Maria Steen came into the presidential race like a flare, burning brightly but ultimately briefly, with her campaign fizzling out on Wednesday when she ran out of both time and potential backers in her bid to get on to the ballot paper.
Just as nominations closed at noon yesterday, a crestfallen Ms Steen conceded defeat outside the gates of Leinster House. An appropriate backdrop, for the conservative campaigner who believes the establishment gatekeepers have locked her out of the contest.
We’re reporting this morning on her claim that “rarely has the political consensus seemed more oppressive or detached from the wishes and desires of the public”.
Very soon, the sadness of her closest supporters started to calcify into something closer to outrage. Almost immediately, the ire of Ms Steen’s allies was directed at Independent Senator Michael McDowell – who campaigned alongside her against last year’s family and care referendums but who refused to support her presidential bid.
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Pat Leahy has a riveting read that tells us how Ms Steen’s presidential bid fell apart, including the fascinating insight that Mr McDowell had actually started to believe the arch-conservative could win the presidential election. Pat writes that Mr McDowell “had profound political differences with her and did not want to see her as president”.
Handbags at Dáil
The week started with one presidential hopeful accused of equivocating on Hamas, and ended with another criticised for embracing Hermès.
The very human moment of Ms Steen’s dramatic exit from the race before it had even started was eclipsed somewhat by her expensive designer handbag going viral. (Some of us had to explain the exclusive and convoluted process of buying a “quota” Hermès bag to our esteemed but mystified male colleagues. Every day is a school day, here at The Irish Times.) Miriam Lord has great fun deftly skewering the whole affair, in her rollicking read this morning on Ms Steen’s luxe “bag for life”.
Meanwhile, as the dust settled on the Steen drama we were finally left with our three confirmed candidates: Heather Humphreys, Jim Gavin and Catherine Connolly. The scene is set, and the contest is on. Each of their faces will soon be appearing on a poster near you, and each of them will starting canvassing in earnest across Laois, Limerick and Dublin today.
I have a curtain raiser this morning on the shortest ballot paper in 35 years, as the campaign finally kicks off in earnest. We can look forward to debates beginning as soon as next week.
Last night, Ms Humphreys launched Not Making Hay, the new memoir of The Irish Times’ most gifted wordsmith Frank McNally. In her speech, Ms Humphreys recounted how there was a “lovely story” in the memoir of an unnamed future president calling to the McNally house in Monaghan in 1969. “So I hope that’s a good omen,” she told the packed-out Books Upstairs.
Any Other Business
Presidential elections tend to subsume all around them, often relegating far more worthy and important political happenings into little subplots. Though you wouldn’t know it, there is a budget coming in a couple of weeks. Tánaiste Simon Harris is meeting US secretary of commerce Howard Lutnick in Washington today, to discuss the “mutually beneficial economic relationship” between Ireland and the US.
Housing targets will be missed both this year and next. Children’s Health Ireland is to be folded into the HSE in the wake of a series of scandals, and Shauna Bowers explains to us what this will mean. As Israeli tanks push deeper into Gaza City, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan has condemned the Israeli government over drone attacks on a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying aid and Irish as well as international pro-Palestinian activists.
Best Reads
Newton Emerson’s column today expertly uses the ostensibly cuddly story of a dog freed from a Northern Irish prison as an opportunity to examine social attitudes to criminal justice, deprivation of liberty, and prison standards.
Patrick Freyne has a laugh-out-loud review of two journalism-based TV dramas: Apple’s The Morning Show and UTV’s The Hack. He also reveals how his childhood journalism inspiration was an intrepid Kermit the Frog, who was tasked with uncovering the truth of Humpty Dumpty’s fall on an episode of Sesame Street (Mine was April from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).
And in the Business section, Emmet Ryan takes us on a deep dive of the technical architecture that runs Dublin Airport, which was hampered by a cyberattack last weekend. It explains how “the world we live and work in today is heavily reliant on invisible companies”.
Playbook
Dáil
It’s an early start for Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke, who is taking oral questions in the Dáil chamber at 8.47am. Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary follows with his question slot at 10.23am. As usual, Thursday’s Leader’s Questions kicks off at 12pm.
Other Members’ questions are at 12.34pm, followed by questions on policy or legislation at 12.42pm.
At 1.12pm, the Dáil will hear the first stage of the Public Health (Alcohol) (Amendment) Bill, 2025. Government business commences after a break at 1.57pm, and it is devoted to Statements on the National Social Enterprise Policy.
Topical issues are at 4.22pm followed by a slot for a Private Members’ Bill at 5.22pm, which is the Industrial Relations (Boycott of Joint Labour Committees) Bill, 2025.
The Dáil will adjourn at 7.22pm.
Seanad
Commencement Matters is at 9.30am, 11.00am is the Order of Business.
After a break, Private Members’ business is scheduled for 12.15pm. Today it is a motion on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The Seanad adjourns at 2.15pm.
