IRELAND MAY not be too many years away from electing an ethnic minority as head of state, President Mary McAleese suggested last month.

Speaking on a visit to the US during December, the Irish President (pictured right) said she looked forward to Barack Obama’s inauguration as US president, and suggested that Ireland isn’t far away from electing an ethnic minority as president.
“Not far at all, I hope,” she said. “I’d like to think that we’re building the kind of Ireland where that would be as easy, as normal, as natural as night follows day. It would be wonderful if it happened.”
Ireland’s most prominent ethnic minority politician is Nigerian-born Rotimi Adebari (pictured far right), who historically served a term as mayor of Portlaoise – the first black African to hold such a title in Ireland’s history. Another Nigerian, Taiwo Matthew, serves on Ennis Town Council.
The country’s local elections take place this summer, and so far candidates from Nigeria, Moldova, Zimbabwe and Poland look set to run.