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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
20 October-November 2025
I
met Catherine Connolly on a sunny
late-September lunchtime. I spotted
her faro striding down Dublin’s quays
towards the Village office. She
apologised unnecessarily for being
late, I told her I was surprised to see her
without a black limo and she laughed.
She was at all times thoughtful to the
point sometimes of an introspection that is
sadly rare in politicians. I found her warm,
upbeat and unstuy but also steely; she
backed down on nothing.
Early roots and political formation
First I asked Catherine Connolly to describe
her politics, so she thought for five seconds
before recalling “From a very early age, I was
infused with a sense of social justice and the
absolute necessity for equality”. Growing up
in a family of fourteen in a local authority
estate, she says she saw the inequalities of
Irish life up close. A defining moment, she
explained, came during a protest against
accommodation for Travellers. Her father kept
the family inside, refusing to let them join. At
first glance, the decision seemed harsh. But
The moral confidence of a pacifist who
knows well what she is saying: “The crimes
being committed in Gaza are with the
support and the complicity of Western
states. Ireland’s hands are not clean”
THE VILLAGE INTERVIEW:
CATHERINE CONNOLLY:
warm but steely politician with a cultural hinterland and proud of her
big family and Council-estate roots; a Republican who’s not backing
down on Hamas, equality, the environment or anything else
Michael Smith meets Presidential candidate, Catherine Connolly
Connolly came to see it as formative. “He was
able to teach us not to join something that
was so partisan. It gave me perspective: the
ability to see as both an insider and an
outsider. I realised very early on how unjust
the local authority was, imposing things on a
community [Travellers] without discussion,
and how important it was to see through
hypocrisy”.
I pressed her on what kind of equality she
sought: equality of outcome, equality of
opportunity, or something else. “Full
equality”, she said. “We can’t talk about
equality if someone doesn’t have a home.
We can’t talk about equality if people don’t
have access to a public health system, to
integrated public transport, to education.
Equality of opportunity has never made
sense to me”. She remembered a speech by
a Minister for Health claiming people with
disabilities simply wanted to be treated the
same as everyone else. Connolly bristled at
the historical ignorance: “That’s just wrong.
People with disabilities have been treated
as less than equal for centuries. You don’t
undo that by pretending they’re the same”.
Defining a Republican
I wondered how she would label her politics:
socialist, democrat, republican, egalitarian?
Connolly replied carefully. “Republican”, she
said, “but in the truest sense of the word that
we’re striving to make a reality”.
I asked if she thought woke had gone too
far. “Woke never caught my attention at all”.
On immigration, she was blunter still: “I
think even the question ‘have we taken in too
many immigrants’ is absurd. We are utterly
dependent on people coming into our
country to work. Just weeks ago I had figures:
18,500 nurses and midwives from India
alone”. And asylum seekers, did she accept
that most of them do not qualify? She was
indignant: “They are the most wonderful
people, they come here fleeing persecution,
war, horrors. We have an international
obligation to treat them with dignity and
process their applications quickly”.
Heroes and Influences
I invited her to name her international political
heroes. Connolly demurred. “I don’t have
heroes really. Any hero I might have is my
father, my sisters who minded him, carers
generally”. When I asked about the best Irish
President, she was respectful but careful. “All
of them oered dierent qualities”, she said,
though she acknowledged that Michael D
Higgins had been “very courageous”. As for
naming his mistakes, she smiled and left that
for “Michael to do himself”.
NEWS
October-November 2025 21
When asked what she was
proudest of, she answered
without hesitation: “Coming
from a family of fourteen”
Connolly went on a fact-finding visit to Syria and told the Dáil
Assad’s government was committing war crimes
The Gemma O’Doherty Question
Connolly has been beset by questions about
her nomination of Gemma O’Doherty as a
Presidential candidate in 2018; and she has
not made progress in refuting allegations
even though most national print media, and
parties of the left, more or less promoted
O’Doherty for a while, before she ahem
became a conspiracy theorist and racist. She
notes that O’Doherty broke the consequential
John McClean story [in Village] and had won
awards while a liberal in the Irish Independent
– but she “flipped”. Connolly nominated
O’Doherty after she ventilated anti-Vax
theories, which were then perhaps not
terminal. She persisted with the nomination
after O’Doherty promoted mad theories about
collusion by the state in the murder of
Veronica Guerin. Perhaps the nomination
process was irretrievable by then. Certainly,
it was only after that that O’Doherty
completely twisted, embracing intolerance
too. By some time before the election, Village
was endorsing Higgins for the Presidency.
Connolly was stuck with the O’Doherty
nomination.
Connolly was insistent: “I nominated her
to give her a chance to get the 20 nominations
required. I never endorsed her. At the time
she was an award-winning journalist; she
had done important work, like exposing
abuse in schools. Later she changed course
entirely, embracing conspiracy theories. But
that wasn’t evident when I gave her the
nomination. I still believe candidates should
get the chance to stand, and the people
should decide. That’s democracy”.
