President Michael D: A Day is a Long Time in Politics
Deaglán de Bréadún
RTE’s “Naked Presidential Election” was a lively piece of work – and great free publicity for what the late Bernard Levin* would have called “The Irish Another Newspaper”!
There will be near-universal good will towards Michael D. Higgins as he takes up office following tomorrow’s inauguration. The chattering classes will try to shut out of their minds the fact that he owes his victory to the intervention by former IRA leader Martin McGuinness and an anonymous figure in Twitterland.
Labour folk have told me that, the day before the “Frontline” programme, the Higgins campaign was in despair: all seemed irretrievably lost. But as Harold Wilson** ought to have said: “A day is a long time in politics.”
*Bernard Levin was a columnist with The Times of London and referred to its great rival, The Daily Telegraph, as “The Daily Another Newspaper.”
**British PM Harold Wilson said: “A week is a long time in politics.”
