A clean race wins Higgins Irish presidency

As late as a week before the election, Ireland's Michael D Higgins was trailing behind the favored candidate Sean Gallagher, a successful entrepreneur and television personality. But in a race that many Irish pundits are calling "the dirtiest in history," Higgins emerged from the muck to win the presidency by a huge margin. Higgins has run a relatively short campaign since he was nominated on June 19. "He was doing well steadily in the polls," said Higgins'Director of Elections Joe Costello. "But with all of these celebrity candidates emerging, there has been a huge amount of excitement throughout the campaign." Constitutionally, the president of Ireland has very little political power, and as such, campaigns are focused on the character, personality and integrity of the candidates rather than on policies. Many Irish citizens regard the president as a national orator rather than a politician, and some go as far as to admit that they based their choice mainly on "whether I can stand to listen to them for the next seven years," said Carol Keily, a marketing consultant in her 50s. As a published poet, Higgins' adeptness at language certainly was an asset to his presidential potential, however, other candidates, such as Gallagher, David Norris, and Martin McGuinness also impressed voters. Some voters also said they were initially skeptical of Higgins'short stature, which had been the butt of many jokes. Electing a figurehead without policy concerns means that candidates with lackluster personalities fell by the wayside early on for purely superficial reasons. "Mary Davis -- too boring," said one voter. "And Dana Scanllon's voice is too squeaky." "Gay Mitchell gets on my nerves," said another. "And 'Gay'really is not a great first name to have for a head of state." From a candidate pool that included an Eurovision Song Contest winner, a convicted former Irish Republican Army (IRA) member, an openly gay Joycean scholar, and a reality television star, among others, Michael D Higgins'long career in politics ultimately worked in his favor. "In this election, aspects of the past of each of the candidates were revealed publicly and scrutinized in the debates and by the media," said Labor press officer Nora Maguire. "Michael D Higgins has been in politics and lived a public life for 40 years. There are no real skeletons left in his closet." With seven candidates in the running, scandalous revelations and accusations were public fodder throughout the campaign, and many early front runners fell by the wayside as the campaign neared the finish line. Martin McGuinness' past ties to the IRA included a conviction in 1973 for driving a car carrying explosives and ammunition for which he served six months in jail. Norris, who was in the lead when he first announced his candidacy, was found to have illegally collected disability allowances while simultaneously working in the senate. Only last week, McGuinness made accusations against Gallagher for having collected a 5000-euro donation from a convicted fuel smuggler for the opposition Fianna Fail party, which turned many voters against the frontrunner. Though Higgins'career was not without controversy, he was known to be an outspoken critic of American foreign policy during the Reagan era, for instance, Maguire believes that the public knows exactly what they are getting. "He's been around so long that everyone refers to him by his first name Michael D Higgins." "There's been so much mud-slinging in this campaign," said voter Joanne Dorgan, who, at age 30, was casting a ballot in her first presidential election. "I decided to vote for Michael D Higgins because he stayed out of all of that. He didn't dig up dirt on anyone and no one had any dirt on him."