Mannix Flynn to run for President... in support of Michael D
MANNIX Flynn has told the Irish Mail on Sunday the Presidential election campaign has turned into a circus of ‘clowns and conspiracy theory advocates’.
And the long-standing public representative lambasted mainstream parties for not coming out to bat for President Michael D Higgins.
He told the MoS: ‘I am entering the race to stand up for the integrity of the office and of the current office-holder.
‘The Office of the President is being fatally undermined by the calibre of the candidates currently running – all these dragons and celebrities.’
He added: ‘I am coming into play as a candidate that supports Michael D. He is being undermined by figures with serious money.’
And he singled out dragon Peter Casey, saying the Presidency was ‘being damaged when you get people like Casey turning up saying that they will do it for nothing at all’.
‘The President is the nation’s Commander in Chief and he and his office are entitled to respect. Instead this race has consisted of a mix of circusstyle clowns and conspiracy theory advocates,’ he said. The contest was, he said like ‘watching a child climb up to the roof and take a tumble’. He said: ‘The silence of our mainstream politicians is a disgrace, they should be defending our Commander in Chief.’
And while Sinn Féin have yet to field a candidate, the party was also in the firing line, with Mr Flynn warning that ‘any Sinn Féin candidate who runs is automatically admitting the President is Commander in Chief of the Irish Army and that the Army is our official defence forces’.
Therefore, the candidate should ‘make a declaration of recognition and apologise for previous attacks on the Army’.
Meanwhile, sources in the Sean Gallagher camp are claiming he has been boosted by ‘the level and variety of support he is receiving from councillors’.
‘He is particularly surprised by significant support from Fine Gael councillors,’ the insider said.
Despite discouraging poll news last week, Mr Gallagher has ‘secured the support of over two hundred councillors; we are treating this almost like a Seanad campaign’, insiders said.
‘Forget polls, the councillors are the ones with their ear to the ground. They are the ones most aware of what the people are saying,’ they said.
It also emerged that those councillors who have declared for Mr Gallagher are not inclined to switch to other candidates should Mr Gallagher get a nomination.
One local representative noted: ‘This is not a charity shop for hopeful Presidential candidates. The process has to have some dignity and candidates need to have some qualifications.’
‘A mix of clowns and conspiracy theorists’
THIS Presidential election malarkey is rapidly going from bad to worse. The incumbent, Michael D Higgins, has already abandoned the solemn promise he made before the last election not to seek a second term. Now he wants to continue drawing €249,000 a year for the next seven years and preside over an annual spend of well over €4m (and rising) to pay for the trappings of office he has obviously taken quite a shine to.
As for the growing band of wishful thinkers with ambitions to unseat him – well, what an unlikely parade of unimpressive drabness they all present.
Included in that lot are three socalled Dragons, turning this election farce into something resembling a scene out of Game Of Thrones.
The Donald Trump television celebrity virus has crossed the Atlantic and infected Irish politics as well.
NOW we have to listen to an extraordinary cacophony from would-be candidates for President which goes to prove the blindingly obvious – this is a makeyup job, an absurd political contrivance that should never have been there in the first place.
All this cheap jockeying for position, this undignified, see-through and self-serving positioning by way of ridiculous skirmishing and intervention before the real campaign for the Áras begins is the result of another failure of Irish politics to function as intended.
Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin have both abandoned the notion of true leadership and good authority by simply refusing to compete.
Both have failed the test set by Martin Luther King that the ultimate measure for us all is where we stand at times of challenge and adversity.
The Taoiseach and Micheál Martin refused to line out for the Presidential election because almost certain defeat would undermine their political credibility.
They preferred to save their money for a general election where real political power is up for grabs – even if that meant presenting Sinn Féin with a golden opportunity for weeks upon weeks of favourable publicity.
By their cynical embrace of undisguised self-interest the leaders of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have helped to turn this election into a dangerous mockery.
They have allowed the election become a thing of fantasy and illusion, with the Presidency itself elevated beyond its powers by amateurs who simply do not know, or refuse to acknowledge, the strict parameters of the office.
That’s why journalist Gemma O’Doherty is able to say how much she despairs for Ireland as if she’ll be able to do anything about that above in Phoenix Park, if elected.
Gavin Duffy makes his own significant contribution to this extraordinary tsunami of rubbish by talking about the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ power of the President, whatever that means.
ONE thing is at least clear – Duffy will take the full wedge of €325,000 annually for the job if we’re mad enough to elect him. That alone, with Michael D delighted on €75,000 less, is ample reason to leave things as they are. The latest Dragon to enter the den is Peter Casey. He’s obviously so wealthy that he promises not to even take a salary if elected, all the time blissfully unaware of the backhanded insult that represents to the vast majority of Irish people striving to make ends meet.
Casey’s ‘no salary’ commitment is the modern-day capitalist twist on noblesse oblige, a concept – with notions of patronage and poverty – that is so glaringly repugnant in a country self-describing as a republic. And then there’s Sean Gallagher, back for his consolation prize after the blackguarding he was subjected to the last time from RTÉ. He, too, is still not immune to the mandatory gibberish about redefining the role of the Presidency and finding a ‘fresh approach’.
Tragically, what should be a straight-forward, pull ’em out, drag ’em down, political battle for the right to retire in luxury for seven years in the best nursing home in the world has turned into an even bigger farce than it necessarily has always been.
As they say on Dragons’ Den: I’ve listened to what they’ve said, considered their contributions, weighed and measured as best I can; but having regard to my current position and where I want to go with this country, I’m afraid – with this bunch of candidates – I’m OUT.