‘Always speaking for the underdog’: Opposition parties unite to back Connolly

Presidential candidate Catherine Connolly has said she wants to empower people to speak up against the status quo at her campaign launch in Dublin.

The major opposition parties joined her at a launch to endorse the left-wing presidential candidate from Galway.

She said her upbringing gave her insight into being both an insider and an outsider, which eventually led her to political life.

“What gives me the right to stand here before you and say I represent you as president of Ireland?” she said.

“We can shape the narrative and counter the narrative of consensus that has dogged our public discourse for far too long.

“The narrative of consensus that allowed over 100 years of institutionalisation in Ireland, that locked up women and men in our industrial schools, in our reformatory schools, and our Mother and Baby Homes and Magdalene laundries.

“A century and more of incarceration because our republic couldn’t allow questions to be put and those that put questions were demonised and ostracised.

“I will put the questions, more importantly I want to empower and enable you to realise the power that you have, and the power is within this community and within all the communities in Ireland, and you need to use your voice and demand answers, and I’m proud to be part of that movement.”

The mother of two said she learned about being an “insider and outsider” from a young age when a protest was organised against a Traveller family moving into her home town.

She said her father kept her and her siblings in from the protest, but she also “understood why the people were protesting, because of the hypocrisy of the local authority that sought to do it in a particular way, without consultation”.

She said she learned her socialism from being a member of the Legion of Mary and entered first aid competitions as part of the Order of Malta.

She said she worked as a cleaner, a nurse’s aid and as a hotel chambermaid, before becoming a barrister and a clinical psychologist.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said “we are ready to move heaven and earth” to elect Ms Connolly as president.

She said cherishing children equally, a united republic, affordable housing and access to healthcare were values “hardwired into the DNA” of Ms Connolly.

Ms McDonald said: “Catherine Connolly will speak out for Ireland’s place in the world as a defender of human rights, of peace, of democracy and diplomacy, she will defend our proud tradition of military neutrality, let me tell you this – Jim Gavin won’t do that, Heather Humphreys won’t do that, so the line for this presidential election has been clearly drawn.

“I am delighted to back Catherine for president. The combined opposition, the combined left, is uniting behind you Catherine, this is powerful. This is uplifting.

“We unite consciously to take on the stifling broken politics of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael that has done so much damage, we come together to demonstrate that a better way is possible and available.”

Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said that when Ms Connolly speaks in the Dail chamber, “everybody listens”.

She said she can “feel the momentum building behind this campaign”.

“That’s because there is a quiet, unshakeable strength to Catherine, you know that she has considered the issue deeply on a legal and on a moral level.”

She also thanked Ms Connolly’s team for letting her speak first, and mentioned it is her first night away from her newborn daughter.

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said the launch for Ms Connolly gave him “hope” in “a very dark time”.

“What Catherine’s campaign, in my opinion, is about saying no, there is a choice. There is a hope.

“They have a choice between a candidate who will speak out with moral clarity about Palestine, including saying that no, it’s not up to Keir Starmer who represents the Palestinian people, it’s actually up to the Palestinian people themselves.”

Senator Eileen Flynn said Ms Connolly “keeps me grounded as a politician”.

She said she did not believe that this was the left uniting and said it was instead “Catherine uniting us”.

“Catherine made me feel that I wasn’t stupid because I do have dyslexia,” she said and retold a story where she asked Ms Connolly to help her spell “Seanad”.

“As my father used to say to me, lord have mercy on his soul, you can mix the rough and the smooth. And I think Catherine can mix the rough and the smooth.”

Urging people to go out and vote, she added: “I’m begging of you, from the bottom of my heart, in a very scary world, please, please, please get beside Catherine and behind her, she’s exactly what they say on the tin.”

Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman said he was “utterly confident” that, if elected, Ms Connolly would put a spotlight on issues like Gaza and climate change.

He said she has a commitment “to always speaking for the underdog” and referencing Mother and Baby Homes and the Irish language.

Labour senator Marie Sherlock said Ms Connolly would be a voice “to speak the uncomfortable truths” and “to give people hope”.