Principles Vs Politics

Tomorrow, the people of Ireland go to the polls to elect a new Uachtarán na hÉireann. I think back to summer 2023 when Zara King and Richard Chambers pondered on The Group Chat podcast if perhaps Ryan Tubridy was leaving The Late Late Show to get ready to run for President. That worked out well.

Speaking of things working out well, or not, the Presidential election campaign has been anything but boring. It’s been controversial, a bit scandalous, politically exciting, and in the last week, tedious with a dash of disgusting.

We’ve had multiple debates and interviews across different outlets, who at times seem to think that their audience only consume one sole broadcast about the election. Hence, they saw the need to ask the same questions and cover the same topics ad nauseam. If you are one of the lucky listeners or watchers that only tuned in to one thing, then my congratulations, you are the real winner in this election.

Jokes aside, this election campaign may well be looked back on as a seminal moment in Irish political history. Our two remaining candidates, Catherine Connolly and Heather Humphreys, offer voters a clear choice between integrity and establishment, between peace and establishment, between culture and establishment, between empathy and establishment. How the electorate votes tomorrow will chart a political course for the country to travel in, setting the stage for the next general election.

Neither candidate is perfect, but, as this excellent video by Moya explains, there is no such thing as a perfect political candidate, just buses going on different routes which may get you most of the way or part of the way home, as well as buses going in the wrong direction.

No prizes for guessing that I think that Heather Humphreys is the bus going in the wrong direction. She thinks the genocide in Gaza is “very bad” but doesn’t call it a genocide, and has dragged the election down to new lows by launching smear attacks on Catherine Connolly about her work as a barrister, despite knowing that the cab-rank rule exists. I could list all the ways I think Heather Humphreys shouldn’t be President but in reality, one point covers it all. She is establishment Fine Gael. She promotes the neoliberal ideology and austerity politics of the current establishment. She thinks that’s a good thing.

Humphreys has repeatedly told us that “she stood up to the plate and made the tough decisions" while in government. Tough decisions like lifting the eviction ban to placate landlord voters and push people into homelessness overnight. Tough decisions like watching the number of people in emergency accommodation rise and rise, like watching thousands of young people emigrate, like watching house and rent prices rise and rise, while doing nothing to help with any of it. Tough decisions like refusing to pass the Occupied Territories Bill, or refusing to search U.S. war planes in Shannon, or letting arms traffic through Irish airspace. All decisions taken by her government while she stood on the plate and imported Tory panic about XL Bully dogs, and project managed a commemoration. That’s politics. If you see nothing wrong with any of that, and want a President that will cut ribbons and say how high when asked to jump by the government, then you are in luck.

Again, no prizes for guessing which candidate I support. Catherine Connolly has most certainly made mistakes in the campaign. I understood the reasoning, but I don’t think she should have pushed the European militarism point by likening it to 1930s Germany. She also could have had a clearer response about her trip to Syria, to stop it being used as a stick to beat her with. Having recently read Michael D. Higgins book Power to The People, which is a collection of his Hot Press articles from the late 80s and early 90s, I can tell you the trips he went on were a lot more controversial at the time than the overexaggerated outrage at Connolly’s Syria trip.

To me, all the issues whipped up by the media and Fine Gael to discredit her are chicken feed compared to the type of person she is, and the type of President she will be, fingers crossed. I first became aware of Catherine when she had a heated exchange in the Dáil with Micheál Martin across The Convention Centre about the mother & baby homes redress scheme. She lambasted the government about the mismanagement of the scheme and how they were re-traumatising the victims and their families. She spoke with passion and her genuine determination to represent not only her constituents but everyone on the issue shone through. I remember thinking at the time that it was good that there’s at least one person with empathy in the Dáil. I think we’ve seen that sound character and genuine empathy in spades from her during the campaign. She is a person that promotes the values of representative democracy, peace, compassion, and empathy. Why on earth would anyone not want a President with those principles?

Despite the two very different options on the ballot tomorrow, there are some that refuse to accept the choice and want to spoil their vote, or not vote at all. I’ve never agreed with this. Voting is the easiest and lowest bar-to-entry act of democratic agency we have. I think it is selfish to decide to not bother your arse voting, or even worse, to spoil your vote. Nevertheless, everyone is within their rights to do so. When it comes to it, having a President that calls out war, imperialism, and neoliberalism, especially when our government deems it inappropriate, is worth going out to vote for in my opinion.

The Presidency is apolitical, but as we have seen, the Presidential election, not so much. There has been much talk about the role of the President, and the boundaries they can operate within. Having a President that can stay above the machinations of foreign policy and domestic politics means they can preserve the principles that the people of Ireland want preserved. Principles like neutrality, equity and equality, inclusion, culture and heritage, and compassion are worth preserving, now more than ever.

For me, Catherine Connolly can be trusted to preserve and promote those principles, and would make a great President of Ireland.