Ó Muircheartaigh: “I never said I was interested in being a candidate”

GAA commentator Micháel Ó Muircheartaigh echoes Gay Byrne in ruling himself out of the race for the Áras.  From the Irish Times report

Mr Ó Muircheartaigh last night announced that he would not be putting himself forward as a candidate but that he was honoured to be asked to run.

Speaking this morning, Mr Ó Muircheartaigh (81) said he had been approached by members of a number of political parties – which he declined to name – but that he had never considered himself a “contender”.

“I never said I was interested in being a candidate in the election….but out of respect for all those who offered support I had to consider it,” he said on RTÉ Morning Ireland . “I dissuaded all.”

As the BBC report notes

So far the only certain candidates for election in October are Fine Gael’s Gay Mitchell, the Labour Party’s Michael D Higgins, and the Independents Sean Gallagher and Mary Davis.

Both Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein have yet to confirm whether or not they will run a candidate.

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.