Main Points
Key Reads and Listens
Jack White – 36 minutes ago
Photograph: Conor O’Mearain/PA Wire
The decision not to remove Jim Gavin’s name from the ballot paper raises troubling questions about the election count, which should have been addressed given his early withdrawal, Diarmaid Ferriter writes.
The Electoral Act of 1992 includes a provision for the relevant minister – in this case James Browne, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage – to issue an order of modification for the conduct of an election in cases of “emergency or special difficulty”.
The Gavin case clearly represents a “special difficulty”, but there has been no clear explanation from Browne as to why he avoided making use of such an order.
Read more here.
Jack White – 55 minutes ago
Who is the pro-Assad militia leader Catherine Connolly was pictured with in Syria?
Saed Abd Al-Aal’s reputation certainly precedes him in Yarmouk, a southern district of Syria’s capital, Damascus, and largely populated by Palestinian refugees.
Everyone knows his name, but few have a good word to say.
Read more from Cian Ward in Yarmouk here.
Irish language would be ‘central pillar’ of Connolly’s presidency
On that Irish language initiative, Catherine Connolly committed on Friday to making the language a “central pillar” of her presidency.
The proposed initiative will run from June 2026 to June 2027 to mark the centenary of the first Gaeltacht Commission.
In a statement on Friday morning, Connolly said she is “honoured” to be visiting the Kerry Gaeltacht today, “one of the living heartlands of our language and culture”
She said her initiative, Teanga na hÉireann (A Nation’s Living Voice), will celebrate Irish as a “living, creative and unifying force”.
“It will honour the communities that have sustained it and embrace the energy of new generations who are making it their own.
“The Irish language is thriving again – not only in schools and Gaeltacht homes, but in music, media and everyday creativity. TG4 has done extraordinary work in bringing Irish-language culture to every household and nurturing a new generation of filmmakers, actors and storytellers,” she said.
Connolly said artists such as Kneecap who work through Irish show the language has “attitude, humour and global reach”.
“Far from being confined to the past, Irish is proving itself one of the most exciting and modern cultural movements of our time,” she said.
Following this morning’s debate, Catherine Connolly is going to Co Kerry, where she is set to campaign in Tralee, Castlegregory and Dingle.
She will launch her planned presidential Irish language initiative in Dingle later this evening.
Heather Humphreys, meanwhile, will be campaigning in Dublin for the day before appearing on RTÉ’s Six One News.
Pat Leahy: ‘Many people’s concept of hell will be listening to another presidential debate’
There was little new in a sometimes dreary Morning Ireland debate which began with the presidential salary and ended with questions about whether the candidates believed in God and what their favourite book was, our Political Editor Pat Leahy writes.
With Catherine Connolly miles ahead in the race, according to yesterday’s Irish Times poll, Heather Humphreys needs something dramatic to change the course of the race if she is to give herself any chance of overhauling her opponent.
There was no sign of it in this morning’s debate.Many of the lines from each of the candidates will have been familiar to listeners by this stage, though host Gavin Jennings did try to break some new ground.
One of the essential differences between the two candidates – Humphreys as a politician of government, Connolly a creature of opposition – became evident early on.
Perhaps thanks to Jennings’ willingness to pursue them, both sounded less convincing than ever on two of the main criticisms that have been levelled at them throughout the campaign – the Shane O’Farrell case for Heather Humphreys and Catherine Connolly’s trip to Syria when Bashar al-Assad was in power.
Humphreys repeatedly apologised to O’Farrell’s mother who has accused her of not being sufficiently supportive of her cause. It was a sticky moment for her.
Connolly sounded less convincing than ever on the strange story of visiting Syria during the brutal civil war there and the mass killings by the regime, including of Palestinian refugees.
Connolly said that she didn’t know who she was meeting or who was organising her itinerary, and continued to defend the trip as a “fact-finding” mission, which left her with a “horror of war”. Though presumably, she didn’t think war was great idea beforehand.
Humphreys performed strongly on the question of a united Ireland, raising the prospect that the North could have its own devolved government within a future united Ireland, an idea that has been curiously underdiscussed.
But will she win over the voters who believe most strongly in the urgency of achieving a united Ireland?
