Why do we need a President in the first place?

DublinWriter

Why do we need a President in the first place?

Please correct me if I'm wrong about any of the following.

As I understand it, the role of Irish President was originally designed by DeValera during the 1920 Anglo Irish negotiations to act as a balancing counter-signatory role to the King of England.

Since that time, we in the South have been three national entities, the Irish Free State, Ireland, and eventually The Republic of Ireland.

Yet this nonsense of a political role endures, a role I might remind ye that Joe Public doesn't actually have to vote for, as many Irish Presidents through the years were politically appointed and not directly elected.

Why don't we have a more American/French political system? Is there any logical and pragmatic reason to retain, what essentially still remains, a viceregal office?

ríomhaire

To be a representative of the people outside of usual political squabbling and law making. To be the figurehead for our country and represent our presence abroad.

DublinWriter

ríomhaire wrote: »

To be a representative of the people outside of usual political squabbling and law making.

You weren't watching RTE1 at 9.30 last night then?

ríomhaire

DublinWriter wrote: »

You weren't watching RTE1 at 9.30 last night then?

I didn't say the candidates were suitable now.

Ellis Dee

DublinWriter wrote: »

Why do we need a President in the first place?

Please correct me if I'm wrong about any of the following.

As I understand it, the role of Irish President was originally designed by DeValera during the 1920 Anglo Irish negotiations to act as a balancing counter-signatory role to the King of England.

Since that time, we in the South have been three national entities, the Irish Free State, Ireland, and eventually The Republic of Ireland.

Yet this nonsense of a political role endures, a role I might remind ye that Joe Public doesn't actually have to vote for, as many Irish Presidents through the years were politically appointed and not directly elected.

Why don't we have a more American/French political system? Is there any logical and pragmatic reason to retain, what essentially still remains, a viceregal office?

You are actually asking two questions, which are quite unrelated.

One of your questions, whether we should have a political system different from the current one, would deserve a separate thread - or several.:rolleyes:


As for the question in the heading of your thread, I cannot think of any sovereign state in the world that does not have a head of state of some kind. It can be a monarch, a president elected by popular vote or the national parliament, or even a rotating one as in Switzerland, but they all have a national figurehead of some kind.

Ireland is not very heavily into thinking outside the box, so I suppose we observe the general conventions of the world in which we live.

I mean, who would there be to greet visiting heads of state? Or should we perhaps abandon a fixed-term presidency and hire someone like Twink to do the honours on a gig basis when someone important visits us?;)

And who's going to send me my cheque when I get to 100?:)

Berwick

Why do we need a President in the first place?

Because practically every state on this earth also has a Head of State.

jimmycrackcorm

The question that should be asked is, not why we need a president, but what are the powers the president should have. Effectively all we have at the moment is someone who represents the diplomatic head of state level to other states.

There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but there should be debate about what we would like to get more from the role.

MagicMarker

We need someone to greet people at the airport.

beglee

MagicMarker wrote: »

We need someone to greet people at the airport.

And someone to pointlessly delay the start of international football and rugby games