ready network of potential canvassers and supporters.
The following day Sinn Féin would put all the speculation to rest.
Martin McGuinness would be the party's nominee for the Presidency. McGuinness had just returned from the United States, where he was on a trade mission that included talks with movie moguls and the possibility of bringing Hollywood to Northern Ireland locations.
McGuinness's name had been floated originally by Mary Lou McDonald at a party Officer Board meeting. There had been discussion about running a
TD
âAdams or McDonald herselfâbut it was thought that they were too close to the general election and that a jump into the race for the Park would damage them politically. There was also the major consideration that significant numbers in the party felt they wouldn't win and couldn't win and that it would be a distraction instead of putting the effort into building on the successes of the general election. There was also the question of financing the campaign.
In effect, the arguments were the same ones that Fianna Fáil was having, except that the latter needed to secure the republican vote and keep Sinn Féin at bay, and to use the campaign to rebuild and rebrand the party.
While senior Sinn Féin sources would always say that Adams undertook to broach the possibility with McGuinness before the ard-fheis, the speed and efficiency shown in getting the posters, brochures and tour logistics into place showed some foresight, or an incredibly efficient machine. Commentators would argue that either was possible.
McGuinness told Adams that he would consider the offer while in the United States, âout of respect for the work that he and I have done'. When he had made his decision he confidentially told Peter Robinson, First Minister of Northern Ireland, that he intended to step down, temporarily or permanently, from his post as Deputy First Minister while he campaigned for the Ãras.
McGuinness's own progress from a Bogside rioter on the streets of Derry forty years earlier to
IRA
commander, then peace negotiator and Deputy First Minister, was as compelling a narrative as any that had been dreamed up in Hollywood. McGuinness said that those who had voted for him in the North would be pleased with his decision to run.
They will be very happy that I, as an Irish republican from the North, will be prepared to stand for the Irish Presidency. The whole all-Ireland nature of the agreements that we have made make it incumbent upon all of
US
to continue to bring aboutâI hopeâthe reunification of Ireland by purely peaceful and democratic means.
Gerry Adams said that McGuinness (61) would be âa people's president', capable of giving hope.
He will dedicate himself to a genuine national reconciliation and the unity of our people. He will personify hope in the great genius and integrity of all the people of this island, Catholics, Protestants and Dissenters.
McGuinness is a mass of apparent contradictions, the editorial of the
Irish Independent
noted. Having been at the heart of the
IRA
terrorist campaign for more than two decades, he became one of the strongest supporters of the peace process within the republican movement during the 1990s. Then, following the Belfast Agreement in 1998, he took to democratic politics like a duck to water.
Will a majority of Irish voters be prepared to elect a former chief of staff of the Provisional
IRA
to a post which includes being commander-in-chief of the Defence Forces among its list of responsibilities?
What is certain is that Mr McGuinness's candidacy will turn what had already been a dirty campaign into an even dirtier one. Every aspect of his sometimes murky past will be dug up in search of damaging material.
His opponents will surely leave no stone unturned as they seek to derail his bid to become the next tenant of Aras an Uachtarain. However, we suspect that Mr McGuinness, as a seasoned campaigner, will be well able to give at least as good as he gets.
The good news, it also suggested, was that the âpugnacious' Gay Mitchell would benefit from McGuinness's entry to the contest, as he would use his candidacy to tap into deep âtribal' loyalties.
Liam Clarke wrote in the
Irish Independent
:
Suddenly Sinn Fein no longer seems the edgy or dangerous choice it once did to southern voters.
Fielding McGuinness is a master stroke. He is a polished performer, people like him and he has instant name recognition in the Republic. If he wins it will enable Sinn Fein to say that they hold high political office on both sides of the Border.
Even if he doesn't win he will, given the other candidates in the field and the absence of a Fianna Fail runner, be more or less guaranteed a creditable vote â¦
Win or lose, it is a useful exercise without any obvious downside.
The Northern editor of the
Irish Times
, Gerry Moriarty, with decades of tenure in the post, looked ahead to how the campaign would evolve.
Martin McGuinness's entry into the presidential race ensures the campaign will be as interesting and as exciting as it will be incendiary and dirty. But whether he gets elected president or not, as far as Sinn Féin is concerned it's a win-win situation.
Sinn Féin sources make two points here: one, that the party has plenty of capable personnel to replace him andâthis said more quietlyâwhile it is campaigning to win the seat, and believes it could shade the election, the emphasis is on how his running would benefit the party across the island, rather than on an actual expectation he will win â¦
There will be questions over the
IRA
in his native Derry. He will be asked once again, as was alleged 18 years ago, whether he encouraged alleged
IRA
informer Frank Hegarty to return to his home in Derry in 1986, only to be murdered by the
IRA
? He will be asked about the circumstances of how in 1990 the
IRA
in Derry turned a civilian, Patsy Gillespie, into a human bomb, and how that bomb was detonated, killing Gillespie and five British soldiersâan action the retired bishop of Derry, Edward Daly, termed as Satanic.
He will be asked many more questions, including, as was also alleged, whether he doubled as a British agent during the Troubles? McGuinness has dealt with all these matters before, but perhaps more so for a northern audience. With McGuinness running, southerners will be asked to look back on the Troubles in a manner most of them previously shied away from.
Moriarty went on to quote a party insider as saying, âThe big losers are Fianna Fáil. Once they left the field we had no choice in the matter.'
