Sinn Féin will support Independent candidate Catherine Connolly in the presidential election, party leader Mary Lou McDonald has announced.
At a meeting in Dublin on Saturday, the party’s ruling ardchomhairle backed a proposal by Ms McDonald to not run a Sinn Féin candidate but instead to endorse Ms Connolly.
The move comes after months of uncertainty about Sinn Féin’s intentions, which at one point saw Ms McDonald under internal pressure to run in the election herself.
However, the party will now back the Galway West TD, who also has the support of Labour, the Social Democrats, People Before Profit and the Green Party, in the hopes of creating a united left-wing force that can win the presidency next month.
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Speaking to reporters, Ms McDonald said the decision was in part about getting Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael out of government by building a left-wing alternative.
Ms McDonald said Irish unification would be a central part of the campaign and that referendums on Irish unity would likely happen when the next president was in office.
She acknowledged that Ms Connolly has not previously been vocal on the subject of unity but said she was satisfied the issue would be “at the heart of the Connolly campaign and indeed a Connolly presidency”.
She said Ms Connolly would be “a champion for Irish unity”, “a voice for the marginalised” and a supporter of Irish neutrality.
Ms McDonald said recent presidents had been elected “from outside the political establishment” and Ms Connolly would follow in that tradition.
She said it was a “unique moment” to have the Opposition “rally behind a strong, compassionate, able candidate in Catherine Connolly and, yes, to take on the political establishment, to say very clearly to people that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael who have failed so spectacularly in government should not be rewarded with the Áras”.
Ms McDonald had earlier this week promised that Sinn Féin’s decision would be a “game-changer”. She insisted on Saturday the party’s backing of Ms Connolly gives her campaign a significant boost.
Early polls have shown Ms Connolly doing reasonably well, trailing the front-runners, though not by significant margins. Sinn Féin’s support is likely to push her into the lead, though polls taken before the campaign really gets going, have in the past proved poor indicators of the eventual outcome.
In a statement, Ms Connolly said she welcomed Sinn Féin’s announcement and thanked Ms McDonald for her leadership.
“I believe the coalition of left, centre-left parties and Independents backing my run for president is a welcome change for Irish politics,” she said.
“However, if I am to be successful I will be a president for all Irish people, of all political persuasions or none. See you on the road.”
Ms McDonald repeatedly explained the Sinn Féin move as a first step to establishing a wider coalition for government.
“We are grasping an enormous opportunity on behalf of those who vote for us [and those] who do not, and it is the opportunity to demonstrate a clear alternative beyond the hegemony of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, and Tweedledum and Tweedledee and Tweedledee and Tweedledum, which has been the enduring dirge of the Irish political establishment for a century,” she said.
“We think the powerful thing we can do as leaders of the Opposition is to combine with others behind a strong candidacy to demonstrate that we can work together to place a very clear alternative and a very clear challenge to Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.”
She said Sinn Féin would be giving financial aid to the Connolly campaign, though nothing had yet been decided. Asked about some controversies – including her support for Gemma O’Doherty in 2018 and a trip to Syria – Ms McDonald said these were issues that should be pursued with Ms Connolly.
To date, only two other candidates have the required support to contest the election to succeed President Michael D Higgins, with Fine Gael nominating former minister Heather Humphreys and Fianna Fáil selecting former Dublin GAA coach Jim Gavin.
A number of prospective Independent candidates, including businessman Gareth Sheridan, conservative campaigner Maria Steen and former lord mayor of Cork Kieran McCarthy, are seeking the support of local authorities and Oireachtas members to secure a place on the ballot paper before nominations close on Wednesday.
The election takes place on October 24th.
