?What I?m looking for is a President who will honour the best leader of all, and that?s Christ,? declares Gerry O?Mahony, the 79-year-old retired solicitor and iminence grise behind Dana?s campaign to be the next President of Ireland. ?Without that, we might have a dose of El Niqo here, sooner than we expect.?
El Niqo is the name given to the abnormal warming of waters in the Pacific Ocean, an ecological malfunction that has caused the drought and consequent forest fires which have wreaked such devastating havoc in South East Asia during the past few weeks. For Gerry O?Mahony, El Niqo is merely the latest divine chastisement portending what will soon be revealed as the onslaught of apocalyptic doom.
?The smog, as they call it there, has already been responsible for one terrible air crash and one maritime collision,? O?Mahony attests. ?There have been massive deaths. Then, there was that horrible earthquake, close to Rome, last Friday. The scientists say that these are the worst kinds of storms, earthquakes and everything else that are happening now.
?Of course, you had something like that in Ireland when The Rose Of Tralee was going on. The second night in the Dome, they couldn?t go ahead because they were so afraid of the storm. That is just an indication of ? what I think and a lot of people feel is ? the commencement of God?s judgement on our country and the world.?
Why is God so angry right now?
?I?ll put it this way: Do you see much good in Ireland, and especially in Dublin, as would gratify you if you were God?? Gerry asks. ?Well, do you??
?I?m afraid it?s a little hard for me to imagine what it would be like to be God,? I aver, with what I hope sounds like Christian humility.
?You men in the media are in touch with all these things,? Gerry retorts, with a scornful chuckle. ?What proportion of Irish people would recognise that there is a God and that we are creatures of God? Fewer and fewer! That?s what you?re dealing with. And it has gotten much worse during the past seven years.?
December 3rd, 1990, the date of Mary Robinson?s inauguration as President, was a very black day for O?Mahony and, he believes, for Ireland. ?That was when the sluice gates were opened for the Godless liberal agenda,? he proclaims.
O?Mahony argues that Robinson was ?a traitor? to the Irish Constitution. He charges that she ?misused the office of President to further the Godless liberal agenda.? Her greatest crime, in his eyes, was her signing into law of the bills decriminalising homosexuality and removing the ban on divorce.
?In signing those, she abused and bastardised her legal training,? he fumes. ?She was undermining the family, the most fundamental factor in the country. She ignored the condemnation by five Supreme Court Judges, in the Hanafin case, who stated that the wrongful abuse of public funds by the government to get a biased result in the divorce referendum was unconstitutional, unlawful and illegal.
?The word of God has not been heeded during the past seven years. The spirit of our Constitution was not observed. In moral terms, we need a President who will stand up, not just for the letter of the law but for the spirit of the Constitution, which is a Christian constitution, approved in 1937 by the head of the Protestants and the head of the Catholics.
?It?s a constitution very much admired all around the country, except by those who want to do the work of the lad down below rather than the man above.?
But could even a President Dana really do anything to turn the wrathful tide, if God is already so angry with the people of this country?
Gerry pauses for a moment before replying. ?I?ll put it to you this way: Was it not surprising to you the degree of publicity she got at the beginning of August, for about three weeks solid? No money could?ve bought that. No political party could?ve bought it. Were you surprised at her being nominated by the county councils? It didn?t surprise me. That?s the power of prayer, for you.?
Gerry O?Mahony has ?no doubt? that Dana will be our next President. She will sweep into @ras an Uachtarain, he predicts, on ?a tidal wave of prayer.?
?She will win if it is God?s will,? he warrants. ?If it is not, I?m afraid we will have to suffer the Godless liberal agenda that our good ex-President helped to usher in, with Mr. Spring and the Labour party in 1990. I cannot believe that that scenario could be God?s will.?
Thomas Christopher Gerard O?Mahony was born, in Dundalk, Co. Louth, on April 7th, 1918. He was 19 when the fledgling Dail Iireann was presented with Eamon De Valera?s Constitution which affirmed ?the special position? of the Catholic Church in the Irish state.
A fervent member of the Legion of Mary (Dundalk branch) from an early age, O?Mahony?s biggest influence was his close friend, the late Frank Duff, the founder of that movement. O?Mahony?s second greatest source of inspiration is his wife Maura, with whom he celebrated 50 years of marriage on July 30th last. The couple have no children.
Gerry O?Mahony?s fundamentalist zeal prompted him to take to the streets, as a one-man Gideon?s Army, in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, and what he saw as Rome?s lamentable watering down of traditional Catholicism. He became an ardent crusader in the battle against the introduction of ?sinful contraception?. He also alerted the Irish public to ?the subliminal messages sent out by television?, a medium he still despises.
?Television would be perfectly alright if it observed Article 46. 1. 1. of the Constitution,? he maintains. ?It should not undermine our public morals. If you blasphemed Allah in Saudi Arabia, you?d have your head cut off. Irish television is very blasphemous in parts, especially Roddy Doyle. His language is deplorable. That Father Ted is deplorable too. Indecent language. The F word. Deplorable.?
