DAVID NORRIS’ HOPES of becoming the next president Ireland may have been boosted by the backing of British actor, writer and comedian Stephen Fry.
With some 2,770,000 follows on Twitter, Fry has given the independent senator a glowing endorsement saying that Ireland “couldn’t have a more intelligent passionate and knowledgeable witty or committed President”.
But Norris will need more than the backing of the famed tweeter Fry who is not eligible to vote in autumn’s election. The civil rights campaigner, Norris will actually need the backing of either 20 members of the Oireachtas or four county councils in order to secure the nomination to even run for the presidency.
So far, it’s not clear who will be supporting Norris but polls have consistently placed him as the frontrunner including two polls conducted by TheJournal.ie.
His campaign has not been short of controversy after comments he made about paedophilia in a magazine interview ten years ago resurfaced and forced him to clarify his views on issues such as the age of consent and the ancient Greek practice of pederasty.
Elsewhere in the presidential race, businessman Seán Gallagher looks on course to secure a nomination as an independent candidate after receiving the provisional support of a number of county councils this week.
The Labour party has chosen Michael D Higgins as its candidate for the election whilst Fine Gael will choose one of Pat Cox, Gay Mitchell, Mairead McGuinness or Avril Doyle to be their hopeful for the election later this year.
Other independent candidates include the former CEO of Special Olympics Ireland Mary Davis and New York-based journalist Niall O’Dowd.
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