Independent, left-leaning candidate Catherine Connolly has emerged as the winner of Friday’s presidential election in Ireland. According to official results released on Saturday night, the 68-year-old lawyer won more than 63 percent of the vote, well ahead of her centrist rival Heather Humphreys, the candidate of the ruling Fine Gael party, who won 29.5 percent of the vote, AFP and Irish public broadcaster RTÉ reported.
Heather Humphreys conceded defeat and congratulated Connolly before the final results were announced. “I want to congratulate Catherine on becoming the next President of Ireland. I can only say that Catherine will be the president of all of us and she will be my president too,” she added.
Catherine Connoll promised to be the president of all citizens in her short address to the speech in the premises of Dublin Castle. She said the Irish people can together “create a new republic that values everyone, that values and promotes diversity and that trusts in our own identity, our Irish language, our English and the new people who have come to our country’.
“I will be a president who listens, responds and speaks when necessary. I will be a voice for peace, a voice that builds on our policy of neutrality, a voice that articulates the existential threat posed by climate change, and a voice that recognizes the tremendous work being done across the country,” Connolly said.
She became the tenth head of Ireland and the third woman to hold the position after Mary Robinson (1990–1997) and Mary McAleese (1997–2011). He will replace 84-year-old Michael Higgins, who has been president since 2011 and could no longer run for a third time. In the past, she worked as a clinical psychologist and lawyer. She was elected to the parliament for the first time in 2016 and in the years 2020 – 2024 she was the vice president of its lower chamber.
Connolly was supported by left-wing parties such as Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats, People Before Profit (PBP) and the Greens. She is considered a progressive politician who tries to unify rather than divide. Nevertheless, she did not avoid controversy, for example when she compared Germany’s current defense spending to its armaments in the 1930s, when the Nazis came to power.
This year’s presidential election was characterized by an unprecedented number of invalid votes and low voter turnout (45.8 percent).. According to experts, the Irish wanted to express their dissatisfaction with the fact that they could only choose from two candidates. The third candidate was originally former Irish rugby coach Jim Gavin, who was nominated by the other ruling party, Fianna Fáil. However, he withdrew his candidacy at the beginning of October due to a financial scandal, but his name remained on the list of candidates. Gavin received 7.2 percent of the vote.
The function of the president is largely representative in Ireland – the head of state represents the country abroad, appoints the prime minister or signs laws passed by the parliament.
