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Anthony McIntyre  ☠ A presidential election invariably drills down to the quantum level where everything from the sub atomic world is dissected and pulled apart for the purpose of showing that the reality projected by the candidates is not quite what it seems.

A misplaced word is amplified, a blemish magnified, the landscape strewn with tripwires waiting to detonate booby traps.  As saints don’t make presidents, there are faults and foibles aplenty. While I might not agree with the perspectives of a particular presidential hopeful, I admire the raw courage they bring to the table in the full knowledge that an atomic drill is going to burrow into every aspect of their lives, political and private. 

Jim Gavin fell at the second fence. The withdrawal of the Fianna Fail candidate from the race to the Aras is even more of a game changer than the Sinn Fein decision not to run its own candidate and row in behind Catherine Connolly instead.

Gavin understands the world of GAA and would be alert to the dirty tackle. What he found was that the clean tackle can be every bit as damaging, even more so because of its fair delivery. No cry of foul play to be heard. 

Whatever the truth behind the allegations pertaining to financial malfeasance on the part of the former Dublin GAA boss, it gifted his detractors a penalty kick into an open net. The less kind amongst those critics would have insinuated that his transgression is a further example of Fianna Fail landlords screwing their tenants. Not exactly how a candidate wants depicted in an election where 'housing crisis' repeats itself ad nauseam. It has proven to be Gavin's Sean Gallagher moment in which the brown envelope contained his eviction notice.

Micheal Martin must take the lion's share of the blame for the calamity that has unfolded, having sent a political gazelle into the lions' den. Having criticised the judgement of Catherine Connolly for offering a job to a former republican prisoner who was up to the task at hand, the least the Taoiseach can do is question his own judgement about his choice of a candidate for the presidency who was very much not up to the task. Judicious it was most definitely not, with Gavin's rival for the party nomination stating correctly that 'it went so horribly wrong, so quickly.” There is no need to ask for whom the bells toll. 

Moreover, at a time when US president Donald Trump has been riding the wave of strong populist and anti-democratic sentiment which seeks to usurp both political institutions and the politicians who staff them, Michael Martin inexplicably chooses someone from outside politics over Billy Kelleher, who has vast political experience, to serve as President of Ireland. What a message that is to conservative Catholicism and the far right in Ireland, a boost for people like Maria Steen and Conor McGregor. 

Jim Gavin’s performance in yesterday's The Week In Politics was a car crash. Heather Humphreys despite some drunk driving managed to keep her vehicle on the road. Had she rendered a verse of the sash my husband wore it would have been much less damaging than the Gavin dropped ball.

Catherine Connolly performed admirably, demonstrating the firm ethical hand required to pick up the baton from Michael D Higgins and guide the diplomatic ship of state. Presidential in style, resolute in the clarity she brings to the great issues of our time, she infuses the diplomatic arena with the acumen that Jim Gavin brought to the sports field. When she can't be brow beaten over her job offer to Ursula Ní Shionnáin, she is pressed to explain her concerns about German rearmament.

Here's the thing: for the second time in less than a hundred years Germany has been supporting genocide. Connolly’s point about rearming has to be seen in this context. She is not opposed to a country increasing its arms spending if it is genuinely for defensive purposes but is very much opposed to a country that supports aggressive wars finding excuses to increase arms spending. If it was authentic defence spending, fine, but in the Orwellian world where war is called peace and Tony Blair is feted like a roving ambassador rather than a war criminal, there is every reason for the Irish president to raise her hand and say hold on a minute.

Germany more than any other nation on this planet should have its moral antennae vibrating off the chart when a genocide is taking place. But its guilt over the Holocaust has led it to licence those it feels are descendants of those targeted by the Nazi genocide to perpetrate another genocide. When a country like Germany supports a state that commits genocide Ireland should embrace a president who has the courage to question the purpose of its military expenditure. 