Some years ago, Gerry donned the skull ?n? crossbones of pirate radio. He broadcast prayers, hymns and denunciations of heresy from an office in Merrion Square but was forced to cease transmissions when his equipment was confiscated by the Department of Posts & Telegraphs.
Later, O?Mahony endeavoured to stem the rising tide of Godless liberalism by holding daily lunchtime prayer vigils in a 12ft by 6ft tent that he pitched on ?Our Lady?s Island? in O?Connell Street. The focal point for these vigils was Gerry?s most prized possession, a white Sicilian marble statue of Our Lady.
When he was moved off the traffic island for ?causing an obstruction? by the Gardam, Gerry wrapped his statue in polythene, strapped it to the roof of his battered Mercedes and drove up and down O?Connell St, playing hymns and reciting The Rosary through a loudhailer. ?That has been portrayed by you good people as something very strange,? he charges. ?I suppose if I went around with a statue of a nude or something like that, that would be quite alright.?
These days, Gerry O?Mahony concentrates all his energies on the Christian Community Centre, a group he runs with his wife from their home on Serpentine Avenue in Ballsbridge. The stated aim of the CCC is to ?develop the power of prayer harnessed with Christian action.? The organisation is funded, Gerry says, ?from above.?
The notion of Dana for President struck O?Mahony in a bolt of Heavenly inspiration a few months ago, after he heard a tape of her performing ?Sanctity Of Light?. Instantly, he claims, he recognised ?a unique purity in the singing that could be harnessed in spiritual action.?
Gerry remembered Dana winning what he calls ?the European Vision? contest many years earlier but had subsequently lost track of her career. Having been spellbound by her tape, however, he made some enquiries and was delighted to learn that she was now a major player in the world of American Christian media.
?Eventually, we got someone to contact her,? Gerry recounts, declining to name names. ?At first contact, the poor woman all but fell off with a faint. When she got her senses back, she said she would pray about it. After a few weeks of further contact and prayer on both sides of the Atlantic, she agreed to go forward.?
While acknowledging the CCC as the instigators of her Presidency bid, Dana has been at pains to distance herself from Gerry O?Mahony throughout her campaign thus far. ?She has distanced herself from all, in a sense,? O?Mahony insists. ?She doesn?t want to be associated with any organisation. She knows that elements of the media are rather keen to denigrate and make a mockery of religion. She?s not an extremist.?
Gerry denies that he has been hurt by Dana?s disavowals (?All these things we visualise and we fit in with all situations,? he states, with Buddhistic serenity). He is, he says, far too busy for such sensitivities, especially now that his every waking hour is absorbed in the crusade to ensure Dana?s election.
Nell McCafferty has christened Dana ?the yabba dabba doo candidate?. How does Gerry respond to that characterisation?
?Well, Nell is so knowledgeable about these foreign expressions, they must convey extraordinary things to her,? he muses. ?And some of the extraordinary things I hear coming from Nell, it doesn?t surprise me that an expression like that ? whatever it means ? should come forth from her. But Nell is great now, isn?t she? She has her following who no doubt understand that type of language.?
Is he expecting the campaign to be a dirty fight?
?Are they humans or saints that are going forward?? he muses. ?The people must be given an opportunity of gauging who would be best fitted to be custodian of our Irish Constitution, which is a Christian constitution, so all the fact will have to be laid out. As far as Dana is concerned, she will be very calm, collected and Christianlike in her approach.?
What?s Gerry?s assessment of Mary McAleese?
?She appears to be a fine figure of a woman,? he affirms. ?She has good carriage. She wouldn?t be amongst my favourites, though. I see in the papers she regards herself as a Catholic feminist. As such, apparently, she wants women priests. And a woman Pope. Well, I have my eye on that job.
?Pope John Paul was a goalkeeper and I was a goalkeeper also, in football and hurling. However, I?m not sure I could endure the heat in Rome. I was there in July once and I was quick to get out of it.
?Seriously, Mary McAleese was very helpful, I gather, to David Norris in developing the decriminalisation of homosexuality. They were in Trinity at the same time. Now, it depends whether it was out of legal obligement or out of moral enthusiasm. I?d like to know which it was.?
Won?t McAleese split the hardline ?Catholic? electorate, and rob votes from Dana?
?They?ll all rob votes from each other,? he forecasts. ?But I?ll put it this way: no-one has come so far as a candidate that I would choose in preference to Dana from what I know of Dana.?
What does Gerry O?Mahony make of Mary Banotti?
?Mary is a divorced woman and I?d have to say to Mary what the Lord would say to her: ?Mary, do you think that you becoming President would be a bad example to the citizens you?d be purporting to represent and uphold their Constitution? Divorce may be legal here but, unfortunately Mary, God?s law now comes into play and there must not be adultery which would suggest, Mary, that you could not get married again?. That is possibly what the Lord would say.?
So, because Mary Banotti is divorced, she is unfit to be President?