Most of those are Sinn Féin supporters, and Sinn Féin is backing Connolly, whose enthusiasm for a united Ireland might be recent, but is vigorous.
Humphreys is a churchgoer and believes in God, we learned, whereas Connolly believes in “something bigger than me”; she believes in “a better society where we strive for fairness and equality”.
“We all have different concepts of what God is,” she said.
Many people’s concept of hell will be listening to another presidential debate.
During the debate, which has now finished, Connolly also said Heather Humphreys had claimed that TD Paul Murphy was her director of elections which was not correct.
“Over and over allegations are being made without foundation. I have a very competent female director of elections … Heather knows this and yet she throws it out as she’s thrown out other things and this is not acceptable,” she says.
Humphreys interjected that Murphy is “connected to your election … you can call him whatever you want”.
In a lighter question, Connolly says her favourite Irish authors are Liam Mac Con Iomaire and Seamus Heaney while many other Irish female poets come to mind.
Humphreys says her favourite Irish author is Seamus Heaney and she is currently reading Irish Times journalist Frank McNally’s book Not Making Hay, which outlines what life is like in rural Ireland and says it is “a great read”.
Connolly says she never called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, Dana Erlich, and believes she should have been called in on a regular basis and concerns about situation in Gaza raised.
Humphreys says it is a “fragile situation” in Gaza.
She says she will meet any head of state if elected president, saying she respects US president Donald Trump’s mandate.
“Like any democratically elected leader, I will meet him,” she says.
Connolly says she will use her voice as often and as clearly as she can in relation to peace.
Asked if she believes in God, she says she certainly believes in something “bigger than me” and she respects the Constitution’s reference to God.
“I will take a public and solemn vow to serve the welfare of the people of Ireland,” she says.
Humphreys says she believes in God, adding that her faith has shaped her values in life.
“I go to church but don’t impose my views on anybody else. I think religion is a very private matter,” she says.
Asked about Irish unity, Humphreys says she wants to build bridges with Northern Ireland, adding that comes from a minority community and “this country has served me well”.
“I want to reach out to the people and I want to say to the people in Northern Ireland you have nothing to fear in this country.”
She highlights the importance of working on the basis of the Good Friday Agreement in working towards a united Ireland.
Ask what her vision is, she spoke of looking at a devolved government in Northern Ireland that would “work differently” as part on an “overall Irish solution”.
“Those are all conversations we have to have, and there’s no point in pre-empting anything before you go in, you talk to people and the first thing you have to do is build trust,” she says.
She says there is “a lot of misunderstanding out there”.
Connolly says her vision is a united Ireland.
Her vision as president will be to reach out to communities on all sides.
“I have visited Northern Ireland repeatedly.”
She said what is lacking is a Government response and said a cross-party committee report, which asked the Government to “outline the direction for a united Ireland”, has been left “sitting on the shelf”.
Humphreys adds there has to be more work done in terms of building trust, though she says “we have come a long way”.
“I live on the Border and I know we have come a long way. Brexit stopped us in our tracks and it was very difficult.” She says she will use the Áras as a safe place for unionists and nationalists to come to voice their concerns and talk to each other.
“We must bring people together and I will use the Áras to do that.”
Connolly said: “I’m being accused of agreeing with Brexit, which is totally inaccurate. Heather has done this on numerous occasions.”
Connolly says she was not aware of who Al-Aal was
The Irish Times report was raised concerning Catherine Connolly being photographed with Saed Abd Al-Aal, who led a pro-Assad armed group responsible for killing and starvation in a refugee camp in Yarmouk, a southern district of the Syrian capital Damascus.
Connolly says she was not aware of who he was.
“I went to Syria on a fact-finding mission,” she said, adding that the first port of call was a Palestinian refugee camp outside of Beirut.
She said they met different groups and did not know Saed Abd Al-Aal or what he had done.
“You have no control when you go to a country like that as to who will come into your presence or not. That’s no endorsement of the regime, I’m on record for condemning the regime. I did not meet with Assad, our Taoiseach met with Assad,” she says.
She said the camp was “utterly destroyed”, adding that she “foolishly” thought it was a tented encampment. “It was a city utterly destroyed,” she says.
