'Bit late now... but Jim Gavin ran the best presidential campaign in the history of the State and here's why'
Jim pictured climbing a wall - something he'd be above doing if he was President (Image: Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus LTD)A bit late in the day to be suggesting this, but...The President doesn't really do anything. So, by not doing anything about €3,300 for sixteen years...Then by running for Presidential election, then withdrawing from Presidential election, but remaining on the ballot and there for election...So if he's elected he'd do absolutely nothing... Isn't that the most profound Presidential thing ever?Forget "the President of Ireland is considered to be above politics" - Gavin isn't just above, he's nowhere next or near.So much so that if he gets the job he's already announced he won't actually do it - genius? Or just another casualty on the Phoenix Park roadside?The trouble with presidents is when they try to do stuff. They think they have to do stuff to justify their existence, even though the job specs say don't do stuff.Michael D was one for trying to do stuff. This manifested itself primarily through poetry which is a bigger waste of time than doing nothing at all.So he put his poetry to 'music' and released an album. I listened so you don't have to, just think of the more nightmarish parts of the Twin Peaks soundtrack.Mary McAleese was the great bridge builder of our times. The genius part there was she meant METAPHORICAL bridges... not ones you might walk across.So all these years later if you want to go somewhere and there's a river in the way, you'll probably have to walk an extra half hour because of her metaphors.Mary Robinson felt she had to be seen doing something - so she lit a candle in a window even though there weren't any ESB power supply issues at the Aras.That's verging on fire hazzard territory and burning down the Aras would certainly reduce the role - or at least the role's HQ - to nothing, which is fair enough.I think the candle might be an electric candle now - which given how all the other electric lights work, is appropriately pointless for the role.Historians may correct me, but I'm pretty sure Patrick Hillery did absolutely nothing, and fair play to him for that, good job. But he did take the job.Before him, everything in Ireland was black and white and depressing, so doesn't count.Now, in 2025, a nation that had the chance to abolish the Seanad but didn't seem to realise until it was too late, may have let pass the greatest President never.We've let go of a man who would be handed the job then abandon it, leaving the office as empty as a cable-tie on a pole after the poster's fallen down.They've only gone and voted in another President who'll do nothing while trying to do something. The fools, the fools.Follow the 2025 presidential race every step of the way with our politics newsletterThe Irish Mirror will be following the Irish presidential race every step of the way. Sign up here for our politics newsletter, Party Lines, and get news, analysis and top stories from the campaign trail direct to your inbox.
