As I write the chances of David Norris being nominated for the ballot, never mind being elected as Irish President are fading fast. It is all so far away from the "dream candidacy" that he seemed to exemplify as little as a week ago. Having weathered the storm over his interview with Helen Lucy Burke - in which he questioned the very idea of an age of consent for sexual activity, as well as seeming to approve of the pagan Greeks practice of pederasty- he appeared invincible. He may however have fallen victim to another ancient Greek idea: hubris. The irony is that for a veteran campaigner in the cause of homosexual rights he may have unwittingly exposed to public view those practices within the homosexual lifestyle that the friendly media endeavour to keep hidden. After all his former partner was merely engaging in the very practice that Senator Norris found so appealing among the ancient Greeks- a middle aged man grooming a younger teenager for sexual activity. Today we call it statutory rape. If his ill fated campaign forces into public view, and rational debate the issue of the homosexual lifestyle, then he will have inadvertently "done the state some service"