A former key member of the Bertie Ahern political machine, his former partner Celia Larkin, wrote a regular column in the
Sunday Independent
commenting on politics and political machinations, drawing on her own unique experience. She accused Micheál Martin of being burned by his solo run regarding Gay Byrne and of waffling indecisively.
Martin is more than a politician. He's a political historian. He should have foreseen problems for the party in relation to outside nominations and had the matter closed off in advance. He should have his eye firmly on the next issues that are important for the party: strategy for the upcoming Dail session and the by-election. Focus. Clarity.
As it is, Sinn Fein is whipping his ass, and looks likely to do so again having nominated Martin McGuinness for the presidency. Let's face it; with a good political candidate, as Mr McGuinness is, it will hoover up disenchanted republican Fianna Fail voters â¦
Martin needs to radically smarten up his act. There is no doubt he has an unenviable job, one few would covet. But great leaders surmount tough times.
For Fianna Fail to have any hope of keeping its head above the political parapet, he needs to shape up or ship out.
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Another
Sunday Independent
/Millward Brown Lansdowne opinion poll showed that Fine Gael was in real trouble. In Government the party had an astounding 40 per cent poll ratingâfour points higher than its record-breaking general election voteâand dominated every social group and region. However, support for Gay Mitchell had fallen since the last opinion poll by four points, to 17 per cent. James MacCarthy-Morrogh on behalf of the pollsters explained that Mitchell's image had deteriorated too, and his scores for âboring', âconservative' and âunknown' were all rising.
Since their previous poll, a fortnight earlier, while Higgins remained the clear front runner, at 32 per cent, support for Davis had risen significantly, by five points, to 18 per cent, only one point behind Norris. Support for Gallagher was also up, by three points, but he still trailed at 14 per cent. MacCarthy-Morrogh commented:
The presence of three strong independents in the field as well as the cross-party appeal of Higgins, has blurred the lines of party loyalty in this campaign. Gay Mitchell is the chief victim of this trend. Backed by one in three fine Gael voters, his campaign loses party supporters in all directions. The Fine Gael party chose its candidate but Mitchell is not, at this point, the one the majority of Fine Gael supporters want in the Park.
The only good news for Mitchell during the campaign came later in the week, when a Behaviour and Attitudes telephone survey of 308 members of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association gave him a preference of 25 per cent, six points higher than Gallagher, with Higgins polling 15 per cent and Davis 10 per cent. However, one in three said they still had to make up their minds.
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Martin McGuinness had hit the ground running. On Sunday the 18th he was at the all-Ireland football final in Croke Park. âI couldn't get away from people after the match coming up to me and wishing me all the best,' he said. The following day he pulled on his wellingtons and travelled to the biggest open-air festival in the country to canvass the 80th National Ploughing Championship in Athy. He had temporarily stepped down from his role as Deputy First Minister at midnight the previous day.
Only Gallagher, suffering an ear infection, did not canvass the Croke Park crowds and that evening called a meeting of his team to wonder, at just ten per cent in the polls, whether or not he should continue in the race.
At another meeting of Gallagher's core group later in the campaign, concerns were raised about how information about Gallagher's campaign was getting into the public domain, giving rise to fears they were being spied on. A private security company was contacted to check their concerns. However, a quote to âsweep' the four-storey building for bugs was never followed through, as the â¬6,000 fee was deemed too expensive.
A flavour of the questions McGuinness would have to consistently face during the campaign about his
IRA
past was put to him in Co. Kildare.
I've never hidden my involvement in the
IRA
. Both the British army and the
RUC
murdered people in my city before the
IRA
fired a shot, and I was part of a young generation that decided to stand against them in the Bogside, in Free Derry, and we did stand against them, and I make no apologies for that.
But I do think that when people examine my life and my role in Irish politics they need to examine it in the round. I've been to Iraq, I've been to Baghdad, I've been to Sri Lanka, I've been to the Basque Country. I wouldn't be asked to go to these places if people didn't think I was an absolutely genuine peacemaker who has a contribution to make to outlining our vision of how we go forward in Ireland.
If people want to examine the past, then let's examine the past of everybody [in the contest]. I'm not going to get into recriminating about the past.
A few days later, interviewed on Ray D'Arcy's Today
FM
show, McGuinness's campaign blipped as he was unable to name the minister for the environment and the number of
TD
s in the Dáilâbut he knew the all-Ireland hurling winners.
The entry of Sinn Féin to the race with such a well-known yet unexpected candidate was devastating for Fianna Fáil and was one of Micheál Martin's darkest hours as its new leader. It had lost the ârepublican-green' vote, its role as principal opposition was now in question, and it now feared handing the centenary celebration of the Easter Rising to Sinn Féin. As dismissive media commentary piled up, Martin would spend the weekend on the phone talking to members of his parliamentary party before their meeting the following Tuesday, trying to bridge the rift in the party.
That same day, Monday the 19th,
RTE
issued a statement saying it had pulled Dana from the eight-part entertainment series âCelebrity Bainisteoir', where she managed and mentored the Co. Derry club Lissan. Even though she had not officially entered the race and was still saying she was âconsidering' her position,
RTE
said that if she did run it would have to pull the complete series, as it would be running throughout the election campaign and into the results period. âIn order to ensure
RTE
is unequivocally in a position to comply with our obligations for fairness and balance under broadcasting legislation, Dana has been asked to stand aside,' the statement said. Her library of hits was also suspended from the
RTE
playlist.