Read The Race for the Áras Online
Authors: Tom Reddy
The Race for the Áras (35 page)
The blame for Fine Gael's failure to win the Ãras should be shared by the candidate and the party, Collins said.
The key people who masterminded the most successful general election in the history of the party last February knew that Gay Mitchell was not the best candidate for the presidency but they did not do nearly enough to let their
TD
s and councillors know of their concerns.
Then when Mitchell was selected against their better judgment he was largely left to his own devices ⦠By the time the party leadership focused on the election, it was too late ⦠The
TD
s, councillors and party activists who selected the candidate blithely assumed the presidency was theirs for the taking. They have suffered a rude awakening.
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âI sent fake
SF
tweet,' an anonymous man confirmed to the
Irish Mail on Sunday
. The tweet Pat Kenny had read out on âThe Frontline' was a fake. It had thrown Gallagher's composure, and under pressure from McGuinness he said he may have collected an envelope from Hugh Morgan. Sinn Féin had always denied it sent the message.
Interviewed anonymously by email, the 33-year-old man described himself as not a member of any political party and at present as working in Dublin at a social media company and previously in Government departments. âWhen I noticed the mainstream media were not questioning Gallagher enough, I decided to tweet during the debate. I had no plan to impact on the campaign at the start. I voted for McG, but I am not a member of
SF
. However, I have voted
SF
recently as they have policies I support.' Asked about
RTE
broadcasting his message, he said, âIt was a major mess up on their part. I know in other media organisations that the account is genuine and has not been hacked.' He added that he posted the bombshell tweet as âjust a bit of fun' and that he was âjust relaying a rumour'.
On 22 November, Gallagher submitted a 22-page complaint to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland about his âambush' on âThe Frontline'. He was seeking an apology to be broadcast on âThe Frontline', a public hearing that
RTE
should be compelled to attend to explain how a fake tweet purporting to be from Sinn Féin was broadcast, and for
RTE
to publish and implement a policy for the treatment of material posted on the internet.
At 10:39 p.m. a tweet was posted on the account @mcguinness4pres. This was not the official McGuinness campaign account, which was @Martin4Prez2011. The tweet stated: âThe man that Gallagher took the cheque from will be at a press conference tomorrow.'
At 10:49 p.m., immediately after an advertising break, Pat Kenny addressed Gallagher. âOn the Martin McGuinness for President account, Sinn Féin are saying they are going to produce the man who gave you the cheque for five grand.'
At 11:02 p.m. a tweet from the official McGuinness campaign account stated: âAs official campaign twitter for martin we need to point out that we have made no comment on the Gallagher
FF
donation issue.' Gallagher said this tweet was posted to the Ãras11 feed, from which
RTE
had taken the fake tweet earlier, but also to
RTE
's own feed, rtefl.
Gallagher contends that
RTE
knew the original tweet was a fake from that moment but made no attempt to correct it before the end of the programme at 11.28 p.m. He also alleges that
RTE
deliberately concealed information that would have revealed the tweet as a fake by not broadcasting corrective information released by the McGuinness campaign, and that the station made public material that it knew, or ought to have known, was false. He claims that this material distorted a crucial debate and recklessly misled him, the audience and the electorate.
RTE
had abandoned such journalistic norms as may be expected of it to fulfil a âself-appointed role as a game-changer'.
Gallagher added that, notwithstanding this,
RTE
did not make any reference to the official tweet. It failed to draw this information to his attention, or to the attention of McGuinness, the audience, viewers or the electorate at any time during the remaining twenty-six minutes of the live broadcast.
He also accused
RTE
of failing to take reasonable steps to confirm the origin and contents of the fake tweet and of failing to put the tweet to McGuinness's team for corroboration during the preceding commercial break.
A spokesperson for Gallagher confirmed that a legal option of challenging the result of the election in the courts would not be pursued.
RTE
confirmed that it had received the complaint and said that it would be dealing with it through the Broadcasting Authority.
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On the same Sunday, President-elect Higgins went on
RTE
radio to talk about his campaign. He couldn't answer one question: it was still too painful for him, a friend explained. The question was, What would your father think of you becoming President?
