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FIANNA FÁIL HAVE contacted veteran broadcaster Gay Byrne to offer support for his potential presidential bid, according to reports.
The party’s leader Micheál Martin contacted Byrne on Saturday night to extend support, the Irish Independent reports. Byrne, 77, says that has not yet made any decision on whether he will run and he plans to discuss the matter with his family first.
However, while the party are offering their backing to him, Byrne has said he will not run as a Fianna Fáil candidate, the Irish Examiner reports: “I would be an independent candidate, but they are happy to give me their backing,” he said.
Candidates need to secure 20 Oireachtas signatures to enter the race.
RTÉ reports that Fianna Fáil deputy leader Éamon Ó Cuív, who has also been marked as a possible presidential contender, did not know of any approach to Byrne. “Nobody has discussed the issue with me – good, bad of indifferent,” he said.
Despite the apparent support for the former Late Late Show presenter, FF candidate Brian Crowley is also “still very much interested” in throwing his hat in the race, according to the Irish Times.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme today, Limerick TD Willie O’Dea said that he would support a bid by Byrne – as he believed the Irish people needed a president who was “not so closely connected with the established political system”.
O’Dea said that “if the party decides to support an internal candidate” he would be fully prepared to do so, but that he would prefer to back a person not already involved in politics. He said that Fianna Fáil needed to focus on fixing problems within the party at this time.
Asked if he thought Byrne’s potential political naivety would pose difficulties, O’Dea said that it “may actually work to his advantage”.
Nominations for the presidential race close at the beginning of October, with the election taking place on the 27th.
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Tough shit, Get over it. Should the cops, coffee sellers and caterers, medics, street cleaners, employees of hundreds of other companies that will be both attending and working at the event itself also be able to choose not to turn up? What drivel.
@Mr Snuffleupagus: and clickbait
All workers are entitled to withdraw their labour as they see fit.
@Benjy Dempsey: The big stars don’t want to touch Trump with a 50 foot pole. It’s telling that performers have to be forced under contract to be in The Donald’s presence.
@Benjy Dempsey: So you think you can tell your boss you’re not going to work for any reason you like then, Benjy? Right so. Saying so, doesn’t make it so. If you don’t do your job, you get sacked. At least, out there in real world.
Yes I am pretty sure you can’t refuse to provide some one service just because you have a prejudice against them.
@benjy are employers entitled to withdraw wor as they see fit?
Benji, Wally, bill… Whatever…. You now saying that ni bakery was right to refuse to bake?
@Mr Snuffleupagus: Another butt-hurt Trump FanBoy.
@Benjy Dempsey:
Of course they can, but if they breach their contract…bye bye or a fine!
Mr Snuffle, ,You might recall the Luas workers withdrew their labour a while back and not only did they not get sacked they won an 18% pay rise.
Thats showbiz baby!
perfectly fitting for a trump event to have women being forced to do things they don’t want to do.
@stopit:
It’s their job, if they don’t like it leave. Funny how “principles” seem to disappear when there is a threat of the money disappearing! Plenty more waiting to join! Imagine if employees decided whom their company could do business with! Sack em and move on!
That’s why we have unions. To keep greedy hogs in their place.
Considering they have performed at Radio City Music Hall in New York since the 1930s, they’re in pretty good shape.
@alphanautica: Great gams, them girls!
They could do a routine from Hamilton. Or dress as cats and when President Elect Tiny Hands goes for a handshake, there’s a ready made “Pussy Grabbing” headline available for publication. I’m sure the Rockettes have had to deal with many letches in their time, but being forced to do it on an official level is creepy.
Trump will be thinking quietly to himself soooo many pussies and I only have two hands
@Tweed Cap: Somehow I can see Alec Baldwin dancing with a Rockettes type lineup on SNL in the coming weeks!
@Daisy Chai NSaw: Have you never heard of what Bill Clinton or JFK got up to in The White House?
@Eamon Mac Gowan: Yes. Does whataboutery make Trump less of a pussy grabber?
@Daisy Chai NSaw:
Says the QUEEN of whataboutery!!!
@Warthog: Your mammy’s calling you for your tea. Run along.
That’s millenials for you. They think their rights are being trampled on if their employer tells them to do something.
It’s a job, get over it. I don’t like Enda much but hey, he was going to be at my child’s school for something, and on that day I still sent him to school.
@The Girl: Umm, terrible comparison that makes no sense whatsoever.
If they don’t want to do it, sack em.
There’s plenty of hot sexy dancers all over America who would love to get that gig.
@Eamon Mac Gowan: as if you’d know, LOL!
Shows the increasingly unpatriotic tendenies of the Left not just in the US but in the West generally.
Incorrect use of the patriotic, Rosa Parks (if that is your real name).
@Rosa Parks: Patriotism is a disease of the mind.
They should honour the president erect
Another pure bs lazy journalism propaganda piece. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
@John Fergus:
Par for the course at this stage.
Actually this has nothing to do with Donald Trump.
The dancers are in dispute with the owners of the outfit.
have your say