She wanted to see what the life of Palestinian refugees was like on this Syrian trip. She says the trip was organised by a group of activists.
Humphreys is asked again about the O’Farrell family, who have said she did not support them in their campaign for a public inquiry.
“I have huge sympathy for the O’Farrell family and the loss of Shane was devastating for them. They have been through a difficult time.”
She says she spoke to Lucia and made representations on her behalf to ministers Shatter and Flanagan at the time and received correspondence that she sent to relevant ministers.
“I did speak to her on the phone last year, if I remember correctly, but at the end of the day, I did my best, and I’m sorry if she felt I didn’t do enough.”
Asked why she did not vote for a public inquiry on two occasions, she said she voted with the government at the time.
“I’m sorry if it wasn’t enough, anybody that came through my constituency office, I did my best for them. There are many times where I have helped people.”
Asked how she will represent those who protest against asylum seekers, Humphreys says she promises to be a “president for everybody”.
“It’s something I feel strongly about, in terms of the division that’s coming into our society. There’s a lot of division here and as a president, I want to bring unity, I want people to sit down, have conversations and try and break down those prejudices and those barriers,” she says.
She says she has experience in bringing people together. “We need people coming into this country,” she said, describing Ireland as a “land of opportunity”, saying many come here and contribute to health and care services.
Connolly says she finds the term Ireland is full “disturbing and unacceptable” and is not based on “any evidence or facts”.
“That doesn’t mean I won’t be able to listen to people who feel disconnected,” she says.
She says Ireland is short of workers and anger from people is being channelled in the wrong way and at the “wrong people”.
Put to her that she has remained in Opposition since she became a TD since 2016, Connolly is asked when has she shown responsibility.
She says the Opposition is very important in a Dáil, adding: “On each occasion that I was elected, we went up to Dublin, a group of like-minded TDs, to see could we form a government, but the differences were so vast.”
She hopes the next election will bring a movement that will shape a “completely different Republic”.
Humphreys says she “stepped up and made the hard decisions” while in government.
“Did we get everything right as a government? No, we didn’t, and of course, we didn’t get enough houses built and that’s a disappointment.
“It is very disappointing that we haven’t got more houses because we’re spending billions on housing, and we still need to get more houses,” she says.
Connolly says the housing crisis is a consequence of government policy, adding that it is difficult to be an Opposition TD, saying you have to work two or three times harder.
Asked about the current budget, and if she could identify any mistakes, Humphreys says “of course we [the Government] didn’t get everything right…I want to see more houses built”.
“The Government deals with the budget of the day,” she says, adding that she fought for money to roll out hot schools meal programme.
“I’m not going to get into this budget,” she says, adding that the president “has nothing to do with the budget”.
The debate has begun with a question on their earnings and allowances last year which were put at over €200,000, while one of them will be earning over €325,000 as president.
Asked how they can relate to the majority of people who earn a lot less, Connolly says the salary “is as it is” adding that she has “no difficulty relating to the people”.
She acknowledges there is a “huge cost of living crisis” and housing crisis.
Humphreys responds that she was a credit union manager for many years, and recalled seeing the challenges people faced.
“I saw people who were losing their houses and tried to help them,” she says.
She added that her time at this credit union motivated her to get into politics.
Catherine Connolly pictured with man linked to war crimes in Syria
Catherine Connolly has been accused of making “misleading” statements about meeting “Palestinians” in Syria after photographs emerged of her in the company of a militia leader linked to war crimes against Palestinian refugees.
Ms Connolly is pictured with other members of an Irish delegation in the company of Saed Abd Al-Aal, who led a pro-Assad armed group responsible for killing and starvation in a refugee camp in Yarmouk, a southern district of the Syrian capital Damascus.
Read more from Ronan McGreevy and Cian Ward here.
Good morning, both presidential candidates are set to debate shortly on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland.
We will have updates here as it progresses.
It follows an eventful day on the campaign trail yesterday, as the latest Irish Times/Ipsos B&A opinion poll found that independent candidate Catherine Connolly, on 38 per cent, has almost double the support of Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys, on 20 per cent.