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

Presidential candidate Catherine Connolly has said she will represent a movement for those not afraid of speaking up against narratives at her campaign launch.

The major opposition parties joined her on stage to endorse the left-wing presidential candidate from Galway.

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

“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.”

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.”

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

“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.”

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”.