There used to be a semi-joke told in Derry, about the young man who approached a young lady and asked if she would dance with him. Her reply was succinct:”Take me sister – Ah’m sweatin’ ”
Heather Humphries may appreciate that one for two reasons. In the first place, we’re told, she’s from the northern part of the state and so will have an understanding of and empathy for the unionist people across the border. Or to put it another way, Heather is a Protestant and a Protestant President would reassure northern Protestants/unionists that they would be shown respect in a new Ireland, right up to the office of president. The second reason Heather would get the joke is that she is Fine Gael’s second choice, not their first. With Mairead McGuinness giving a Presidential run the thumb’s down, her party has turned to Heather.
No one in Fine Gael will want any emphasis on this second-choice thing. There was a FG spokesperson on RTÉ radio yesterday burbling about “the depth of talent” that Fine Gael possesses. The implication was that having their second choice as candidate is every bit as good as having their first. No it’s not.
But hey- let’s be positive. Heather is a nice smiling, pleasant woman who presumably discharged her duties as Minister for Arts,Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Minister for Social Protection and Minister for Rural and Community Development with high competence. Now -I’ll count to ten and you can give me three – OK, OK, just one – one achievement of Heather’s in any of these posts?… Me neither.
But won’t the sight of a Protestant President allay unionist fears about their place in a reunited Ireland? That’d be a possibility but highly unlikely. Ireland has already had two Protestants as President – Douglas Hyde and Erskine Childers – and northern unionists don’t seem to have cared much. Besides, the election of Barak Obama as US President was hailed as a major breakthrough for black people in the US. And yes, there were fewer black people in prison during Obama’s term of office. But that actually was part of a general diminishment of prison occupants. In short, Obama’s election didn’t really change anything for black people. And let’s not forget the US President is a political role, whereas Irish president is largely ceremonial.
Heather for President? In the words of Shania Twain, that don’t impress me much.
North eastern unionists would not care if EVERY President was a Protestant. They would not give a fig if every TD was a Protestant. They prefer to live in a state created by them for them.
Very good Jude free Palestine