Laois TD believes Sinn Fein should back Catherine Connolly for President

An Independent Laois TD believes his former party, Sinn Fein, should get behind Independent TD Catherine Connolly’s Presidential bid. 

Independent TD Brian Stanley was speaking as the Independent Galway West TD visited Portlaoise to canvass for her campaign to become Ireland’s next President. 

Dep Stanley said the leadership of  Sinn Fein -who haven’t yet endorsed or selected a candidate - “hasn’t performed” in this Presidential Election. 

“We have a party that claims to be a 32 county movement and I think it is a sign of the weakness in the leadership over the last couple of years…. the fact that they haven’t to date come up with a credible candidate,” he said.  

“I think that if they are preaching that they want to lead an alternative government, part of that has to be to come together with other opposition parties to represent the opposition,” said Dep Stanley. 

He believes a President should come from opposition as the two government parties, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, control the Dáil and Seanad. He described the Office of the President as the “third pillar of our democratic institutions” and said it should be a position held by an opposition candidate.  

Dep Stanley said “to some extent” the election would be a referendum on the government.  He described Dep Connolly as a “stand out” candidate in terms of political experience and as a qualified barrister and fluent Irish speaker. 

Dep Connolly said she would welcome the backing of Sinn Fein in the contest. 

“I spoke to Sinn Fein going way back, months and months ago. I indicated what I was doing and they indicated that they would be going through their processes. All parties did that when I spoke to them, they all gave me the same answer and I understood it would be the end of August, the beginning of September(they would respond),” she explained.  

“I would like the support of every party if I could get it,” Ms Connolly remarked. She said “I would like to think that I am cross party, that I am inclusive.” 

Deputy Connolly was asked about Labour TD Alan Kelly’s opposition to his party backing her. “I can tell you it is almost 20 years since we parted ways, the Labour Party, and I can tell you there isn’t a bitter bone in my body. I don’t look on life that way,” she remarked. 

When asked about Laois, Dep Connolly said “I have a number of ties in Laois. I started in Laois as an Order of Malta member in an All Ireland competition. There were four on the team and we had a fabulous weekend up here in Portlaoise.”

“The Order of Malta was wonderful to us in the sense of giving us confidence, learning about first aid but parallel with that, learning that there is something beyond yourself,” she said. 

Dep Connolly recalled attending protests in relation to the Abbeyleix Community Nursing Home. She said at that time she was “fighting a battle for the St Francis Nursing Home in  Galway” and she had collected a petition with between 24,000 and 26,000 signatures. 

She also visited the wetlands treatment for sewage in Clonaslee with a delegation from Inis Oírr who were looking at the process. Finally, she mentioned her first visit to the Electric Picnic in Stradbally at the end of August this year. 

She was impressed by warm reception for the Irish language and by Northern Irish rap trio, Kneecap, who have been vocal in their opposition to the genocide in Gaza. “I have seen the film(Kneecap), I thought it was brilliant. Would it be me, the drugs, the bad language, absolutely not,”  Dep Connolly said.  

“I would describe it really as a phenomenon, that energy that is coming across. That positive message for the Irish language. That positive message in relation to genocide is not right,” Dep Connolly remarked. 

She said the genocide in Gaza, climate change, housing, violence against women and the reunification of Ireland were areas she felt deeply about.  

When asked about the child poverty figures which show 225,000 or one in five children in poverty, Dep Connolly was at a loss as to why the housing crisis wasn’t taken into account. 

“I heard the figures today. The housing crisis is an obscenity. It is man made. It is government policy, it is a direct consequence… I say it repeatedly in the Dáil, we should not have a housing crisis,” she remarked.  

In relation to Gaza, she said,  “this is genocide and if we normalise genocide it has serious consequences for Gaza because of hunger and death and destruction but it has equally serious consequences for humanity which we are not discussing.”  

Dep Connolly wants Ireland to retain its triple lock and she said the Taoiseach had on more than one occasion said the triple lock was the core Ireland’s neutrality. The triple lock means the Dáil, the Government and UN must approve Irish Defence Force overseas missions of more than 12 troops. 

When asked if she believed Presidential candidates were purposely being announced late in order to avoid scrutiny, Dep Connolly said she wouldn’t comment on any of the other candidates.  “I have nothing to hide. I am who I am,” she said. 

Dep Connolly was warmly received as she toured Portlaoise town where she called into local shops and stopped to talk to people on the street.