Perhaps it says something about Irish politicians and the Irish public’s attitude to the EU that not one mention has been made in recent times of next year’s European Elections.
There has been no mention of candidates, no talk of it among the parties and political watchers, no interest displayed by the public, and no speculation on candidates - until this week.
Speculation has emerged this week that the singer and former MEP Dana Rosemary Scallon is considering making a bid to regain her European seat in the North-West constituency.
Claregalway-based Dana caused a major upset in 1999 when she beat FF TD Noel Tracy to take an EU Parliament seat in the then Connacht-Ulster constituency. FF had assumed the seat would be theirs but a combination of rural, conservative Christian, and elderly voters saw Dana upset the odds.
Dana had less success in contesting the 2002 General Election in Galway West and she lost her EU seat in 2004. However could the current socio-political climate be the ideal time for Dana to make her second coming?
In recent weeks the Catholic primate, Cardinal Seán Brady said there is an “unease” among Christians at the direction in which the EU is headed and this may have been a factor in the recent rejection of the Lisbon Treaty.
“Successive decisions which have undermined the family based on marriage, the right to life from the moment of conception to natural death, the sacredness of the Sabbath, the right of Christian institutions to maintain and promote their ethos,” said the Cardinal.
A comeback by Dana is hard to see, should she decide to go, but that constituency she tapped into in 1999 is still there.
