Why Should We Care?

It has become a harder and harder decision as the weeks go by to select who we would like to see as President of our great nation.  Sadly, the difficulties lay not in the basis that they are all exceptional candidates rather that they all have glaring weaknesses.

It has been a campaign of back-stabbing, petty squabbles and shameless degrading of competitors.  No candidate has managed to avoid the use of those tactics mentioned.  If they had, there would be no doubt as to who will become the ninth president of our country.

The amount of attention which is being paid to this election has been nothing short of staggering.  Newspapers, websites and television programmes have dedicated huge proportions of their print and schedules to a decision which in my opinion will have little or no impact on our country.  This idea was perfectly encapsulated by the first two questions of the first live television debate asked by Ryan Tubridy on The Late Late Show.   After months of campaigning county councils and TD’s for their nominations, the time had come for a proper debate.  Unfortunately, we all seemed to forget about the total unimportance of this election.  When the first two questions of the debate regard the funding of each candidate’s campaign and whether they would accept the €250,000 salary you came to the realisation that all the hype isn’t justified.

This is not to say that the role of President is completely meaningless.  The President becomes the face of our country in visits to foreign lands and must represent us with dignity and confidence.  Outgoing Mary McAleese did all this and more.  She will go down as one of Ireland’s greatest Presidents and it is probably her excellence in the role which has added to the cynicism and consternation which has been prevalent in this campaign.  Will any of this year’s contenders be able to live up to the high standard set down their predecessor?

There isn’t a single candidate who has covered themselves in glory as of yet.  Their shameless publicity campaigns and promises of a better tomorrow have been sickening to watch.  Their posters have provided comic relief for road users particularly those of Mary Davis and Gay Mitchell.  It seems that Davis’ advisors have tried to market her as the candidate with sex appeal.  Her full profile images on her posters are more reminiscent of an advertisement for the benefits of Weight Watchers or Slim Fast.  

On the other hand, Gay Mitchell has tried to market himself as a man of the people.  His posters in the towns and cities show him as a hard grafter dressed in a suit ready to fight in the boardrooms for a better Ireland.  In the countryside his posters illustrate him as a man of the land who is ready for a day of toil in the fields and milking parlour.  All bases are covered in this token countryside image.  The elderly farmer, the cattle and the reliable tractor are all in view while Gay himself is protected from the changeable conditions in a navy rain jacket.

Why can’t they just be real about things?  Candidates should treat their voters with more respect than they are.  The citizens of Ireland do not want to hear a bunch of lies about how if we vote for such a person we will immediately return to our position as one of the most economically elite countries on the planet.  Honesty is in such short supply these days that it makes us spit out our tea if we hear a candidate actually talk realistically about Ireland’s problems.  

Sean Gallagher was very hesitant in placing the blame for our economic turmoil on the previous Fianna Fáil government, a move which almost halted his increasing popularity.  Those running for presidency seem to be in a fairy land completely dismissing our huge economic problems as minor speed bumps on our road to recovery.  We don’t want to be treated as infants.  The candidate who is most honest and forthcoming in his views of where Ireland stands today will be the one who will come out on top on October 27^th.