Businessman Gareth Sheridan’s quixotic bid to become president of Ireland ended on Monday afternoon when he failed to persuade Offaly County Council to nominate him for the role.
The council of 19 members – of which 11 are members of either Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil – voted by 11 votes to 5 not to exercise its prerogative to nominate a candidate for the presidency.
That meant that Sheridan’s last hope – already barely flickering after rejections from Carlow last Friday and Meath on Monday morning – was extinguished. He cancelled plans to bid for the Louth nomination on Monday evening. Even had he been successful there, he would have been one council short of the four he needed.
There’s always next time. Sheridan performed credibly, winning the nominations of Kerry and Tipperary councils early last week. He got halfway there.
RM Block
It would be hard to say that Sheridan, over the six weeks or so of his campaign, has presented a visionary new direction for the presidency that has won people over.
The question that most councillors and interviewers had for him over the summer – why in the name of God are you doing this? – was not one that he came up with a pithy and relatable answer to, beyond the obvious complaints about housing with which people are by now wearily familiar.
But he did offer something different – his youth and background alone ensured that – and he fought a respectable, coherent campaign.
Sheridan understood the route to the councils for a nomination meant engaging with councillors and he devoted time, energy and resources to that. He wasn’t helped by the gang of messers that turned up at many of the councils to bid for a nomination too – likely they made it easier for the councillors to dismiss all requests for support an independent candidate. Councils might consider in the future whether they are obliged to hear out everyone who turns up.
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But Sheridan also failed because it’s not 2018 and it’s not 2011. On those occasions, councils had pretty much an open-door policy and in both elections provided nominations to multiple candidates.
With the exception of Sean Gallagher in 2011, none of the candidates who came through the council route turned out to be serious contenders for the presidency.
In addition, the widely speculated upon – not least by himself – candidacy of MMA fighter and public controversialist Conor McGregor might have served as a warning to councillors of the dangers of opening up the race to all comers.
Ultimately, he failed because his political opponents, principally in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, were unwilling to facilitate him – something that Sheridan railed against at the weekend.
That may be tough politics, but it’s hardly surprising; it’s how elections work. You vote for your guy, not the other guy.