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Gav Is Gone

Anthony McIntyre  ☠ A presidential election invariably drills down to the quantum level where everything from the sub atomic world is dissected and pulled apart for the purpose of showing that the reality projected by the candidates is not quite what it seems.

A misplaced word is amplified, a blemish magnified, the landscape strewn with tripwires waiting to detonate booby traps.  As saints don’t make presidents, there are faults and foibles aplenty. While I might not agree with the perspectives of a particular presidential hopeful, I admire the raw courage they bring to the table in the full knowledge that an atomic drill is going to burrow into every aspect of their lives, political and private. 

Jim Gavin fell at the second fence. The withdrawal of the Fianna Fail candidate from the race to the Aras is even more of a game changer than the Sinn Fein decision not to run its own candidate and row in behind Catherine Connolly instead.

Gavin understands the world of GAA and would be alert to the dirty tackle. What he found was that the clean tackle can be every bit as damaging, even more so because of its fair delivery. No cry of foul play to be heard. 

Whatever the truth behind the allegations pertaining to financial malfeasance on the part of the former Dublin GAA boss, it gifted his detractors a penalty kick into an open net. The less kind amongst those critics would have insinuated that his transgression is a further example of Fianna Fail landlords screwing their tenants. Not exactly how a candidate wants depicted in an election where 'housing crisis' repeats itself ad nauseam. It has proven to be Gavin's Sean Gallagher moment in which the brown envelope contained his eviction notice.

Micheal Martin must take the lion's share of the blame for the calamity that has unfolded, having sent a political gazelle into the lions' den. Having criticised the judgement of Catherine Connolly for offering a job to a former republican prisoner who was up to the task at hand, the least the Taoiseach can do is question his own judgement about his choice of a candidate for the presidency who was very much not up to the task. Judicious it was most definitely not, with Gavin's rival for the party nomination stating correctly that 'it went so horribly wrong, so quickly.” There is no need to ask for whom the bells toll. 

Moreover, at a time when US president Donald Trump has been riding the wave of strong populist and anti-democratic sentiment which seeks to usurp both political institutions and the politicians who staff them, Michael Martin inexplicably chooses someone from outside politics over Billy Kelleher, who has vast political experience, to serve as President of Ireland. What a message that is to conservative Catholicism and the far right in Ireland, a boost for people like Maria Steen and Conor McGregor. 

Jim Gavin’s performance in yesterday's The Week In Politics was a car crash. Heather Humphreys despite some drunk driving managed to keep her vehicle on the road. Had she rendered a verse of the sash my husband wore it would have been much less damaging than the Gavin dropped ball.

Catherine Connolly performed admirably, demonstrating the firm ethical hand required to pick up the baton from Michael D Higgins and guide the diplomatic ship of state. Presidential in style, resolute in the clarity she brings to the great issues of our time, she infuses the diplomatic arena with the acumen that Jim Gavin brought to the sports field. When she can't be brow beaten over her job offer to Ursula Ní Shionnáin, she is pressed to explain her concerns about German rearmament.

Here's the thing: for the second time in less than a hundred years Germany has been supporting genocide. Connolly’s point about rearming has to be seen in this context. She is not opposed to a country increasing its arms spending if it is genuinely for defensive purposes but is very much opposed to a country that supports aggressive wars finding excuses to increase arms spending. If it was authentic defence spending, fine, but in the Orwellian world where war is called peace and Tony Blair is feted like a roving ambassador rather than a war criminal, there is every reason for the Irish president to raise her hand and say hold on a minute.

Germany more than any other nation on this planet should have its moral antennae vibrating off the chart when a genocide is taking place. But its guilt over the Holocaust has led it to licence those it feels are descendants of those targeted by the Nazi genocide to perpetrate another genocide. When a country like Germany supports a state that commits genocide Ireland should embrace a president who has the courage to question the purpose of its military expenditure. 

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.
Anthony McIntyre Catherine Connolly Irish Presidency 2025 Jim Gavin

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