Catherine Connolly wins Irish presidency in landslide

CGTN Europe

CGTN Europe interviewed Dr. Thomas Leahy, Senior Lecturer in British and Irish Politics at Cardiff University

Transcript

00:00An independent candidate from the left has won Ireland's presidential election by a landslide.

00:06Catherine Connolly received over 63% of the votes, more than twice that of her only rival, Heather Humphreys.

00:12She also secured the highest number of first preference votes in the history of Irish presidential elections.

00:19Connolly is a strong critic of both the European Union and of Israel.

00:24Thomas Leahy is a senior lecturer in British and Irish politics at Cardiff University here in the UK.

00:29Thank you very much indeed for being with us.

00:31First of all, your thoughts really on Catherine Connolly's historic victory.

00:35Did the scale of her victory surprise you at all?

00:40Good afternoon, yes.

00:41I think it surprised myself and I think for various commentators,

00:45just because this was a candidate that various different left-wing parties,

00:48the largest one is a party called Sinn Féin, an Irish Republican Party,

00:53that some viewers might be aware historically was linked to the Irish Republican Army,

00:56the IRA, the campaign against British rule.

00:59That party is now the kind of largest left party in the Republic of Ireland's politics.

01:03And then a lot of the other smaller parties backed this candidate.

01:06And yes, she won by a considerable margin compared to particularly the centre-centre-right parties

01:12that currently top the main government in place, the Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

01:16So it was a considerable victory, yeah, and it was quite surprising the scope of that victory and how significantly large it was.

01:23And what do you think we can read into it?

01:25There, of course, have been huge social changes in Ireland in recent years,

01:29such as the legalisation of same-sex marriage.

01:32Do you see this political result as part of a wider shift, a societal shift and political shift,

01:37perhaps towards a more progressive direction?

01:39Yeah, in some ways, yes.

01:43I think, certainly on the progressive direction, yes,

01:45for the things that Catherine Connolly, the candidate and now the president, stands for.

01:49I think there's a couple of, like, quite significant implications from this.

01:52So one is, what this shows the left in Irish politics,

01:56Sinn Féin and the kind of smaller leftist parties and groups,

01:59is that when they came together to back one person and one candidate,

02:02they got success from that and worked together.

02:04Now, in Ireland's general elections, the next one wouldn't be until about four or five years' time.

02:09And in 2020, 2024, the last two, Sinn Féin is the main left-wing party.

02:14It's actually performed very well, kind of dead level with the centre-right, right-wing parties,

02:18Finnegan and Fianna Fáil.

02:19But the problem for them with the PR system is the two centre-right and right parties would go in together.

02:24So this is kind of a test run, if you like, to see that if the left-wing parties do work together,

02:29that can help in a proportional system to get more candidates elected and potentially form a government.

02:35And the second point I would say as well, that Catherine Conley's quite outspoken about things like Ireland's neutrality,

02:41sometimes has been a critic of the European Union, NATO, etc.

02:45So that's going to be interesting how that plays out.

02:48And that, you know, kind of showing that almost 50-50 split in the Irish population,

02:52different opinions about things like NATO neutrality, whether they should keep it, etc.

02:56So, yeah, I think that could have a significant impact on debates going forward in Irish politics.

03:02And Catherine Conley secured 63% of first preference votes.

03:06Now, that's the highest in Irish presidential history.

03:09What do you think that tells us about the political mood of the electorate right now?

03:13What was the turnout numbers? Are people really motivated for change?

03:17So, yes, a couple of things here.

03:19So the turnout, in theory, looks fairly low, below 50%.

03:22Having said that, and there was a number of spoiled ballots as well,

03:26which has been reported quite widely in the Irish media and beyond,

03:30I would say with that, though, what complicated that is there was the left candidate,

03:35there was a lady called Heather Humphreys who stood for Fine Gael, one of the centre-right parties,

03:39and there was meant to be a candidate for Fianna Fáil on the right,

03:42who was on the ballot paper, but they essentially just withdrew near the end of the process

03:47for various reasons, which I won't go into here.

03:48But I think that might have had an impact because, actually, the other centre-right candidate,

03:53that might be some of the reason for sport votes.

03:56So it's hard to read into that until we kind of get to the details.

04:00I think the thing that's, like, significant here going forward is it does show,

04:03as I talked about already, you know, the left in Irish politics can come together

04:07and they can, you know, push forward their candidates and advance their own cause.

04:12And that might show, you know, the next election in particular,

04:15that might kind of play through, see them challenge the right.

04:17The other thing I would say as well is that she's quite outspoken about the idea of Irish unification

04:22and wanting to move that forward, which is something particularly Sinn Féin

04:25and the left parties are interested in doing.

04:27The right-wing parties are not against it, but they don't think this is the right time.

04:31But I think that might give another voice that, you know,

04:33there should be an Irish border poll, a unity poll, sooner rather than later, I would say, overall.

04:39Thomas Leahy, many thanks indeed for joining us, filling us in on that.

04:42Election results in Ireland.

04:44This is Thomas Leahy, Senior Lecturer in British and Irish Politics at the University of Cardiff.

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