Syria
She told me she was deeply and life-
changingly affected by the desperate
conditions for Palestinians when she went on
what she describes as a fact-finding visit to
Syria in 2018. Crucially upon her return she
was explicit in telling the Dáil that President
Bashar Assad and his government were
perpetrating “horrific war crimes”.
Media narratives, and Democracy
I probed whether she thought mainstream
media, though framing their perspective as
objective, were more willing to scrutinise
outsiders than establishment figures; and
reluctant to criticise those who’ve been
photographed with Trump and Netanyahu and
others who’ve supported war crimes in teeth
of UN warnings. Connolly’s answer was sharp.
“I’ve worked as a barrister and a clinical
psychologist. I’ve seen how institutions
create a narrative, and how hard it is to go
against it. That’s extremely dangerous for
democracy. The media should hold everyone
to account equally, but too often they do not”.
Gaza-Palestine
I wanted to hear her actual views on Gaza.
Acknowledging that Hamas “has conceded
in ongoing negotiations that it would play no
part in the immediate post-war governance of
Gaza” but reacting to shrill criticism in
establishment corridors about her comments
on Gaza, Connolly has the moral confidence
of a pacifist who knows well what she is
saying. “Let us not forget that the world-
historical crimes being committed in Gaza are
committed with the support and the
complicity of Western states. Ireland’s hands
are not clean in this regard. Every day, flights
bearing weapons for Israel pass through Irish
airspace. We still sell dual-use items to Israel.
Those exports rose when the genocide
started. This despite the fact that the
obligation to act to prevent genocide is
paramount in international law”.
Because of this, Connolly noted that “all
Western governments must adopt a position
of deepest humility in regard to Palestine.
Irish politicians declaiming that Hamas, or
anyone else, ‘cannot be part of Gaza’s future’,
with all the horror of the current moment, with
all the Western complicity in that horror, can
only serve to undermine Ireland’s standing in
the world, a standing already damaged by our
failures to act on Gaza”.
Ireland. she said, “could draw on its own
experience and try to play a mediating role…
Article 29 of our Constitution commits us to
the peaceful settlement of international
disputes”.
She asserted righteously that “Palestinians
have a right to self-determination, just as the
people of Ireland do”.
How psychology and law work for her
Asked about her unusual professional path
which she described as “organic: my whole
life has been a journey”, Connolly recounted
her studies in psychology and German, her
training in Leeds as a clinical psychologist,
and her early career in community care. While
working, she began an LLB. “It was a Eureka
moment. I realised it was simple: go to
lectures, do the work, make friends — it was
easy to do well. It opened my eyes. Law was
everywhere — every newspaper article
touched on it. I found it empowering and an
insight into the way things work”. Parallel to
that she colourfully taught Travellers, and
later Communications in a horticultural
college, for three years to fund herself.
Ultimately she practised as a barrister on the
Western Circuit, often struggling financially,
taking any case available. “I would have
loved to specialise in crime. It was what I was
best at. But I ended up doing a lot of family
law too”.
These dual careers, she said, shaped her.
“Psychology made me a listener, an
observer. I come from a background where
you listen. Law gave me a voice, the ability
to stand up and articulate. Both were
essential, it turns out”.
Leaving Labour
Connolly had been elected as a Labour
Councillor in Galway in 1999, and later served
as mayor. But by the mid-2000s she had left
the party. “People often say it was because
Labour didn’t endorse me standing. But really,
we had already parted ways. There were no
cross words”. She has a story about the
numbers and logistics of the seats she stood
for and how she wanted to optimise them. It
clearly was something she was passionate
about then but I wasn’t really listening — her
ideas were more interesting. “We should have
led on climate change 20 years ago. We had
the best recycling rates. We left a vacuum”.
22 October-November 2025
Institutions “create a narrative”: Connolly and Pat Leahy disagreed about the
place of economics on Vincent Browne’s ‘Tonight Show’
She emphasised that in Galway, voters were
looking for change. She worked hard on the
ground, moving wards, taking risks that
worried the party, and ultimately helping
Labour become the largest group on the
Council. I ask her if Labour were not radical
enough and she does one of her pauses,
saying endearingly it’s the Presidential
election and she doesn’t want to… “we should
have led!”.
Nationalism and Sinn Féin
I asked whether she thought Sinn Féin was too
nationalist, not nationalist enough, or about
right. Connolly welcomed the support Sinn
Féin had oered her, but was clear too about
her own ground as a “United Irelander”. “I am
a committed advocate of a United Ireland.
That comes from vivid memory: refugees from
the North came down to Galway, stayed in St
Mary’s College. I’ve gone North many times,
often quietly”. And when asked she said she
would love it if it happened “during my one
term” but it’s “a political thing”.
