Independent TD Catherine Connolly has launched her bid to become president, saying “we’re at a critical state in our country” and she is standing to “empower people to find their own voices”.
The Galway West TD made the announcement outside Leinster House on Wednesday, flanked by politicians from the Social Democrats and People Before Profit as well as Independents who are set to nominate her to appear on the ballot paper.
During a press conference she spoke about her vision for the presidency, defended her record including a trip she took to Syria during dictator Bashar al-Assad’s time in power and spoke about her nomination of journalist Gemma O’Doherty for president in 2018.
Announcing her election bid, Ms Connolly said: “I do so with the deep conviction that together, we can make this country better, and that we can make this country live up to its name, the Republic, and show that there is a different way.”
READ MORE
She said: “We’re at a critical state in our country”, and added she was standing “to enable people, to empower people to find their own voices, to stand up and be counted, to say there is a different way”.
Ms Connolly said: “We must deal with climate change. We must be a voice for peace. We have to stop the normalisation of war and violence. We have to stop the normalisation of homelessness. We have to say that these problems are not inevitable.”
She added: “They are man-made, policy driven, and we can have a different type of country and a different type of world.
“That is what motivates me”.
Since it emerged last week that she would be throwing her hat in the ring, a trip she took to Syria in 2018 along with then-TDs Clare Daly, Mick Wallace and Maureen O’Sullivan has resurfaced.
At the time, al-Assad was still in office and engaged in a brutal civil war.
Asked about the visit, she said she funded the trip herself, its purpose was “fact-finding” with fellow TDs and activists and she “met no member of government”.
She said she visited a refugee camp outside Damascus and “saw firsthand the destruction of a whole city”, adding: “I mean, my idea, up to then, of a refugee camp wasn’t up to scratch really.”
Ms Connolly said they were shown around by Palestinians and “we stayed with them all of the time”.
They travelled to Aleppo and met the Chamber of Commerce and also had a meeting with Unicef as well as visiting a convent.
“On no occasion had I anything to do with the government, nor did I ever utter one word of support for Assad,” she said.
The salary for the presidency is approximately €350,000 and the current office-holder Michael D Higgins has waived a portion of it as well as Oireachtas pensions over the course of his two terms.
Ms Connolly said she will “look at the salary” and is “open to ideas on that” adding: “I’m certainly going to use it for the common good.”
She said she would discuss it with her team and set out how she would use the salary “in due course”.
On her position in relation to Northern Ireland she said: “I think we’re going to have United Ireland very soon” but it would not be “immediate”.
She said the Belfast Agreement “has set the framework for that. Tremendous work has been done on the ground, with cross-Border bodies, and I look forward to the day when we have a United Ireland.”
Ms Connolly added: “There must be consent. I absolutely value the diversity, and we must value the different backgrounds in Northern Ireland.”
Ms Connolly was among a number of Oireachtas members that indicated they would support Ms O’Doherty’s bid to get on the presidential election ballot paper in 2018.
Ms O’ Doherty was unsuccessful in her attempt to win enough nominations to run and she subsequently became involved in far-right and anti-immigration activism.
Ms Connolly said she does not regret making the nomination in 2018 saying Ms O’Doherty “had done some good work as an investigative journalist.”
She added: “I didn’t know her personally, but I knew her role, and I gave her a nomination when the time came. That didn’t mean I was supporting her.”
Ms Connolly said: “Do I regret what’s happened to the relation to her? Absolutely. Do I support her in any way? Not at all.”
Asked about a perception that she has a combative political style, Ms Connolly said she disputed that and said she would “rephrase” it, adding: “I think I’ve been very straight, honest and direct. I think I’m a very hard worker.”
“If as a society we don’t value hard work and straight and blunt talking without any spin, then we’re in trouble.
“I don’t think I’ve set out to stir things or to be that type of politician.”
She pointed to her time as Leas Cheann Comhairle in the last Dáil, saying: “I’ve shown that I’ve been fair, that I’m able to put aside my strong opinion and function as a Leas Cheann Comhairle.”
She said: “I’m a democrat to my fingertips.”
On the war in Ukraine, Ms Connolly said: “The Russian invasion, was wrong, illegal and unacceptable. I’ve said it many times. We need to find a voice for diplomacy. We need to get peace.”
When Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelenskiy addressed the Dáil in 2022 it was reported that Ms Connolly and some other TDs did not clap for as long as other deputies.
Ms Connolly said: “I stood and I clapped”, adding that the suggestion “from certain quarters in the media was that I didn’t clap long enough and I didn’t clap hard enough”.
She said the “duration and intensity of my clapping” was looked at “as opposed to what was happening.”
“I was nauseous at the war,” she said, adding: “Myself preferably, I would have stood in silence at the horror of war and the horror of the illegal invasion.”
Earlier, she told RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta’s Adhmhaidin programme that she did not make the decision to contest the election overnight and was doubtful enough about the move, but was convinced by correspondence she got from people asking her to run.
“I was taken aback by the support I received, I wasn’t expecting that level of support from people across the country, in English and Irish,” she said speaking in Irish.
On Tuesday, Fine Gael’s Mairead McGuinness became the first official nominee in the presidential race to replace Michael D Higgins after his term comes to an end in the autumn.
Ms McGuinness, who was a TV presenter and farming journalist before becoming an MEP and EU commissioner, is the nominee to become Fine Gael’s presidential candidate.
[ Profile: The outspoken left-wing campaigner running for presidentOpens in new window ]
The election to succeed Mr Higgins is set to take place in late October or early November.
Prospective candidates need the support of 20 Oireachtas members to get on the ballot paper.
Fianna Fáil has not clarified if it will run a candidate and is to make a decision in the early autumn.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has also refused to rule herself out of the running.
Ms Connolly has received the backing of the Social Democrats and People Before Profit, with the Labour Party “very seriously” consider backing her.
Ms Connolly worked as a barrister and a clinical psychologist before becoming a councillor for 17 years and spending a term as Galway mayor until 2005.
She resigned from the Labour Party in 2006 after being turned down to be a running mate of then incumbent TD Mr Higgins.
She was first elected to the Dáil as an independent candidate for Galway West in 2016.
- Additional reporting PA
