A Northern Ireland background may be a real handicap in the presidential contest for both Prof Mary McAleese and Dana, Rosemary Scallon, if public attitudes identified in 1990 have not changed.
Research for Fine Gael during the 1990 presidential election campaign identified Austin Currie's Northern background as the single biggest negative element as to why he should not be elected.
The research, conducted by MRBI, identified the kind of person most acceptable to the electorate, before assessing the public's perception of the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates.
Back in 1990, the public was looking primarily for a person who would be a good representative of Ireland abroad. In joint second place came a desire for a candidate of honesty and integrity or for a popular person with a good personality. Political experience was regarded as only a slightly less important attribute, in fourth place.
Under these headings, the late Brian Lenihan did extremely well and, three months before the election, he was regarded as having the best chance of becoming President.
In terms of suitability, he was rated ahead of Mary Robinson and he had a significant lead over Fianna Fail's other candidate for the nomination, John Wilson. At the time, Fine Gael had not nominated its candidate, but the public placed Peter Barry in third place, behind Mr Lenihan and Mrs Robinson, in terms of suitability. The two other Fine Gael politicians mentioned, Mr Currie and Avril Doyle, had an unsatisfactory public rating.
As well as being asked to identify the positive elements required in a candidate, the public was requested to say why they would not like to see named people elected. In that regard, the rejection factor against Mr Currie was striking. Right across the political spectrum, and in all age groups and social categories, there was a disproportionate resistance to Mr Currie's candidature. In all, it amounted to 17 per cent of respondents, against an average of seven per cent for the five other candidates.
When people were asked why they found the candidates unacceptable, 70 per cent of those who objected to Mr Currie quoted his Northern background or that "he wasn't here long enough" as the reason.
In contrast, the great bulk of those opposed to Mrs Robinson said she was "too extreme or radical" or that they simply did not like her. Resistance to Mr Lenihan was couched in terms of his health problems and that he was "too political". And the majority opposed to Ms Doyle either didn't like her or felt she was unsuited for the position.
The findings of that survey may explain some of the antipathy within the Fine Gael leadership to Ms Doyle's recent bid for the nomination, and the support for Ms Mary Banotti.
Two-thirds of the electorate believed the successful candidate should be less than 50 years old, and almost 70 per cent of those questioned felt the job could be equally well done by a man or a woman.
Ninety-two per cent took the view that it was "very important" that the candidate should be capable of representing Ireland well abroad, and should also relate well to the people at home. A second survey, conducted within six weeks of the election, found that while the majority of people were unaware of the precise functions and powers of the Presidency, they wanted the President to be able to speak out on important national and international issues. They wanted a new style of Presidency, which would include a reconciling role between North and South. Mrs Robinson gave expression to some of those desires over the past seven years. But the surveys may carry important messages for the current crop of candidates.