We are into the final week of the Presidential campaign. Earlier in the adventure, I said here that Michael D. Higgins was by far the best candidate for the job. Everything that has happened in the interim has reinforced that view. I urge you to go out on Thursday October 27, cast your vote and give your No. 1 preference to him.

How accurate the polls are is impossible to say, but at the time of writing, they are suggesting that it is now a two-horse race between Michael D. Higgins and Sean Gallagher, with one poll putting Sean Gallagher’s support as high as 40%.
I wouldn’t bank on it. There is a distance still to be run. I suspect, for example, that Gay Mitchell – who gives a good account of himself in his interview with Jackie Hayden in the current issue of Hot Press – will poll far better than the surveys have been suggesting. I also believe that David Norris will hold onto his core vote. He is unlikely to be in the running – the collateral damage from the controversial letters was far too great for that. But the extraordinary work he did in campaigning over the years for gay rights and taking cases to the European courts will not be forgotten.
Martin McGuinness has run a good race and will also poll well. But again, the baggage of his involvement with the IRA – irrespective of when he left the organisation – is far too great a burden to carry into a presidential election.
Mary Davis’ campaign has imploded badly and it looks as if she will struggle to attract votes. Mary will probably poll better than Dana. But even that is not guaranteed. The former Eurovision winner might just have enough appeal to the old style conservative Irish Catholic faithful to do better than the most recent polls have been reflecting. In short, the accordion is at its most extended in the polls. In practice, the election is likely to be considerably tighter.
The only certainty now is that, for Michael D. Higgins and Sean Gallagher, it is all to play for still. But it seems like a strange race: between a man of little pedigree and one of the finest Irish politicians in generations.
It is not being disrespectful to the Louth candidate to say that there is simply no comparison whatsoever between Michael D. and Sean G in terms of what they can bring to the Presidency.
Michael D. Higgins is a man of extraordinary intelligence. If elected, he will also bring vision, energy, knowledge, experience and wisdom to the role. He has contributed in a hugely positive way to Irish public life for almost 40 years. He is not young. But his age should not be an issue: he still retains a youthful, liberal, open-minded and fundamentally egalitarian view of the world.
Indeed, in many ways his attitude and ideas are far more youthful, and youth-friendly, than Sean Gallagher’s. Michael D. has a rare commitment to the idea of freedom of spirit, to self-expression and to the importance of an open-minded approach to education and to learning. He is hugely committed to creating the kind of society in which youth and young people flourish. All of these concerns will impact on the kind of presidency we could anticipate, with him in the Áras.
He is a writer and a poet – and as such he understands the potential of creativity, of culture and of nurturing and developing the knowledge economy. He is an inspiring public speaker. But he also understands how to sell Ireland in an international context and how to attract international operations here. He has done it before and done it successfully.
As Minister for the Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, he transformed the Irish film industry, by establishing TG4, re-establishing the Irish Film Board, introducing tax breaks to enable Ireland to compete successfully for big budget film projects, and travelling abroad to make the case for Ireland as a location. As a result there was a huge surge in the number of films made here, creating thousands of new jobs in the process.
But he is also a football man. He has been involved for many years in Galway United, giving his time and energy to a club that also has to function as a small business. And so, far from lacking in experience of the hard graft of business, he understands very well the difficulties that small and medium enterprises are currently facing in Ireland.
He has demonstrated a long-standing interest in schools and in education, a subject on which he has made numerous highly informed and thought-provoking speeches over a period of three decades. He has also campaigned consistently on behalf of the underprivileged in Irish society, and in developing nations, in a way that few if any other politicians here can claim.
He was among those who most frequently highlighted the dangers inherent in the way in which Ireland was developing during the so called Celtic Tiger years, where greed was the standard currency and people’s worth was measured crudely by their wealth and their property. And he opposed – and voted against in the Dáil – the Fianna Fáil-sponsored bank guarantee that plunged us into an irrevocable position of having to cover the recklessness of the banks and pay the bondholders in full, committing the country to twenty years of suffrage at least.
Finally, he is an experienced parliamentarian, capable of fully comprehending the bills which will have to be read before signing them into law. And he also understands the Constitution – including both the potential of the office of President and its limitations.
It is as impressive a set of qualifications as you could wish for. We have had two fine Presidents in Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese. There is now the opportunity to elect another one. It is not necessary to knock the other leading candidate to say that he isn’t remotely as well qualified to take on the role of President of Ireland. Michael D. Higgins is the man. See you at the polling booth.