AND they’re off. The nightmare notion that Áras an Uachtaráin might be inhabited for the next seven years by Conor McGregor, Michael Flatley or Dustin the Turkey has vanished. A note of last-minute excitement was injected as Maria Steen struggled to get on the ballot paper. When she failed she claimed she was blocked. She wasn’t – she simply didn’t get the necessary twenty nominees.

Which is a pity. If I had a vote (alas I don’t), I would not have put my X beside her name, but I would like to have seen her as one of the choices simply because she was different.

She is a member of the Iona Institute, a conservative/right-wing organisation that says it wants to promote Christianity and its values. Its members are in favour of the right to life from conception to natural death, they believe in traditional marriage between a man and a woman, they believe in the value of religious schools. Oh,  and they believe in freedom of conscience.

That last one – conscience – is probably shared by Jim Gavin, Heather Humphreys and Catherine Connolly. But I doubt if all three would share the other values.

In contemporary Ireland, and in this case in the 26 counties, Steen’s values would put her out of step with the general population, who are opposed to such things, except maybe the last. It would have been interesting to see how many people voted for her.

Let’s imagine she had got on the ticket – what positive factors might she have brought to the election?

Well, let’s start with the superficial. She is a comparatively young and stylish woman, and how a political figure looks  matters to voters. Consider John F. Kennedy. What won him that TV debate with Richard Nixon? Without a doubt, his youthful looks. Those who heard the Kennedy-Nixon debate on radio figured Nixon had won, those who watched it on TV were convinced  Kennedy had won. Throughout the debate Kennedy looked handsome and relaxed, Nixon shifty and sweaty.  It doesn’t matter too much what you say once the public have decided you look sneaky or unsure or gawky. When Kennedy died, Time Magazine’s headline was  ‘He Had Style’. Much the same might have been said about Maria Steen.

But views matter too, and most of Maria Steen’s  are out of step with the general public in the south. That, however, is the very reason it’d have been good to have her feature.

The awkward truth is that many of those who’d describe themselves as having liberal values  have a habit of getting cross when someone disagrees with them.

There’s a danger there. If that intolerance of views other than your own is allowed to flourish, next thing you know, you’re thigh-high in groupthink. You don’t have to be a representative of the Monster Raving Loony party to be considered a freak.  A culture that is relatively liberal is always in danger of dismissing other views as old-fashioned or contradictory or weird. In short, the liberal can become the intolerant illiberal.

But anyway, there are just three candidates, and all three have taken a hit already. Heather Humphreys has been accused of failing to support Lucia O’Farrell, whose son Shane was killed in a hit-and-run in County Monaghan. Jim Gavin has been criticised for saying he witnessed no bullying or sexism during his time in the Irish Defence Forces, and Catherine Connolly has been criticised for saying that Hamas is part of the fabric of the Palestinian people.

In the TV debate on Monday, Jim was shouty and kept telling us about him having been in the armed forces, Heather sounded a bit out of her depth, and Catherine was once more the adult in the room.

Hold on to your hats – there’s loads more where that came from.