It brought back painful memories of a hard childhood and a long journey to the Park. Born in Limerick, his father first rented and then bought a small pub, but it was hard to make ends meet. Five-year-old Michael and his younger brother, John, were sent to live with their unmarried aunt and uncle in Co. Clare. His twin sisters stayed with their parents. When his aunt died, his uncle convinced the Higgins family to move in with him, but, while there was great joy at the reunion, the fifties were a hungry time, with nettles growing on the holed roof and broken windows remaining unrepaired.
Michael attended St Flannan's in Ennis, cycling the round trip of twelve miles every day. He took a job in a local factory to âpay the debts in the local shop' and later worked as a clerical officer in the
ESB
, after abandoning his ambition to train as a teacher in St Patrick's College, Dublin. A friend in the Legion of Mary, Redmond Corbett, would later lend him £200, which he used to go to University College, Galway, where he joined Fianna Fáil. He later studied at the Universities of Manchester and Indiana.
He switched his political affiliation to the Labour Party, inspired by Noël Browne, the former minister who was credited with eradicating
TB
in Ireland. He failed in his Dáil election attempts in 1969 and 1973 but won a seat in the subsequent Seanad elections. The same year he married Sabina, a joint founder of the Focus Theatre group; he had met her in 1969 at a party in the house of journalist Mary Kenny, celebrating Kenny's appointment as women's editor of the
Irish Press
. âI was just blown over the night I met him,' recalled Sabina (69). âI reached out and held his hand and that was that.' Sabina gave up acting but remained active in community theatre and drama education and did a masters degree in drama when she was sixty.
As a committed Irish-speaker and as Minister for Arts in two coalition Governments, between 1993 and 1997 he established
TG
4 and scrapped the ban under section 31 of the Broadcasting Act on broadcasting interviews with Sinn Féin.
The outgoing President, Mary McAleese, sent a final message to the country's citizens, saying she had set the theme of building bridges for her Presidency, and she hoped that she had honoured that theme.
I finish my second term as President in a very different Ireland from the one we knew in the winter of 1997. Then, both peace and prosperity seemed elusive. Peace eventually came âdropping slow' but it was sturdily built.
Prosperity landed like a whirlwind bringing increased quality of life and a multicultural society but its foundations were weak and so, as we struggle out of recession, unemployment and indebtedness, the deep desire for a prosperous island at peace is the enterprise we are all committed to by working together in friendship and good neighbourliness. Our problems were all of human makingâour solutions too are mostly in our own gift.
I have been privileged during the last fourteen years to see the fruits of the work of so many problem-solvers and so many bridge-builders. I look forward to seeing a new generation succeed in making prosperity and peace ârhyme' at last, transforming the story of this island into something the world will talk about with respect and awe for centuries to come. As I approach the final days of my time as President of Ireland, I thank the people of Ireland who, fourteen years ago, placed their trust and faith in me.
I hope I have vindicated that faith in the intervening years when it was my joy and privilege to serve my country.
On the morning of the 11th day of the 11th month of 2011, rain fell ceaselessly, but it miraculously cleared minutes before the new President arrived at Dublin Castle for his inauguration. At 11:25 a.m., having spent the night in the renovated Farmleigh House in the Phoenix Park, President-elect Higgins and his wife travelled through the city-centre streets to the former home of the pre-independence British administration, escorted by an army motorcycle squadron.
Brought to the Connolly Room, where the workers' leader had been brought before execution, he was granted his request for a few minutes' silent reflection and then, accompanied by the Tánaiste, Eamon Gilmore, and the Minister for Education, Ruairà Quinn, he was escorted to the majestic St Patrick's Hall, with its high ceilings and splendid gilt decoration.
At noon an inter-faith celebratory ceremony began, which included Christian, Jewish and Muslim blessings and, for the first time at this ceremony, a humanist reflection. Twenty-five minutes later President-elect Higgins rose from the oak chair specially crafted for the occasion to take the oath of office, administered by the Chief Justice, Susan Denham, witnessed at close hand by his predecessors, the two Marys, who stood behind him.
