In November the "unabashed nationalist" Mary McAleese was elected Irish President. Her main role may well be to convince southern voters that partition is inevitable. David Coen explains McAleese easily defeated the [moderate conservative Fine Gael candidate and great niece of Michael Collins, Mary Bannotti, who came in with 29%. The "left" candidate Adi Roche, supported by Labour, Democratic Left and the Greens, dropped from being a front-runner to a poor 7% of the vote on a turnout less than 50%, beaten even by singer Rosemary Scallon (aka Dana), on 13%.
McAleese is almost universally hated by the Dublin media - her arrival at her first press conference was greeted by hostile silence, very different from the cheers which welcomed the election of her predecessor, Mary Robinson.
McAleese is disliked because of her traditionalist attitudes - she is anti abortion and close to the church hierarchy. The day after her victory, the Catholic primate said the result showed that Ireland was not a "post-Catholic society". , as one Labour Party front bencher had called it. Although the office of president is largely ceremonial, Catholic traditionalists see McAleese as a possible antidote to the liberalism of
But the main reason the Dublin media hate her is because of her Northern nationalist background and what she represents. Born a working class Catholic, she was once burned out of her West Belfast home
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams offered his support early in the campaign and this was the cue for a concerted attempt to damage her campaign by portraying her as a closet Sinn Feiner. At the head of the media pack was former leading member of the Workers Party and Sunday Times columnist Eoghan Harris. John Bruton, leader of Fine Gael, even questioned how a "non-Irish person" such as McAleese could become President. Fine Gael were said to be behind the leaking of a couple of Irish Government documents accusing McAleese of being a Sinn Fein fellow traveller. The small proportion of the 26 County electorate which votes Sinn Fein supported McAleese.
That campaign misfired: it irritated the republican instincts of supporters of Fianna Fail, [the ruling, conservative nationalist party]. Many had been offended by the way McAleese had become their party's candidate, at the expense of Albert Reynolds.
McAleese's vote in Dublin was low.
Clearly her Catholic conservatism did not go down well in working class areas. Indeed, this encapsulates the problems Sinn Fein have in relating to politics in the South: the majority of people want Irish unity but it is not number one on their list of priorities.
Sinn Fein is too closely associated in their minds with the repressive,
Catholic outlook which for so long dominated the 26 Counties and which has now broken down in a series of clerical scandals.
What is now being demanded of McAleese is that she repudiate her nationalist sympathies and "reach out" to Unionists. In other words, that she helps sell therevamped partition emerging from the "peace" talks to doubting Southern (and Northern) nationalists. Britain Irish government to repeal Articles 2 and 3 of the South's Constitution, thereby giving up the Irish "claim" to the North, Or, more accurately, recognising the British claim.
So, paradoxically, the election of the most pro-Irish unity candidate could prepare the way for a settlement which enshrines partition.
The other significant feature of the election is the way in which it cements the Sinn Fein/Fianna Fail Alliance. Gerry Adams is relying on this pan-nationalist front to force enough concessions from the British in order to sell a settlement to the base of the Republican Movement.
Fianna Fail leader Bertie Ahern will in the end dictate what the "nationalist family" will accept from the British in return for repeal of Articles 2 and 3. But even his legendary infighting skills won't save him from the political fall-out from the "peace talks"
Like Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail's reason for existence is Irish independence and national unity. They have not delivered on economic development except with the aid of huge and (short term) EU grants.