Glad To Be Gay
Despite trailing in the polls, Gay Mitchell is still confident of becoming our next President. He talks to Jackie Hayden about his Catholic faith, God, the sanctity of the confessional, the Presidency, Martin McGuinness, his strengths and weaknessses, the future of Irish politics and... Ulysses.
Jackie Hayden, 24 Oct 2011
Fine Gael headquarters in Dublin’s Mount Street, in the basement of which this interview was conducted, is a haven of tranquility. I had expected a whirlwind of last minute activity, given the consistent low poll showings by their man who would be President. Instead, staff are shuffling around unhurriedly. One or two casually browse the morning newspapers. Is this the calm in the eye of the storm?
On TV, Gay Mitchell can come across as insubstantial and fast-talking – the confirmation boy still delighting in his first pair of long trousers. Face-to-face he is different, and more impressive. He has a business-like demeanour and plays up his political experience at every opportunity.
More than once during the interview an unexpected, unpolitical petulance comes through. He twice chastises me for what he calls my “stereotypical” line of questioning, as if he feels that his staunch Catholic beliefs should be of no concern to the electorate. He also seemed to over-react to a couple of my feeble attempts at humour. All told, I think I blew any chance I might have had of an invite to the Áras.
JACKIE HAYDEN: You were born in Inchicore in Dublin, and like myself, you would have grown up in a fairly traditional Catholic family ...
GAY MITCHELL: Well I grew up in a pretty untraditional family. My grandfather Mitchell was Methodist, and my mother, who was Catholic, was widowed aged 47 with nine of us. My eldest brother was killed by a lorry while cycling when he was 15. My eldest sister was born with a mental disability. So early life was quite difficult, but we stuck together and worked together. My mother went to work at 4 o’clock in the morning. As I said to somebody recently, two of us became councillors and Lord Mayor, TDs and Ministers, and I went on to the European Parliament, but not to worry, the other seven did well!
But how did the religion situation work itself out in the house?
Well, my mother was a very broad-minded woman. Even in later years, when she was tied to the bed a lot because she’d had a stroke, she got up to go out to vote for the divorce referendum even though she was a church-going Catholic. The attitude she gave us was “live and let live”, and I’m part of that “live and let live”. I don’t accept anybody thinking that because I’m Catholic I think I have a better view of life. I respect other people’s views, but they have to respect mine. I find in Irish society a little bit today that there is that lack of mutual respect.
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