Dana's vision of moving forward as a stable nation united under God

`Well, I have come from Alabama and own a banjo but I never learned how to play it," jokes Dana as she settles down to do this interview in Dublin's Jurys Hotel.

She's directing a well-aimed - and some would say much-deserved - slap on the wrist to Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole, who recently presented in print that particular caricature of our would-be President. And no, she won't be releasing Oh Susannah as her presidential theme song.

More seriously, and maybe more to the point, as a person who defines "freedom of the press as meaning that the press is free to print the truth and the reader then makes up his or her mind", Dana believes that "abuse of that freedom is when the press is free to write its own agenda and therefore feeds people propaganda."

As such, she is not surprised by what she describes as "so-called liberal publications trying to ridicule opposing views, which don't serve that agenda" in the media in general.

"But a lot of these attacks are just knee-jerk stuff. Not just ag ainst me, or maybe more so what people regard my religious base to be, but against the people I believe I can represent," she elaborates.

"Yet these people approached me. I didn't wake up one morning and say `I want to be President' or choose to stand in a shooting gallery, which is how it has been. You'd think I'd declared nuclear war. In fact, all I did was dared to say there is a vast amount of people in this country who feel they have a right to speak and are not being listened to."

Nevertheless, Dana rejects the suggestion that her natural constituency is "Christian fundamentalists" or "the Catholic right". She describes herself as "someone who tries to go to the middle ground, definitely not a right-wing fanatic."

When originally approached by Terry O'Mahoney, who was representing a Christian Alliance Organisation, she rejected the notion of going forward for President because, she says, "I basically didn't want to know these people."

However, after "the response to the idea grew more widespread", Dana did align herself with the group which she insists is made up of "a broad cross-section of the community" and clarifies her position by stating: "I would not take one step forward for anyone else's dream if I didn't believe it was right."

But what does all this mean? That Dana as President would, for example, push her anti-abortion agenda, opposition to divorce and seek to haul Ireland back into a pre-liberal era? "Firstly, I don't care who the people on this committee are. I would go it alone, if I had to, now that I know what the problem in this country is," she responds, adding that no, she is not being bankrolled by anyone and that she and her husband have funded costs thus far.

Surely the point is that the majority of the electorate did vote for divorce and for access to information on abortion, the latter a development Dana once predicted would be "the first step on the road to abortion in Ireland."

Does she still feel this way? Would she, to repeat an earlier question, rather pull people back to a time when such rights were being denied?

`Yes, I am absolutely pro-life and I make no apologies for that. I have always believed that abortion kills the child, wounds the mother and can kill the soul of a nation. If we can't teach our young people that to deliberately take the life of another person is wrong, then God help us.

"And, yes, I am opposed to divorce, though obviously neither God nor man expects anyone to stay in a marriage that is, say, abusive. But we have to tilt the law to preserve the marriage, wherever possible, because the family is the fundamental unit in society.

"Yet that's not just my point of view, that's what it says in the Constitution. You talk of me wanting to haul Ireland back to a `pre-liberal era' but what is the alternative? Look at America. Why are they trying to legislate morality, passing through Congress the law that you can't teach sex education in schools without first teaching abstinence?

"You've got to build up the Christian ethic in a country. That's what Ireland needs, not to go back to anything, to move forward in a more stable sense."

Surely some people would argue that "the alternative" to Dana's "Christian ethic" is a liberal-pluralist society which does not, for example, legislate against single mothers or gays and, indeed, grants each group its right to regard itself as a "fundamental unit" in society? Does Dana acknowledge these rights?

"Single mothers can describe themselves as part of a family unit and I would even argue that the constitutional rights for the single mother should be expanded," she responds. "But, the family is defined, in this country and universally, as involving children which, to me, is not really a factor in relation to gays."

Focusing even more specifically on what she perceives to be the core problem in contemporary Ireland, Dana argues that "you've got to have an ultimate authority in a country" and suggests that this power centre must be either God or the government.

"Again, look at America, where the ultimate symbol of authority is the government," she says. "Is this improving society? No. They have an enormous level of crime, high drug-abuse, a growing disregard for life. And that is the scenario I see unfolding here if we lose sight of the fact that God is the ultimate symbol of authority, which is also what it says at the beginning of the Constitution, where it refers to the `Holy Trinity'.

"The ultimate authority has to be God, and Catholics and Protestants on both sides of the Border in Ireland do, at least, share that point of view. That, basically, is my vision of Ireland. A nation united under God."

When asked if this concept of a nation united might also be of benefit, on a more practical level, if the IRA, for example, handed in its weapons, Dana replies cautiously. "I don't believe in violence, at any level; does that answer your question?" And what is her response to the apparently widely held perception that John Hume is a "more worthy, realistic and popular" presidential candidate than she is, as, indeed, are other potential candidates?

"Does all that mean that I should close my door and sit in my corner and not get up and speak?" Dana retorts. "The real point is that it's not a question of will you win, but will you try? Besides, I believe I could win."

Even so, wouldn't it be more truthful to say that winning or even gaining a nomination is, ultimately, not as important to Dana as the fact that she has suddenly found herself with a new platform from which she can articulate her religious point of view? Couldn't one even suggest that the very notion of Dana becoming President is really just an incidental detail when compared to this larger, lifelong objective?

"It's not incidental to me," she asserts, softly, "and it's not incidental to the people who are asking me to go forward and represent them. It also says in the Constitution that the President should be the direct choice of the people, so if they want to nominate me, I will honour that to the best of my ability.

"And if Mary Robinson did anything as President, it was to highlight the fact that the position of President of Ireland should not just be a reward for faithful service to a political party.

"I can be a President who isn't locked in that old tradition and, as such, I really do think I stand a good chance of winning support."

There are, of course, those who are sincerely praying that Dana will become President, though she claims she is not. "I'm just praying I do what is right." But what if the response to all these prayers is the sound of a voice telling her she can serve her God better by going back to Alabama and continuing her now clearly heightened role on the Catholic cable television network? If she does hear that voice, will Dana finally admit it is not ordained that she become President of Ireland?

"I can't take your question to its obvious conclusion, because if I do, it would imply that I believe what I'm doing is ordained by God, anyway," she says, nervously. "And I know and you know that if I say something like that, it will only be belittled and turned into the kind of caricature I've already been subjected to, which really does say a lot about Ireland being a `liberal, pluralist, society' doesn't it? At the end of the day, as I said, all I pray is that I do what is right."