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Seán Patrick Donlan is a Professor of Law at Thompson Rivers University (Canada). He formerly taught Irish law at the University of Limerick and has published on comparative legal history, as well as Irish history, politics, and film. For many, the Republic’s presidential campaign has been disappointing. Neither the rioting right nor social conservatives fielded a candidate. Fianna Fáil’s man withdrew, though, electorally at least, he hasn’t gone away you know. For Fine Gael, a Northern protestant promised constructive acknowledgement of the island’s diversity. But if Heather Humphreys is a sound politician and a lovely lady, she was a poor candidate. For many on the political left, the campaign has been energizing after a long period in governmental exile. But some of us, at the cusp of the traditional parties and the left, may feel lost in political limbolands. Too often, our ideological cousins seem to support Catherine Connolly for dubious motives, either to blacken the eye of the government and/or with fantasies about the actual or appropriate political power of the presidency. Recent commentary about cohabitation, referring to the French constitutional model, should give us pause. Its unique approach gives their president considerable power. This is dampened where a later parliamentary government is of a different political hue, forcing the two, with respective mandates, to work together. But the French president retains significantly more power than the Irish constitution and conventions permit. Indeed, apathy and indifference towards the Áras is arguably more appropriate than its occupation by an idealogue, particularly one with a record of questionable judgement, problematic allies, and sometimes brazen public evasion. President Higgins has occasionally challenged, perhaps crossed, appropriate presidential/political boundaries. Despite her remarks, it’s unclear where Deputy Connolly believes the border to be. The possibility of a partisan presidency, actively at odds with a government, is worrying enough, whatever their politics. And despite the support of parties across the left, moderate and marginal, Connolly’s stated beliefs sometimes reflect quite peripheral points of view. If her advocates praise her (selective) directness, her opinions, too often indelicately expressed, extend to an often distorted, naïve, image of global affairs. The election is a reminder, too, that the Republic’s political history has long inhibited the development of a large, broadly representative centre left party. Instead, progressive opinion has extended from within both traditional parties of government to a variety of small, shifting factions almost permanently in opposition. Several members of these left parties were uneasy, for personal and political reasons, with the Connolly candidacy. The contest has also exposed flaws in the presidential electoral system. Its nomination requirements, for example, serve a useful purpose in filtering out fringe views. But the absence of a more robust range of opinions and options, and the late collapse of Jim Gavin’s candidacy, quickly pushed the race into a vulgar either/or referendum on the present government rather than the largely formal role of the Irish President. Events are conspiring to give Deputy Connolly a victory, possibly a lopsided triumph, perhaps with low turnout and with the threat of spoiled votes for Gavin. And a President Connolly may, of course, still surprise us with political restraint and decorum, successfully containing her political conceits and natural loquaciousness. If so, it’ll be interesting to see how her passionate supporters respond to such to such principles.