?In the eyes of God, the God whose laws I must observe, it would be a black mark,? O?Mahony decrees. ?It is something that Mary would have to confess and about which she would have to say an act of contrition, as it were.
?God could close his eyes to a divorce but He can?t close his eyes to marrying again or to having adultery. Marrying again is adultery. As He said to the woman they were going to stone to death, ?Go, Mam, don?t sin no more?. Now that we have this divorce thing, there will be much more adultery and that is the problem facing Mary Banotti.?
Gerry O?Mahony admits that he has been impressed by Adi Roche. ?She came up for air and is still surviving,? he observes. ?She appears to have a lot running for her.?
How does Gerry react to Roche?s proposal to transform The Aras into ?a musical wonderland?? ?Let?s pause now,? he says. ?That?s a good point. Could it be any worse than the situation in that place after the signing of a bill decriminalising homosexuality and another bill sanctioning divorce. Would the atmosphere be any worse, in the eyes of the good Lord? You?re a good man who?d be able to judge. If you were the good Lord looking down, which would you deplore most??
As a person who regards rock music as ?the noise of motorbikes revving up?, surely Gerry was horrified by Adi Roche?s intimation that her close friend, U2?s Bono, may actually perform in the ?musical wonderland? at some point?
?I don?t listen, deliberately, to much of that music,? Gerry insists. ?Unfortunately, I hear a lot of it, as I keep the wireless on while I?m trying to do my work. There are times when I wonder what degree of influence has the lad down below with the tail and the horns in what I hear and what they call music.?
Is Gerry O?Mahony alleging that Bono and U2 are Satanists?
?U2? Is he the man who owns The Clarence Hotel??
That?s him.
?And the top storey of that hotel went alight there, some time ago. There was all sorts of speculation about where the fire came from. Well, you know all about that, then.?
Where does Gerry O?Mahony think the fire came from?
?The place where you think it came from,? he counters.
From down below? From the lad with the tail and the horns?
?There you are,? he chirrups gleefully. ?You must be inspired. I must remember that: Liam Fay told me that the fire in The Clarence came from down below, from the lad with the tail and the horns. I?ll quote you on that.?
Gerry O?Mahony refers to Mary Robinson, with dripping sarcasm, as ?my girlfriend?. He has spent much of the past seven years writing ?love letters? to her in The @ras, outlining in great detail what he saw as the ?depth of her treachery?.
?Mary Robinson was a disaster for the country,? he states. ?I say that without fear. And you can tell her that. I?ve written to her and told her so, many times. Dana may not be a constitutional expert. But look at my good girlfriend, Mary. What did she do with her excellent understanding of constitutional law? She abused it!
?They say she was a great President but what did she do? Help me, in my ignorance. What did she do that you couldn?t do. She greeted people. Oh, by golly! You know Mary Dunne on O?Connell Street? Sure, Mary Dunne could do that very well. She meets people all the time. Did Mary Robinson do it any better?
?Actually, Mary Dunne could carry a tune that you?d hear half a mile away, before her voice broke. Mary Robinson never even gave us a tune. She smiled, and so forth, but I?m sure even you can smile.?
What about Robinson?s visits to Rwanda and Somalia? Weren?t they valuable?
?For the good of United Nations, right enough, and for herself, they were valuable,? he asserts. ?Now, she?s got her #56,000 pension and she?ll also have money from the United Nations.?
Is that what those trips to Africa were all about?
?Now, you?re inspired in saying that. It?s you that said it. I have yet to see any other point to them. Maybe though, now through the United Nations, she?ll take an interest in human rights in Ireland.?
Gerry O?Mahony refuses to reveal any information about the make-up of the rest of Dana?s campaign team, saying only that there are between ?100 and a few thousand people? petitioning God on Dana?s behalf.
O?Mahony guffaws when I ask if he is aware that Dana has any links with American fundamentalist Born Again Christian groups.
?What are they?? he booms. ?I?m curious to know. What?s a Born Again Christian? What?s a fundamentalist? Would it be that they?re accused of being people who observe the fundamentals that were handed down to us by Christ? Is that what they are.?
Will it be appropriate for Dana to continue singing if she does become President?
?Why not?? Gerry chirps. ?Will it be appropriate for her to speak? Singing is as normal as speaking. No doubt, she?ll be going ?round the house, dusting and so forth, singing all the time. I go around the house singing when I have nothing else to do. Letting off steam, I suppose. We understand the Heavens are alive with music.?
Some of Adi Roche?s most virulent critics have claimed they will leave the country if she becomes President. Would Gerry O?Mahony consider a similar course if Dana doesn?t become President?
?Where would one go?? he chortles. ?Saudi Arabia? Iran? Iraq? I?ll tell you what, if something is not to done to turn back the Godless liberal agenda throughout the world, I?ll be off to Cape Canaveral. I?ll arrange for an early flight to the moon, one-way.
?I?d have peace and quiet and I?d bring a bag of seed potatoes and bag of fertiliser as well. I might be lonely, but at least I?d be saved when Ireland gets its dose of El Niqo.? n