30 October 1997 Edition
McAleese victory would be a defeat for anti-nationalist faction
BY SEAN Mac BRADAIGH
John Bruton and Eoghan Harris are exposed as inhabiting a political world which is a million miles from where most Irish people are at
A poll in Wednesday's Irish Times, taken with three days remaining in the Irish Presidential election, showed further consolidation of Mary McAleese's lead.
In the poll McAleese stood at 46%, sixteen points ahead of her nearest contender, the Fine Gael candidate Mary Banotti. Independent candidate Dana, the Labour, DL and Green Party supported candidate Adi Roche and Independent Derek Nally stood at 10%, 8% and 5% respectively.
All candidates apart from McAleese and Dana lost voter support since the previous poll.
The Irish Times/MRBI opinion poll also showed that a majority of the transfers from the bottom three candidates would go to McAleese who now seems set to be elected on the second count. Among those aged under 24 and also 25 to 34, support for McAleese exceeds the total of all the other candidates put together.
The scale of this McAleese support has dealt a severe body blow to the anti-national political faction in the 26 Counties. The attempt to destroy McAleese's bid for the Presidency by a sustained and determined smear campaign has backfired badly leaving the small but vociferous group of anti-nationalists an increasingly isolated and beleaguered group within Irish political life.
The efforts to link McAleese to Sinn Féin, the pathetic staged outrage of John Bruton over remarks by Gerry Adams that he would vote for McAleese, the manipulation of Derek Nally's campaign by such as Eoghan Harris and John Caden for purposes of character assassination of McAleese, and the leaking of confidential government documents aimed at damaging her campaign and more importantly the entire Peace Process, have all done the opposite to what was intended. They have backfired for John Bruton and Fine Gael in particular ensuring that his own level of public support has dropped massively and ensuring that the Fine Gael candidate, Mary Banotti will not be elected President.
All of this has been highly significant in political terms. It demonstrated that association with Sinn Féin or support from leading republicans is not a political `kiss of death'. John Bruton and Eoghan Harris are exposed as inhabiting a political world which is a million miles from where most Irish people are at. It shows that anti-republicanism is increasingly rejected by the younger generation in the 26 Counties. And it indicates that the phoney liberalism espoused by the most reactionary political elements in the 26 Counties is entirely transparent to most of the population here.
What is also clear is that many people will now vote for Mary McAleese who would not have done so had the political climate of the Presidential race not been raised to such temperatures by the attacks made against her. McAleese can in particular thank John Bruton for this. She can also thank those, whoever they were, who thought they were being clever by leaking Department of Foreign Affairs documents. As we go to press a file has been sent to the DPP in relation to a Fine Gael adviser to Gay Mitchell TD who was arrested in relation to the leaked documents.
For many who had serious reservations regarding McAleese's political links with the Catholic hierarchy and her conservatism on a number of issues in the past, the fact that McCarthyite anti-nationalists had declared war on McAleese changed everything and made voting for her a realistic option.
The election which started out as a dull affair has now marked what could become a watershed in Irish political life. The leader of the Labour Party has been exposed as not such a clever Dick after all. Having attempted to arrogate the Robinson Presidency for themselves, Spring and the Labour Party thought they had another winning formula this time around. But their lack of imagination and patronising attitude towards the electorate has been thrown back in their face. The Adi Roche campaign has been a disaster for Labour and DL and has also put a large dint in Dick Spring's armour. The Roche campaign was obsessed with emphasising terms such as `young', `modern', `European' to such a simplistic and repetitive extent that it seemed those behind the campaign were convinced that anything old, traditional or national was bad. They believed this had worked in the Robinson campaign and it would work again. But such simplistic rubbish showed a complete lack of understanding of the complexities and maturity of the Irish electorate. Couple all this with the serious miscalculation of John Bruton and Fine Gael, it seems that a political realignment is called for in the 26 Counties.
Fine Gael, Labour and DL have been shown to be seriously out of touch with the electorate, particularly when it comes to attitudes towards the North. They are being made to pay for pursuing an ideological crusade which is very much out of date and out of synch with the people. Younger voters in particular have no time for this tired old excuse for political debate and those parties who continue to trot it out must now seriously reconsider their position. Unless they change they will continue to suffer at the polls. For these parties, the 1997 Presidential campaign could well prove to be a turning point on the learning curve for a new political era.
