Catherine Connolly has been elected the 10th president of Ireland in a landslide win over Heather Humphreys. Photograph: Alan Betson/ The Irish Times
In March 1997, the Progressive Democrats (PD) proposed an amendment to the Constitution to allow a written petition of 20,000 Irish citizens to ratify a candidate for the presidency of Ireland.
The proposal, according to PD leader Mary Harney, could be put to the people in a referendum before that year’s presidential election in October.
Harney expressed concern that the presidency, after Mary Robinson’s term, was in danger of relapse into a party political retirement post: “We do not need what has been lightheartedly referred to as a Val Doonican presidency – in which rockers, carpet slippers, cardigans, log fires and golfing games are the public image of the job.
“We need a hands-on
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