Yet another Presidential broadcaster

MICHEÁL Ó Muircheartaigh might yet be the man to save Fianna Fáil. The legendary former broadcaster should have little problem in getting the required nominations. But, as with Gay Byrne, the big question now is will he stand.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin made a dreadful mistake when he promised Gay Byrne his support without consulting with his party in advance. That move was a slap in the face especially to those in the party who were anxious to stand themselves – party stalwarts such as Brian Crowley, Éamon Ó Cuív and Mary Hanafin.
Despite claims to the contrary by several prominent Fianna Fáilers, it has damaged Martin’s leadership. It certainly showed poor judgement. There might even be a heave against him but for the fact that there is nobody in the party strong enough to challenge him and also for the fact that he is new to the job.
But Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh might be the answer to his prayers. Fianna Fáil have no hope of winning any kind of an election within the foreseeable future. Brian Crowley is their strongest candidate but even he would find it hard to avoid humiliation at the polls.
The Fianna Fáil brand is still very toxic and it may take a number of years to change that – if they ever manage to do so. There is also the question of the huge cost of running a presidential campaign so soon after the general election. And for what? For another drubbing at the polls and a further loss of prestige.
There are, of course, people in the party who believe Brian Crowley would give a good run to the other candidates in the race for the presidency but I think they are probably in the minority. However, giving a good run to the others is not the same as winning the election and I doubt if there is anybody, even in Fianna Fáil, who believe he – or anybody else in the party – could pull that one off.
So Fianna Fáil’s only hope is to stop Fine Gael and Labour from getting their man elected. If they could not do it themselves, they would support someone else who might do it. They took a benign attitude to David Norris. Never in their wildest dreams could David Norris be regarded by them as a Fianna Fáil supporter.  But what he had going for himself was that he was not a Fine Gael or Labour candidate and that he had a good chance of winning.
Gay Byrne was an even better bet in that he did have some family connections with Fianna Fáil and there couldn’t be anything in his past that we didn’t know about already and that might come back to haunt him. But when Gaybo eventually rejected Micheál Martin’s advances, it was like pulling the rug from under the Fianna Fáil leader’s feet.
Now into the gap steps the legendary GAA broadcaster Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh. Micheál Martin will have to move more cautiously this time. He cannot be seen up front as a supporter of the Kerry man as he was in the case of Gay Byrne. And, of course, Ó Muircheartaigh cannot be seen as a Fianna Fáil candidate.
But first, we need to know if Ó Muircheartaigh is willing to stand. He is certainly interested but whether his interest goes so far as to declare his candidacy is another matter altogether. Fianna Fáil or Micheál Martin should not declare their hand in public unless and until Ó Muircheartaigh announces that he is going forward.
Despite his age, Ó Muircheartaigh would be an excellent President of Ireland. Actually, I do not see his age as being any kind of a barrier. Queen Elizabeth of England is, I think, older.  She performs the same functions as the President of Ireland and as far as I am aware, she seems to carry out those functions with competence. At least, I don’t hear many English people declare that she is too old for the job.
Ó Muircheartaigh said on radio during the week he would let us know at the end of next week whether or not he would stand for the presidency. He has to consult with his family. I don’t know why it should take that long to do it. I accept that members of his family are scattered all over the globe but in this era of modern communications, it should be no problem to gauge their views within an hour or two.
My feeling is that Ó Muircheartaigh is waiting to see what support he might have. 
An early opinion poll would give us some indication about the amount of support there is out there for the veteran Kerry man.
However, the question about who is going to be our President into the future pales into insignificance compared to the decisions we are going to have to take with regard to our future in Europe.
There is now a very serious scenario facing us – that we are going to have far less power in Europe than our President has in Áras an Uachtaráin.
The fact is that we surrendered much of our sovereignty when we joined the then Common Market nearly 40 years ago and it was further eroded by all those treaties and agreements we signed up to since then. Last year, we handed over control of our budget when we went cap in hand to the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission.
Now France and Germany are calling the shots.  There was a time when we believed we had equal powers to all the other European nations in the European Community.
That is no longer the case. It was significant that this week’s announcement about a common Eurozone government came from German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president, Nicolas Sarkozy rather than from the European Council or from the European Commission.
At least, they are no longer trying to cod us that we are equal among equals. Europe was always about France and Germany. Now it is official.
It will not matter to us next year whether our President is Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh, Michael D Higgins, Gay Mitchell or some other powerless celebrity. We might have to pay more attention to who is chancellor in Germany or president in France. That’s where the power lies.