Get set for Dirty Dancing

POLITICS is a dirty game, but it doesn't get grubbier than the presidential election.

- BY LARISSA NOLAN

The race for the Aras has suddenly got more interesting with the news that Michael Flatley is to seek a nomination to run.

The Irish-American dancer will make a bid as President, his High Court case over his Castlehyde mansion heard last week.

But if the Riverdancer goes for it, he needs to be prepared for the toughest and roughest contest in Irish politics.

Campaigns are known controversies, scandals and shock revelations. Fake tweets, mud-slinging, smears and anonymous letters are all part of the game.

Front runners - such as Brian Lenihan in 1990 and Sean Gallagher in 2011 - were taken out at the last minute.

Celebrity candidates such as Eurovision singer Dana and charity boss Adi Roche were put through the wringer.

Dana recalled it as a "a truly terrible time" while Roche described it as "mental torture".

Even two-term Michael D Higgins was deemed "too old" and his predecessor Mary McAleese was called a "tribal time bomb".

David Norris' bid was one of the biggest surprises, with the senator being pummelled throughout the campaign until he was eventually forced to stand down.

Political pundit Ivan Yates described entering the race as: "a punishment beating - it's open f***ing season on your life."

Since the role was created by Eamon De Valera in 1937, it's been controversial. De Valera, who served two terms as president himself, once joked: "I wanted to create a nice quiet job without too much work my old age".

In 1973 there was a poignant battle between Fine Gael's Tom O'Higgins and winner Erskine Childers, whose families were on either side of the Civil War.