People walk past a graffiti portrait of Irish presidential candidate Catherine Connolly during elections for the Irish president in Dublin, Ireland, on Friday. Photo by Bryan Meade/EPA
Catherine Connolly, an independent socialist, was elected Ireland’s next president in a landslide on Saturday.
Connolly, 68, won a record 63.4% valid votes in Friday’s election with the official announcement the next day. Heather Humphreys of the government coalition party Fine Gael finished second with 29.5%. Jim Gavin of the largest government party, Fianna Fail, had only 7%.
Her total shattered the record set in 1959 when Eamon de Valera won his first term as president with 56.3% support. The turnout was 46%.
Connolly, a member of the parliament since 2016 and former Galway mayor, secured 914,143 first preference votes, dominating in all of the 43 districts except Cavan-Monaghan counties, according to Ireland Votes.
“Together we can shape a new republic that values everybody, that values and champions diversity … and the new people that have come to our country,” she said. “I will be an inclusive president for all of you.”
Despite her conciliatory tone, she has been a critic of the United States, NATO and the European Union, decrying their militarization. She has opposed Irish neutrality and condemned Israel for its war in Gaza
Connolly will become the 10th president of the Republic of Ireland, founded in 1949, and succeed fellow Galway socialist Michael D. Higgins, who was constitutionally barred from seeking a third seven-year term. Higgins is 86 years old.
“I know Catherine will be a president for all of us,” Humphreys, who spoke after Connally, said. “Catherine will be my president and I want to wish her well, this is her evening.”
Connolly was backed by five left-wing parties.
Disgruntled conservative literally left their mark on the election — by vandalizing their ballots.
There were 213,738 discarded ballots – about one of every eight cast.
More than two-thirds of those ballots were for Catholic conservative Maria Steen, who narrowly failed to qualify for the ballot.
Humphreys is a member of the Republic of Ireland’s tiny Protestant minority.
“My family and I were subject to some absolutely awful sectarian abuse,” she said. “As a country, I thought we had moved on from that. If we’re ever to have a united Ireland, we have to respect all traditions.”
