Irish Constitutional Convention set to become a Hall of Mirrors

Both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste in their article in The Irish Times on 11 July advise that the Constitutional Convention is to be the vanguard of profound social reform.

The challenges of the 21^st century they believe need to be met include curtailing the presidential term of office from seven to five years and giving citizens resident outside the State the right to vote at embassies overseas.

The length of the presidential term was not an impediment to the distinguished and illustrious transformative presidencies of Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese. The experience of the most recent presidential election highlighted concerns about the availability of a sufficient number of candidates with adequately compelling credentials to become President; whether they fully understood what the function of Head of State is and who could persuade the electorate that the presidential office would conducted with dignity, distinction and honour during their tenure.

The prospect of those outside the country being granted a vote begs the question of whether those who do not pay tax should have the privilege of voting. Perhaps the Convention may consider that there is some legitimacy between the presence of a tax evader in the membership of the Oireachtas making the laws of the nation and a constitutional entitlement for the wider Diaspora to determine who should be Head of State.

Another topic for the Convention is to be the greater participation of women in public life. If this is the urgent priority with the stature the political parties would like to convince us us it has, why did they only spend €76,896 of the €4,805,258 of taxpayers’ money granted to them in 2011 on the participation of women in public life? Surely some solid background effort on the ground is necessary before the electorate are asked to embrace profound social and institutional reform.

Opinion poll heralds seismic shift in Irish presidential election campaign

The latest MRBI poll results in The Irish Times are not surprising but there are 21 days campaigning days left and much can change to influence the outcome.

People are deeply and passionately interested in who is the head of state because that person becomes the bearer of a part of the ego of each and every citizen that defines our nation. The public want to know who these candidates really are and not to be merely presented with a sanitized caricature of who the candidates would like the public to perceive them to be wrapped in an enigma that is no more than a stream of vacuous consciousness of the candidate’s concept of utopia.

Michael D Higgins is the only one of the 7 that passed the biographical-details test and who introduced himself and his wife to the wider public via the Miriam Meets programme on RTE 1 Radio when he disclosed some personal minutiae about both of them.

The public also need to have some robust conviction what the election of any candidate is likely to signal about Ireland to the wider world and what impact that candidate will have on the presidential office – especially the capacity to safeguard the dignity of the office and the nation. The president is the mirror of the nation.

The potential implications of these poll trends are considerable. Fianna Fáil has demonstrated that it is so marginalised and reviled that it could not even put forward a candidate from the mainstream of Irish society to begin to inspire public confidence.

The Fine Gael party has some grounds for the deepest introspective reflection and soul-searching if their best offer to the Irish public is a candidate who is trailing second last seven – 35 points lower than the party itself. Enda Kenny has won the trust of the public and presents as a Taoiseach comfortable in that role.

I have seen first-hand in locations far away from Erin’s shore over the past 10 days that he and Eamon Gilmore have managed to salvage the credibility and stature of the country because Ireland is seen overseas as being led by a competent, stable and responsible government by power brokers whose vigilant gimlet eye defines sentiment.

Sinn Féin must think beyond the boundaries of their traditional narrow, conservative regional enclave if they are to make the stunning breakthrough they believe to be their right. They need turn up for the work they are handsomely paid to do in Westminster and scrutinise the legislation that is impacting the lives of tens of thousands of citizens in the single-seat parliamentary constituencies that they were elected to represent. Laggards in any walk of life are ultimately a useless, irrelevant carbuncle on the arse of spineless society. If Sinn Féin is to be acknowledged as a serious party of national leadership then it is time to start leading, not posturing as neighbourhood activists and playing to the whims of a narrow gallery .

Taoiseach resists outrageous bank lobbying on salary cap

Viewed from as far as Buenos Aires this evening, I am sure that many taxpayers are greatly relieved that the Taoiseach confirmed to Dáil Éireann on 27^th September that he ‘sees no good reason’ for breaching the €500,000 salary cap on bank chief executives’ remuneration in response to prolonged lobbying by AIB and others over many months.

All stakeholders in our society have had to make the most profound sacrifices due to the venality of bankers’ and their boards’ of directors in the interests of economic survival, recovery and vitality. A Government decision to cave into the banking lobby on this issue would therefore have had the most profound adverse consequences which would have found unequivocal expression in the forthcoming presidential election and beyond it.

