The Making of a President 2025
THE LEFT IN IRELAND SCORES A LANDSLIDE VICTORY
Catherine Connolly, the 68-year-old woman just elected to be the tenth President of Ireland, calls herself a socialist and a pacifist, supports Palestine, opposes the neoliberal idea that less government is better, doesn’t believe that free markets hold the answer and rode a bicycle to her West Galway polling place on election day.
Her lopsided, landslide victory was never in doubt once they started counting the votes Saturday morning. Connolly received more than twice as many votes as her closest opponent, Heather Humphrey of the Fine Gael party, 914,143 to 424,987. No candidate for any office in Ireland has ever gotten that many votes. Prior to this election the most votes Connolly ever received was 6,747 when she last ran for the Dail (Irish Parliament) from Galway. Here’s coverage from Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE. And here’s a look at the front page of the Irish Times this morning. Here's how the Irish Examiner out of Cork looks.
LOW VOTER TURN0UT AND LOTS OF “SPOILED BALLOTS”
Her smashing victory is being spun as a setback for the two parties running the government of Ireland, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail. The FF candidate Jim Gavin pulled out of the race under a cloud of scandal, but his name still appeared on the ballot. He got 7.2% of the vote. The big winner besides Connolly? Sinn Fein seems to be the consensus. The party once known as the political arm of the Irish Republican Army actively supported Connolly after its leader in the Republic, Mary Lou McDonald, passed on a bid for the Presidency. A new poll shows SF with 23% support of the Irish public, which is the highest of the three major parties in Ireland. FG – 19% FF – 17%.
There are two black marks on the outcome. First, more than half of the registered voters didn’t bother to vote for one of the three candidates. The 46% turn out is the lowest ever for a Presidential election when an incumbent wasn’t running. Second, nearly a quarter million voters “spoiled” their ballots by merely marking X, writing in another candidate’s name or scrawling messages like “Ireland getting worse,” “EU puppets,” and “No from me.” Those ballots were not counted towards the official turn out. Never have so many Irish voters cast a “spoiled ballot.”
The two most popular women in Irish politics. Catherine Connolly will be sworn in as President on November 24. Michelle O'Neill leads Sinn Fein in the north of Ireland.
WHO CATHERINE MARTINA ANN CONNOLLY IS AND WHAT SHE BELIEVES
Connolly comes from a family of 14 kids raised in West Galway. Her father built the boats called Galway Hookers. Her mom died at the age of 43 when Connolly was 9. She says she’s a socialist because of her time with the Legion of Mary (a charitable lay order founded in Dublin) and the Order of Malta (a humanitarian org with a major presence in Ireland). She was raised Catholic but now calls herself “areligious.” As a pacifist she actively supports Ireland’s continued neutrality. In other words, she’s against joining NATO.
When she was Mayor of Galway she watched with disdain as the new Gilded Age unfolded, “that was 2004 to 2005" she recalled. "Neoliberalism (was) at its peak so I remember being at an auction for charity and a minicar was auctioned... it was up at 70 or 80,000 (euros) as we were looking at services in terms of charities and we were corporatizing all our services at the same time. And I found that very, very difficult. I was at more events where I think I couldn't eat. I think I lost a lot of weight that year. Just simply, it didn't sit well with me at all.” That’s Connolly talking to Blindboy, who hosts a popular podcast in Ireland. (Like most podcast hosts he takes forever to get to his interview with Connolly. It starts at the 17-minute mark.)
Áras an Uachtaráin, the White House of Ireland and President-elect Connolly's home for the next seven years. She has promised to take a hard look at reducing the President's salary, which is 330,000 euros annually.
DOES THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND HAVE ANY POWERS?
Legislative/executive powers – No. Persuasive powers – Yes. "The Irish President is not like a US President; their legislative role is to protect the constitution and rights of citizens, to be the head of state and more to represent the Irish nation, our culture, values and aspirations.” Sinn Fein “The president represents Ireland abroad and hosts visiting heads of state and other dignitaries at the official presidential residence, Aras an Uachtaráin, in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. The president is, above all, responsible for ensuring that the Irish Constitution is followed.” Al Jazeera. Who's in charge? When Mary Robinson was President in 1991, she was invited to London to give a speech on "the position of women and the family in Ireland." The Taoiseach (Prime Minister) at the time, Charles Haughey, refused to allow her to leave Ireland to make that speech. He cited the Irish Constitution, under which the President requires the consent of the government to leave the country. Consent denied. Haughey was afraid President Robinson, a feminist and human rights lawyer, might be too critical of Irish social policy.
“I don’t have a television. I haven’t enough time to do what I want to do. I try to play piano, I rollerblade, I swim. I read, I drink cups of tea. I clean the house,” Catherine Connolly said in one recent interview.
CONNOLLY’S ATHLETICISM GOES VIRAL ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Gareth Sheridan is a young Irish entrepreneur who wanted to run for President but couldn’t convince enough Irish politicians that he should. (Support of enough local and national elected officials is required to get on the ballot.) He may have had the best line post-election on how Connolly won. “I think the video of Cristiano Connolly doing the keepie-uppies was the moment she won the election.” Explanation: Cristiano refers to the great Portugese soccer star Ronaldo. Sheridan was referring to the video of her horsing around with some school kids who were, maybe, 60 years younger than her. Here it is. Note: The video was taken by a Sinn Fein activist on scene and posted by the SF publicity office
