Former presidential candidate Adi Roche has said those running for the Áras “need to be strong”, citing her experience in a “shockingly dirty campaign” which she said continues to haunt her.
Ms Roche, who is founder and chief executive of Chernobyl Children International, ran as a Labour Party candidate in the 1997 presidential election. However, her bid was derailed by a “politically motivated” smear campaign, she later said.
Speaking to The Irish Times on Wednesday at a commemoration event of the Hiroshima bombing, Ms Roche said she is still “haunted” by some of what happened during that time.
“It often penetrates my dreams because it knocked my confidence and my self-belief,” said the 70-year-old.
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Ms Roche said prospective candidates “need to think very carefully” before going forward.
“I had always felt, naively, that it was above and beyond the political arena, that it was a statesman’s role of diplomacy, and what I learned was that it actually was the most political position of all.
“When the gloves were off, it was a shockingly dirty campaign, so I would say to anyone considering going forward, to really check with yourself how resilient you are and can be,” she said.
Describing it as a “smear campaign,” it emerged during the campaign that Ms Roche’s brother, Dónal de Róiste, was dismissed from the Defence Forces in 1969.
He was never officially told the reason for his forced retirement, nor did he receive a court martial, though it was suggested to him that his dismissal was because of his alleged association with republican militants.
A review of his case completed in 2022 found that Mr de Róiste’s departure was made “on foot of a fundamentally flawed and unfair process and was not in accordance with the law”.
He subsequently received an apology from then minister for defence Simon Coveney.
[ Ex-Army lieutenant Dónal de Róiste: ‘I can walk with my head high’Opens in new window ]
While Fianna Fáil-backed candidate Mary McAleese went on to win the election, Ms Roche finished fourth out of five candidates.
She subsequently disappeared back into her humanitarian work, she said, which helped at the time. However, it was the State apology to her brother that “meant the world to us”.
“It restored my brother’s good name and that of our family, and how dreadfully it had been used against me in my campaign,” she said.
She ruled out another potential run for Áras an Uachtaráin, saying she is “too busy” in her humanitarian work, “between the war in Ukraine, Chernobyl and also Gaza ... there’s too much going on.”
Ms Roche said the next president will have a hard act to follow.
“Michael D Higgins is such a champion for the rights of our nation, for the rights of our people, and against injustice. He always has his finger on the pulse of every issue,” she said, and hopes the next president will be one of a “similar moral compass”.
Fianna Fáil and the presidency
Meanwhile, asked if Fianna Fáil has approached or had meetings with any potential candidates, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the party “will make its decision closer the end of the month and we will take soundings over the month”. He said the party had not approached businessman and former dancer Michael Flatley.
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Speaking at a Daniel O’Connell commemoration event in Caherdaniel, Co Kerry, Mr Martin said: “I believe the presidency doesn’t necessarily belong to any one party. I believe it belongs to the people of Ireland and it’s important that the person who is elected who can bring honour, and distinction to that office ... Fianna Fáil certainly will be making a contribution to that debate.”
Asked about his thoughts on MMA fighter Conor McGregor’s petition to change the Constitution so people can run without needing the support of four local authorities or 20 Oireachtas members, Mr Martin said, “we will continue to adhere to the Constitution”.
“I’m not sure he [McGregor] has asked anybody – what happened in previous presidential elections. People went to county councils, some got nominations from the requisite number of county councils, so the Constitution creates a pathway there for people to secure a nomination through that route.”