High salaries did not enhance the standard of corporate governance, providence and prudence in the Irish banks’ prior to their collapse and it would be the utmost folly to consider that the resumption of salary deals to any elite that are utterly extravagant in the context of our national circumstances would deliver reform. The banks and their elite fellow travellers must restore trust with society before they attempt to indulge fanciful remuneration whims.

It would also be interesting for taxpayer’s to be informed, in clear an unambiguous terms, how much the State is paying consultants ‘and professional advisors’ to rehabilitate AIB, now State owned.

Enda Kenny throws his gauntlet at The Vatican

Enda Kenny has shown mettle this week. A week after the publication of The Cloyne Report into the vile, depraved sexual abuse by 19 clerics in the Roman Catholic diocese that bears this name it was a cathartic and refreshing moment to discover that Ireland actually has a statesman at the helm of Government with principles, integrity, backbone and conviction who is not as afraid of his own shadow, as was the case with too many of his deferential predecessors’.

The menace, subversion and hostility of The Holy See with respect to Irish citizens over the past 30 years contrasts starkly with their high-octane input into the consultations in April 1937 in relation to the draft Constitution and the recognition deValera sought to confer on the role and status of the Catholic Church under Article 45 (defunct since the 1972 constitutional referendum).

DeValera’s emissary, then Secretary of the Department of External Affairs, spent 3 intensive days of dialogue with the then Cardinal Secretary of State, Eugenio Pacelli – (who served as Pope Pius XII from 1939 to 1958), poring over this document, before it was even presented to Dáil Éireann, to secure the approval of Pope Pius XI. Pacelli was most energetic and determined in his attempts to have Ireland adopt a Catholic Constitution because it was, Pacelli believed, the only Catholic Country in the world. The Vatican also wanted nothing less than absolute control over marriage.

This Republic needs to waken up and take care of its vital interests and those of its most vulnerable citizens. The custom of automatically appointing the Papal Nuncio as Dean of the Diplomatic Corp must be immediately discontinued if the self respect of the nation is to be preserved. The Tánaiste also ought to consider whether there is even a basis for maintaining diplomatic relations with the Holy See whose contempt and derision effectively puts vulnerable people in harm’s way.

Furthermore, Bishop John Magee, the former Papal Master of Ceremonies ought to have had the backbone and gumption to be in this country and account for himself and his 22-year tenure as bishop. His own Archbishop, Dermot Clifford, should urgently consider if the interests of his ‘dear people’ would be better served by his immediate resignation after a 26-year tenure in Cashel and Emly with catastrophic episodes of paedophilia and mortal tragedy not just in Cloyne - but also in Limerick. Peter McCloskey was 37 years old when he relayed in March 2006 his experience of being allegedly raped by two priests in Limerick in 1980 and 1981. It was apparently put to McCloskey that the diocese could sue him and he could become liable for the associated costs. This greatly distressed McCloskey who died by suicide on 1 April 2006.

Finally, Cardinal Brady must reflect on his own credibility after his robust defence of Bishop Magee in 2009, his friend of 50 years, in the light of the Cloyne Report’s findings and his failure to report Brendan Smyth to the civil authorities for 19 years.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely!

Compulsion will not boost Irish language

Media report sthat Enda Kenny is under pressure over the Fine Gael Irish language plan in the TG 4 debate (17 February) should more properly prompt the language advocates to question their own competence to nourish the language and the enduring legacy of their efforts and vision.

Our 80-year legacy of compulsory Irish teaching in schools has produced 1.6 million people who claim to have a familiarity with the language, according to the 2006 census. But that legacy is incapable of securing a thriving future for Irish. The objective of the recently inaugurated Irish language policy is to nourish the more spontaneous and widespread speaking of Irish on a daily basis by 250,000 people within 20 years. Progress towards this target will depend on personal preference, curiosity, passion and conviction, nor compulsion.

Any viable policy with respect to Irish must first discern which factors underlie changes in personal tastes, habits and preferences.

Our society, for example, embraced refused recycling, a disinclination to smoke cigarettes and a massive preference for wine at the expense of beer over the past decade, totally on a voluntary, or optional basis.

Compulsion, politicians promises, hare-brained policies and millions of euro poured into sterile vested interests will not, on their own, be the powerful catalyst to inspire the necessary passion for the Irish language to thrive. There is no substitute for a genuine affection for the language itself.