John Bruton and Eoghan Harris are exposed as inhabiting a political world which is a million miles from where most Irish people are at
A poll in Wednesday's Irish Times, taken with three days remaining in the Irish Presidential election, showed further consolidation of Mary McAleese's lead.
In the poll McAleese stood at 46%, sixteen points ahead of her nearest contender, the Fine Gael candidate Mary Banotti. Independent candidate Dana, the Labour, DL and Green Party supported candidate Adi Roche and Independent Derek Nally stood at 10%, 8% and 5% respectively.
All candidates apart from McAleese and Dana lost voter support since the previous poll.
The Irish Times/MRBI opinion poll also showed that a majority of the transfers from the bottom three candidates would go to McAleese who now seems set to be elected on the second count. Among those aged under 24 and also 25 to 34, support for McAleese exceeds the total of all the other candidates put together.
The scale of this McAleese support has dealt a severe body blow to the anti-national political faction in the 26 Counties. The attempt to destroy McAleese's bid for the Presidency by a sustained and determined smear campaign has backfired badly leaving the small but vociferous group of anti-nationalists an increasingly isolated and beleaguered group within Irish political life.
The efforts to link McAleese to Sinn Féin, the pathetic staged outrage of John Bruton over remarks by Gerry Adams that he would vote for McAleese, the manipulation of Derek Nally's campaign by such as Eoghan Harris and John Caden for purposes of character assassination of McAleese, and the leaking of confidential government documents aimed at damaging her campaign and more importantly the entire Peace Process, have all done the opposite to what was intended. They have backfired for John Bruton and Fine Gael in particular ensuring that his own level of public support has dropped massively and ensuring that the Fine Gael candidate, Mary Banotti will not be elected President.
All of this has been highly significant in political terms. It demonstrated that association with Sinn Féin or support from leading republicans is not a political `kiss of death'. John Bruton and Eoghan Harris are exposed as inhabiting a political world which is a million miles from where most Irish people are at. It shows that anti-republicanism is increasingly rejected by the younger generation in the 26 Counties. And it indicates that the phoney liberalism espoused by the most reactionary political elements in the 26 Counties is entirely transparent to most of the population here.
What is also clear is that many people will now vote for Mary McAleese who would not have done so had the political climate of the Presidential race not been raised to such temperatures by the attacks made against her. McAleese can in particular thank John Bruton for this. She can also thank those, whoever they were, who thought they were being clever by leaking Department of Foreign Affairs documents. As we go to press a file has been sent to the DPP in relation to a Fine Gael adviser to Gay Mitchell TD who was arrested in relation to the leaked documents.
For many who had serious reservations regarding McAleese's political links with the Catholic hierarchy and her conservatism on a number of issues in the past, the fact that McCarthyite anti-nationalists had declared war on McAleese changed everything and made voting for her a realistic option.
The election which started out as a dull affair has now marked what could become a watershed in Irish political life. The leader of the Labour Party has been exposed as not such a clever Dick after all. Having attempted to arrogate the Robinson Presidency for themselves, Spring and the Labour Party thought they had another winning formula this time around. But their lack of imagination and patronising attitude towards the electorate has been thrown back in their face. The Adi Roche campaign has been a disaster for Labour and DL and has also put a large dint in Dick Spring's armour. The Roche campaign was obsessed with emphasising terms such as `young', `modern', `European' to such a simplistic and repetitive extent that it seemed those behind the campaign were convinced that anything old, traditional or national was bad. They believed this had worked in the Robinson campaign and it would work again. But such simplistic rubbish showed a complete lack of understanding of the complexities and maturity of the Irish electorate. Couple all this with the serious miscalculation of John Bruton and Fine Gael, it seems that a political realignment is called for in the 26 Counties.
Fine Gael, Labour and DL have been shown to be seriously out of touch with the electorate, particularly when it comes to attitudes towards the North. They are being made to pay for pursuing an ideological crusade which is very much out of date and out of synch with the people. Younger voters in particular have no time for this tired old excuse for political debate and those parties who continue to trot it out must now seriously reconsider their position. Unless they change they will continue to suffer at the polls. For these parties, the 1997 Presidential campaign could well prove to be a turning point on the learning curve for a new political era.