Openly gay candidate tripped up by controversy in Irish electionsDavid Norris, who would be Europe's first openly gay president, was considered the front-runner until media associated him with pedophilia.
Conor o' Clery (globalpost.com, 12/6/2011)
DUBLIN, Ireland — It has no executive functions and involves long hours of tedious work, but hopefuls are lining up to compete for Ireland’s presidency in an increasingly acrimonious election.
An early favorite, independent Senator David Norris, could become Europe’s first openly gay president, though his campaign is in danger of imploding over what he calls “a deliberate smear campaign” against him by sections of the media.
Norris was joined in the fray this week by Niall O’Dowd, an Irish-American publisher who says Ireland is “closer to Boston than Berlin,” and Pat Cox, a former president of the European Parliament who believes the opposite.
Behind them are a dozen or so other contenders jostling for nominations for the post President Mary McAleese has held for the last 14 years. Nomination for the October election requires the support of four of Ireland’s 34 city and county councils, or of 20 of the 166 members of the Dail, the lower house of the Irish parliament. For now, men lead the field competing for the post held by a woman for more than 20 years.
Norris, a noted James Joyce scholar and a popular broadcaster, was thrown on the defensive this week by the resurrection of remarks he made nine years ago about pedophilia.
Journalist Helen Lucy Burke unearthed an interview he gave in 2002 for Magill magazine in which he spoke freely about his attitude toward sex. Norris said in Magill that he did not find children sexually attractive “but in terms of classic pedophilia, as practiced by the Greeks, for example, where it is an elder man introducing a younger man to adult life, there can be something said for it.”
A January opinion poll showed the 66-year-old Norris having more than twice the support of other prospective candidates, but analysts in the Irish capital say that to have one’s name in the same sentence as the word “pedophile” is politically disastrous. The controversy is likely to deter those who were considering Norris for president to show how progressive the country has become since homosexuality was decriminalised in 1993.
A champion of liberal causes in the Irish senate, Norris this week reiterated his condemnation of pedophilia and his abhorrence of any sexual contact with children, and claimed copies of the Magill article were being distributed around the country to discredit him.
DUBLIN, Ireland — It has no executive functions and involves long hours of tedious work, but hopefuls are lining up to compete for Ireland’s presidency in an increasingly acrimonious election.
An early favorite, independent Senator David Norris, could become Europe’s first openly gay president, though his campaign is in danger of imploding over what he calls “a deliberate smear campaign” against him by sections of the media.
Norris was joined in the fray this week by Niall O’Dowd, an Irish-American publisher who says Ireland is “closer to Boston than Berlin,” and Pat Cox, a former president of the European Parliament who believes the opposite.
Behind them are a dozen or so other contenders jostling for nominations for the post President Mary McAleese has held for the last 14 years. Nomination for the October election requires the support of four of Ireland’s 34 city and county councils, or of 20 of the 166 members of the Dail, the lower house of the Irish parliament. For now, men lead the field competing for the post held by a woman for more than 20 years.
Norris, a noted James Joyce scholar and a popular broadcaster, was thrown on the defensive this week by the resurrection of remarks he made nine years ago about pedophilia.
Journalist Helen Lucy Burke unearthed an interview he gave in 2002 for Magill magazine in which he spoke freely about his attitude toward sex. Norris said in Magill that he did not find children sexually attractive “but in terms of classic pedophilia, as practiced by the Greeks, for example, where it is an elder man introducing a younger man to adult life, there can be something said for it.”
A January opinion poll showed the 66-year-old Norris having more than twice the support of other prospective candidates, but analysts in the Irish capital say that to have one’s name in the same sentence as the word “pedophile” is politically disastrous. The controversy is likely to deter those who were considering Norris for president to show how progressive the country has become since homosexuality was decriminalised in 1993.
A champion of liberal causes in the Irish senate, Norris this week reiterated his condemnation of pedophilia and his abhorrence of any sexual contact with children, and claimed copies of the Magill article were being distributed around the country to discredit him.
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