CANDIDATE PROFILE: DANA ROSEMARY SCALLON

This article appeared in Sin as one of a series of presidential candidate profiles 25/10/11

Dana Rosemary Scallon
Belfast Telegraph

Dana Rosemary Scallon is one of only two women in the race for the Aras 2011. It’s the independent’s second time running, after coming third in 1997. She was elected as an MEP for Connacht-Ulster in 1999 and is a former Eurovision winner, making her somewhat unique among presidential candidates.


Dana was born in Islington, London, in 1951. Shortly afterwards, her family moved back to Derry, and the musical gene her parents possessed was passed onto the young Dana. In 1970, Ireland won the Eurovision for the first time with Dana’s rendition of All Kinds of Everything. She went onto have a successful pop career, eventually turning to Christian music.


Dana’s Christian music became successful in America. In 1991 she relocated to Alabama where she presented several shows on the Catholic TV channel, EWTN. She then moved back to Ireland in 1997 and ran for the president. She had acquired American citizenship in 1999, a matter of some controversy in this election, as to obtain US citizenship one must swear an oath renouncing allegiance to other nations.


Dana’s policies include a focus on the Constitution and protecting it and Ireland’s sovereignty. Dana believes that much of our power has been handed away to Europe and as a result we are suffering. According to Dana’s publicist the MEP believes: “There will be no foreign landlords, especially bondholders and banks, I would prefer to burn the bondholders than the families of Ireland.”


Dana also runs on a family values platform. She is pro-life and is a Catholic conservative. She pledges to protect the constitution: “We are faced with constitutional crisis and fiscal crisis. Under my Presidency there will be no loss of sovereignty. Ireland’s Constitution and the right of self-determination is safe in my hands.”