by Sean McCabe
A lot of people outside Ireland, when they see the Irish president on TV, assume that this person is the nation’s political leader. In fact the Irish president performs a ceremonial role and has no direct political power at all in Ireland. The president’s job, as first citizen, is more akin to that of a kind of first ambassador: Ireland’s representative-in-chief.
It was Ireland’s current president, Mary McAleese, who welcomed and hosted the English queen when she arrived on our fair shores a few months ago, to take one example of what our first citizen actually does. Beyond this, I know little of what the president gets up to besides welcome foreign dignitaries, and open new factories, schools and hospitals. It’s a symbolic role.
The Taoiseach (Irish word for Prime Minister) is the one with the real power. He is the one who runs the country, as it were.
As many readers of this magazine will no doubt know, a new Irish president will be elected before the end of October. I would have no interest in the matter were it not for the fact that an old lecturer of mine was recently running for president. He dropped out, but as I write this there is news that he may re-launch his campaign.
David Norris taught the works of James Joyce at Trinity College for many’s the year. David was forced to withdraw from the campaign because of a scandal that he was indirectly involved in. I don’t know much about this matter either, and to be honest, I wouldn’t really want to. A journalist dug the dirt on him in reference to an incident concerning his former partner (yes, he is openly gay) and he felt honour bound to withdraw before a full-blown scandal should erupt.
Norris is a colourful, engaging figure and a lot of people have been clamouring for his return to the race. He lost the support of some politicians but because he is popular, and because the incident (concerning not him, but his former partner) happened so long ago, many people feel he shouldn’t have dropped out at all.
He is also favoured by many because of his ‘progressive’ credentials. He has a Protestant, Anglo Irish background, he is a campaigner for gay rights, and is an all round liberal. He is extremely well spoken—all signs, it could be said, were he to be elected, that Ireland has entered a new, more modern era.
I have always felt myself that a small country such as Ireland has no need of a presidential office. It is the taxpayer of course who pays for it, and for the upkeep of Aras an Uachtarain, which is the mansion in Dublin where the president lives. So I suppose I’m a bit of a begrudger here. I’m sure the benefit of having a president can be pointed out to me…
Having said all that, if there was a candidate that I’d like to see in Aras an Uachtarain, it would indeed be Mr. Norris. Not because of the above mentioned traits but because he has always been a colourful person and we could do with a bit of colour in our public life; and, most importantly, because of the fact that he is a literary scholar who gives infectious lectures on James Joyce. The man loves James Joyce.
The first day I walked into Trinity as a shy eighteen year old, I encountered, standing on the steps of the old dining hall in the front square, a bespectacled, red faced man, holding forth to an enraptured crowd of teenagers like myself, on the merits of James Joyce, whom he referred to as our ‘national bard;’ equal in importance to Dante, that great Italian bard who wrote the Divine Comedy, and to Shakespeare himself! It was a great boost to my own enthusiasm watching him there on the square that October day, dressed in his lecturer’s gown and scholar’s cap, staking out literary territory for his idol. There was passion in the man’s voice, and it is no wonder that his lectures had by far the biggest attendance in the English department. He certainly got me going on Joyce!
I have read my Joyce (everything except for Finnegan’s Wake) many times over. For a while in my twenties, I read little else besides him, Kavanagh and Yeats.
I don’t now hold Joyce in the same regard as David Norris did (and presumably still does), and I definitely wouldn’t rate Joyce as highly as I do Shakespeare; Shakespeare remains the king. After all, as my English teacher at secondary school used to say, Shakespeare knew everything. All you really needed to keep going on your desert island besides your coconuts and bananas, he was fond of saying, was Shakespeare’s plays and the New Testament.
No matter whether one likes Joyce or doesn’t. It’s just the idea of having a person with a literary and scholarly background, as opposed to the dull seeming politicians who seem to comprise the rest of the fray in this election campaign, is exciting. We are supposed to be a nation of saints and scholars, aren’t we? It would be good to bring a ‘bit of learning,’ to the fore again, someone with a bit of zest in his manner.
I suppose this sounds like a bit of an endorsement. And it is. It’s an endorsement for literature. They say in a recession people tend to read more, and write more. I think it would be good to have someone in a place of authority to point us in the right direction. Maybe, if he gets in, Mr. Norris will have a few ‘Joyce’ nights in the Aras. With gorgonzola sandwiches and red Burgundy wine… And if he doesn’t get back in the race, ah well, c’est la vie. It’s a chance we lost.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