A fanfare announcing that the new President had taken office was sounded and the presidential flag, with its gold harp on a blue field, was raised at Dublin Castle and Ãras an Uachtaráin. Three Air Corps planes performed a fly-past overhead while simultaneously the army fired a 21-gun salute from Collins Barracks, which echoed across the city centre.
It was just before 1 p.m. when the new President gave his inaugural address, followed by the playing of the national anthem and the inspection of a guard of honour from the 5th Infantry Battalion in the Castle Yard under the command of Capt. Emmet Harney, with the colours carried by Lt Deirdre Carbery, whose father, Col. Declan Carbery, served for a period as aide-de-camp to the outgoing President, Mary McAleese.
President Higgins and his wife were then brought to Ãras an Uachtaráin for lunch with ninety personal guests. They were issued with a badge to wear that allowed them onto buses to ferry them to the Ãras and through security provided by military police. The new President returned to the Castle after 6 p.m. for a state reception held for 1,500 people to celebrate the inauguration.
The newly elected President's inaugural address had begun on a humble note, saying there was no greater honour than to have been elected Uachtarán na hÃireann.
I thank you, the people of Ireland, for the honour you have bestowed upon me and I accept and appreciate the great responsibilities of that office â¦
I wish to acknowledge the immense contribution of those who have previously served in this office, particularly the two great women who have immediately preceded me.
They have made contributions that developed our consciousness of human rights, inclusion, and the important task of deepening and sustaining peace within and between communities in every part of our Island. It is work I will endeavour to continue and build upon.
As your President, I am grateful for the extent of the support, the strong mandate, you have given me. I also realise the challenges that I face, that we face together, in closing a chapter that has left us fragile as an economy but most of all wounded as a society, with unacceptable levels of unemployment, mortgage insecurity, collapsing property values and many broken expectations.
During my campaign for the Presidency, I encountered that pain particularly among the most vulnerable of our people. However, I also recognise the will of all of our people to move beyond anger, frustration or cynicism and to draw on our shared strengths. To close the chapter on that which has failed, that which was not the best version of ourselves as a people, and open a new chapter based on a different version of our Irishnessâwill require a transition in our political thinking, in our view of the public world, in our institutions, and, most difficult of all, in our consciousness â¦
We must seek to build together an active, inclusive citizenship, based on participation, equality, respect for all and the flowering of creativity in all its forms. A confident people is our hope, a people at ease with itself, a people that grasps the deep meaning of the proverb âNà neart go cur le chéile'âour strength lies in our common wealâour social solidarity â¦
My Presidency will be a Presidency of transformation, recognising and building on the many positive initiatives already under way in communities, in the economy, and in individual and collective efforts throughout our land. It will be a Presidency that celebrates all of our possibilities. It will seek to be of assistance and encouragement to investment and job creation, to innovation and original thinkingâa Presidency of ideasârecognising and open to new paradigms of thought and action. It will aspire to turn the best of ideas into living realities for all of our people, realising our limitless possibilitiesâár bhféidearthachtaà gan teorainn â¦
In preparing for my Presidency, I recognise that our long struggle for freedom has produced a people who believe in the right of the individual mind to see the world in its own way and indeed that individual innovation and independence of mind has given Ireland many distinguished contributors in culture and science, often insufficiently celebrated.
However, in more recent years, we saw the rise of a different kind of individualismâcloser to an egotism based on purely material considerationsâthat tended to value the worth of a person in terms of the accumulation of wealth rather then their fundamental dignity. That was our loss, the source in part, of our present difficulties. Now it is time to turn to an older wisdom that, while respecting material comfort and security as a basic right of all, also recognises that many of the most valuable things in life cannot be measured â¦
Our arts celebrate the people talking, singing, dancing and ultimately communing with each other. This is what James Connolly meant when he said that âIreland without her people means nothing to me.' Connolly took pride in the past but, of course, felt that those who excessively worshipped that past were sometimes seeking to escape from the struggle and challenge of the present. He believed that Ireland was a work in progress, a country still to be fully imagined and inventedâand that the future was exhilarating precisely in the sense that it was not fully knowable, measurable.
The demands and the rewards of building a real and inclusive Republic in its fullest sense remain as a challenge for us all, but it is one we should embrace together.