Had Maria Steen secured a presidential nomination, she would have faced constant media interrogation about how a candidate with her conservative views could represent all the people of Ireland.
It would have been a fair line of questioning, and no doubt, one that Steen would have been well able to field.
I hope it is also a question that President Catherine Connolly reflects on, particularly given the unprecedented 12 per cent of spoiled votes in the election. Electoral Commission research, which allowed respondents to nominate more than one reason for spoiling their vote, found that the most common was not liking any of the candidates (45 per cent), followed by finding the nomination process unfair (27 per cent), a sense that real choice was lacking (17 per cent), protest against government policy (14 per cent), a preference for a candidate not on the ballot (7 per cent) and other or unstated reasons (9 per cent).
It is reasonable to assume that many of Jim Gavin’s 103,568 votes were also protest votes, given Fianna Fáil’s self-inflicted disaster of a campaign. These voters cared enough to come to the ballot box, so it is hard to imagine the disillusion and frustration of most voters who stayed home.
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How will Catherine Connolly represent those beyond her own ideological orbit? Some signs have not been auspicious. There is a convention of using the cumbersome but diplomatically necessary Derry/Londonderry when addressing audiences in Northern Ireland. Connolly’s failure to observe it handed Gregory Campbell, a DUP MP who is no friend to the Republic, a platform to accuse her of indifference to unionist experience and suffering.
She handled the aftermath graciously, but given that among much more moderate unionists, there is a somewhat hopeless sense that they do not matter either to London or Dublin, it was an unfortunate and unnecessary reinforcement of that perception.
Her nominations to the Council of State have mostly been drawn from academia and human rights law, except for Linda Ervine, sister-in-law of the late Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine. However, Ervine is not just a unionist but an advocate for the Irish language, one of Connolly’s passions.
[ The Irish Times view on the Council of State: what’s the point?Opens in new window ]
Mary McAleese’s nominees were far more diverse, and her first seven included the late Sr Stan, Gordon Brett, a full-time student involved with his college chaplaincy and Martin Naughton of Glen Dimplex.
Choosing a conference of the international left as Connolly’s first overseas trip was also not surprising, and in fairness, she was relatively restrained in her address.
However, in her inaugural speech, she promised to “ensure that all voices are represented, heard and valued.”
Already, people of faith are unsure whether all voices include them.
It will be no surprise to regular readers that I did not vote for Mary Robinson. It is surprising even to me that I was part of a delegation of anti-abortion women that Mary Robinson invited to the Áras in 1993.
The late Nora Bennis, a redoubtable campaigner who founded Mothers Working at Home to have women’s caring work recognised and remunerated, had written to Robinson. Bennis acknowledged that the president did not share her views, but expressed her respect for her and saidt it would mean a great deal to women who held a different vision of society to have the first female president listen to their concerns.
A careful dance ensued, led by the formidable Bride Rosney, special adviser to the president who died in 2023, which culminated in an invitation to the Áras not just for Mothers Working at Home but four other groups, including Women Hurt by Abortion.
For some reason I cannot fathom, given that I had no public profile at the time, I was chosen to address Mary Robinson on behalf of the groups. I can only speculate that it was because the organisation that I then chaired, Feminists for Life, was attempting to make a feminist case against abortion.
I was 16 weeks pregnant and barely able to stand due to hyperemesis, a complication of pregnancy involving extreme vomiting and weight loss. I went straight from the Áras to five days in hospital. I remember vividly how gracious Mary Robinson was and, in particular, how she looked up when I quoted Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American justice of the US supreme court. She posed for endless photographs and chatted to each member of the group.
Did we convert her? Of course not. Did we feel acknowledged and respected? Definitely.
Although viewed with suspicion by some believers, Robinson was happy to collaborate when her goals coincided with those of people of faith.
For example, she acknowledged that her vitally important visit to Somalia, her first foreign trip, only came about because Fr Aenghus (Gus) Finucane, the Spiritan priest at the heart of Concern, issued a public invitation, which she promptly accepted, thereby making it difficult for the government not to approve the visit.
Every president has political agendas, going right back to Douglas Hyde being selected not just for his love of the Irish language but as a gesture of inclusivity to the Protestant community. A wise and successful president rises above those agendas to be president for all.