Religious oaths and spirituality
She would have no problem with the oath
before God that the President is obliged to take
but was she religious in general? She didn’t
know what the word means. Connolly described
her Catholic upbringing. “My father was a
committed Catholic though we parted ways. Is
there something bigger than me? I absolutely
hope so. I hope there’s a spirituality”.
The Presidency and neutrality
Her greatest enthusiasm as President would
be recognising the role of communities on the
ground.
Asked how she would conduct the
Presidency, Connolly emphasised
independence. “It is a separate institution.
I’ve read the relevant Constitutional articles.
I’ve worked in many capacities, listened to
people with views opposite to mine, and done
so professionally. As Leas Ceann Comhairle I
listened to opinions that were the polar
opposite of mine. That is democracy. I am a
democrat to my fingertips”.
And what if she was asked to sign a bill that
compromised neutrality? “That
misunderstands the role”. Her role is to refer
it, if she thinks it may be unconstitutional, to
the Supreme Court and otherwise sign it into
law, when any other citizen can challenge it.
“If I had doubts, I would refer it to the
Supreme Court. That is the duty. I would look
carefully at each bill”.
She does, however, describe herself as a
pacifist. I asked her if she thought Ireland, if
it had the opportunity, should supply arms to
Palestinians. She bridled: “no”. And what
about Irish neutrality in World War II? She
supported it. And opposition to Nazi
Germany? — and should Britain have been
neutral in that War? She is firm. “I’ve always
tried to avoid trite answers, the Twitter
approach: these are complicated issues that
need time to answer”.
I tried something simpler: would she be
warm to Trump? She hoped she’d be warm to
everyone.
A voice for peace, neutrality and life-
long learning
What would she like her legacy to be? “I’d like
to be inclusive, empowering people to use
their voices. Peace. We need a voice for peace,
a voice for neutrality. Neutrality is absolutely
necessary. I’d like my legacy to be one of
encouraging lifelong learning. My father and
mother instilled that in me: the more you
know and the more you listen, the more you
realise how much there is to learn”.
Climate change and sustainability
Connolly spoke passionately about climate
change and rural sustainability. She went out
of her way to praise community projects,
especially the Connemara Forum.
Development patterns
On housing and balanced regional
development, she was frank. “We have a
serious housing crisis in Galway, no
infrastructure. Raw sewage still pours into the
sea at Ceathra Rua. Failure to promote
balanced regional development is a disaster.
The Gaeltacht cannot survive without houses.
There is no housing in the seven Gaeltachts.
Yet the narrative blames so-called ‘serial
objectors’. I find that language appalling.
People go to great trouble to raise concerns,
and we label them as obstacles. That’s
corrosive for democracy (and sustainability)”.
She could see that once-o housing poses
issues for the environment but said there
aren’t that many planning permissions given
for it now.
She noted that Ireland has hundreds of
vacancies for planners, there are 600
vacancies. “We pass laws, but we don’t
enforce them. We underfund planning, and
then we blame citizens, We need a robust
planning system and we had problems with
the former Bord Pleanála”. She regretted
the recent planning bill has clamped down
on resident rights.
The Irish language
Connolly’s passion for Irish was clear. “I was
ashamed of not having it. I decided to become
fluent, did a translation course. Irish gives a
completely dierent perspective. English is a
language of domination; Irish sees no
distinction between people and nature. I want
to normalise Irish, to empower people to use
it”. She says she is dierent in Irish, softer.
Cultural hinterland
I invited Connolly to speak about her Life
Beyond Politics and she smiled at the
chance. “Oh dear. Books. I have seven on
the go but in the end I do finish them. I’ve
read a lot on Palestine. I love historical
novels — Robert Harris’s trilogy on Cicero,
for example, and how relevant it is to today
– with the slaughter. I love Seamus Heaney,
especially ‘Republic of Conscience’. Yeats,
Emily Dickinson”. Her dad wrote poetry.
Her cultural tastes are broad and far from
only political. She plays piano, now pursuing
formal grades, and hopes to play competently
one day. She loves both classical and
traditional music. Though she has beem
misrepresented as comparing current
Germany to its “Nazi” predecessor, she
studied German, lived and worked in
Germany, and still aspires to fluency though
she wouldn’t trust herself with her
pronunciation.
She hadn’t been to the cinema much
recently though she loves movies.
“We did a lot of sport”, she added. She has
run too many marathons to recall. Her best
time is three hours thirty-six. And triathlons,
often with siblings, in the 1980s.
Values
When asked what she was proudest of, she
answered without hesitation: “Coming from
a family of fourteen. The values my dad gave
us. My family shaped me”.
President Connolly
Asked directly if she expected to win, Connolly
said emphatically: yes.
