INDEPENDENT presidential candidate David Norris pledged last night that, having secured the required support of four county and city councils for his nomination, everything he did in his campaign would be positive in nature.
He was speaking to reporters and a jubilant crowd of supporters at Dublin City Hall after councillors had approved, by 30 votes to six with 11 abstentions, a proposal for his nomination. The Trinity College Dublin Senator began by thanking the councillors for “a wonderful exercise in democracy”.
“Ar an gcéad dul síos, ba mhaith liom a rá, go raibh maith agaibh comhairleoirí Bhaile Átha Cliath [First of all I would like to say, thank you, Dublin city councillors].
“I am delighted and honoured and indeed humbled – a word I don’t often use – by the wonderful exercise in democracy that we’ve had here this evening,” he said.
“I would like to thank every single person who spoke and I think it was noticeable that all those who spoke, including those who had reservations, every single one of them applauded me.
“This is the spirit of the nation. Daniel O’Connell’s portrait up there reminded me that this country has been through difficult times. Daniel O’Connell at one time was the king of the Irish people, at another time he was reviled and yet he came through.
“If I can make this extraordinary comeback, then this wonderful country can make an equally extraordinary comeback and I hope to be there at the head of it, in order to guide it and help it and empathise and understand the people.” He apologised “from the bottom of my heart” to anybody who had been hurt or troubled by anything he “may have said inadvertently”.
The Senator was in the chamber for what was, at times, a tense debate with a minority of councillors raising issues about his views on the age of consent and his letters seeking clemency for his former partner.
Most of the support for the nomination came from the ranks of Labour, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, the People Before Profit Alliance and Independents.
Before the meeting, Labour candidate Michael D Higgins met Labour councillors and urged them to facilitate the candidacy of Mr Norris on democratic grounds.
Dr Bill Tormey of Fine Gael said during the debate that the Senator was a “national treasure” but Áras an Uachtaráin was not the place for him because of his views on pederasty and the age of consent.
Opposing the motion, Independent councillor Damien O’Farrell said: “I am not prepared to turn a blind eye to matters of child sexual abuse.”