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record straight,’ Cregan recalled.
    Norris launched a media blitz to counter the Mail ’s interview. That morning, at 2 a.m., Norris’s web site was updated with a question-and-answer document addressing the contentious points raised in the interview and with a list of media interviews arranged.
    The first interview was on ‘Morning Ireland’ and sought to elicit Norris’s views on paedophilia and pederasty. He struggled to explain his case in simple, non-academic terms for a still-sleepy breakfast audience. He referred to the Symposium of Plato, a seven-part philosophical discussion on love, including homosexuality, until the presenter, Áine Lawlor, cut across him with a telling comment that would be repeated in later commentaries: ‘But you are not running for election in Ancient Greece: you are running for election in modern Ireland.’ The Irish Times would sum it up:
    On the face of it, Norris seemed to be saying he did not believe in an age of consent; that prostitution and drugs should be legalised, and that pederasty, as practised by the ancient Greeks, was acceptable. He also defended Cathal Ó Searcaigh against some of the allegations surrounding his contacts with young men in Nepal.
    Norris would admit later that ‘Thursday had been a difficult day for me and my supporters.’ He still claimed the support of three hundred campaign volunteers, but political observers would question the belief of his director of communications that time was on Norris’s side and that he would be able to turn the campaign around.
    Norris would tell the Irish Times that he had engaged in an academic discussion on sexual relations between older men and younger men and boys arising from classical Greek literature.
    I made a distinction between paedophilia and pederasty, which is a totally different thing. To the average person it would not make any difference, I suppose, but to me it did because I knew what I was talking about. That got mixed up and stayed mixed up.
    I abhor with every fibre of my being the idea of interference with children, sexual abuse, physical abuse and emotional abuse. My record on that speaks for itself.
    As the latest resurrected article was republished, Norris appealed directly to his electorate, scrambling to regain ground.
    So I stand on my deeds. I don’t think that responsible people like councillors, who have a lot of responsibilities in their local area, or my fellow TD s and Senators, would actually feel it appropriate to judge me on a couple of sensationalised headlines. I don’t think they would judge me on that …
    The great thing for me is my conscience is clear. I know I have done nothing wrong. I know I have not injured anybody. I know I have passionately stood up for the rights of the abused.
    He had been speaking to the recipients of the Fingal Centre awards at the Tailors’ Hall, near Christ Church, another diverse event on the campaign trail. He explained that, from 14 March, when he formally launched his campaign,
    I have behaved like a president and I am behaving more like a president all the time. And I feel I am being drawn towards and growing into the job. What I am asking now is that the councillors and my fellow members of the Oireachtas give me the opportunity to let the people decide.
    On Sunday 19 June, as the Labour Party met to elect its nominee, the Sunday Independent published its opinion poll commissioned from Quantum Research. Support for Norris had not diminished with the Magill controversy. He topped the poll, with 30 per cent support, more than twice that of Pat Cox, his nearest rival. Cox—a former TD , MEP and president of the European Parliament—and Finlay were at 13 per cent each. Michael D. Higgins and Gay Mitchell scored 11 per cent, while Mairead McGuinness won 9 per cent, Mary Davis 7, Seán Gallagher 4 and Kathleen O’Meara 2.
    While Norris still had not secured the necessary twenty