World of Politics with Harry McGee

After months of shadow boxing, we are finally beginning to see the shape of the Presidential election. Galway West Independent TD Catherine Connolly was first out of the blocks making her announcement last week – appropriately enough – in the City Tribune. And with Mairéad McGuinness installed as the Fine Gael candidate, we now have two big political players in the field. At last!

Catherine is a candidate to be reckoned with. She has been a TD for nine years now, having first won her seat in 2016. She is a super parliamentarian and is always very good and strategic in her Dáil speeches.

She was a barrister, of course, before becoming a TD. And she is also an assiduous worker and is always a visible presence in the causes she is involved with from local issues like the Gluas, to her support for the Palestinian struggle.

She will be an avowedly left-wing candidate, that’s for sure.

When first elected she supported Richard Boyd-Barrett as her choice of Taoiseach. When the left-wing parties met, People Before Profit made it clear from very early on that they would enthusiastically back her if she stood. The Social Democrats (which would just be a little left of Labour) have also strongly supported her candidacy.

There are certainly mixed views among Labour Party members and the party representatives, with a clear generational divide. Older members would not be her greatest fan and for some there is lingering bad blood because of her departure from the party and some of the things she has said about it since.

But I spoke to somebody who was fully abreast of the meeting of left leaders last week and they did not get the sense that Ivana Bacik was in any way antipathetic to her. Labour representatives met her on Tuesday to explore the possibilities. If they back her on July 31, then that will change the dynamic and give her candidacy a much broader appeal.

That said, there are some things on the debit column that, at the very least, will need to be explained.

Pictured: Catherine Connolly…a candidate to be reckoned with. Photo: Brian Harding.