When Mr Gavin\u2019s first preferences are redistributed based on second preference patterns, Ms Connolly\u2019s support rises to 39%, while Ms Humphreys\u2019s increases to 31%.<\/p>\n
![\"Independent](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4822623_12_articleinline_IRISH_20President_20_2012432008.jpg\" "\\"Independent")
Independent candidate Catherine Connolly tries on a member of the public’s hat as she meets shoppers and workers in the Navan Shopping Centre, Co Meath. Picture: Niall Carson\/PA<\/p>\n
Both have said that they believe there are still a large number of votes to be won, pointing to the 20% or so of people who are undecided.<\/p>\n
Later on Wednesday, Ms Connolly took part in RT\u00c9\u2019s Katie Hannon interview and said she had not asked former TDs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace to \u201cstay away\u201d from her campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have fairly little contact with Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, because most of the time they\u2019re not in the country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Connolly was also asked about her previous comments on Brexit, but denied that she was celebrating the UK’s 2016 referendum result.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn’t pro-Brexit. What I was doing was having respect for the democratic process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“That’s very important that we have respect for the democratic process. And with the EU, it has definitely gone down a route of further and further militarisation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat has always been a concern for me, and it remains a concern for me,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Ms Connolly also rejected that previous comments about the militarisation of Europe were insulting to Germany.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expressed my serious concerns about the similarities between now and the \u201830s, and I used the example of Germany, which is rebooting its economy, buying more arms.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have Putin, and I\u2019m on record for absolutely condemning the invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a woman and as a mother, I\u2019m seriously concerned at the direction that countries are going \u2014 spending more money on arms and militarisation, while we reduce the money spent on welfare.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think those concerns are shared by the majority of people in Ireland, particularly brought into acute focus because of the genocide in Gaza, perpetuated by Israel and funded by America,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Asked why she wanted to be president, Ms Connolly said: \u201cI think we\u2019re at a juncture in our country and in the history of our country, where a choice has to be made by the people of Ireland in this presidential election, and the choice is a stark one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWill we elect an Independent candidate with an independent mind as president, who will have the courage to speak out, a person who is bilingual, and a person who will be able to listen, to hear, to listen, and to reflect the values that we hold dear as people?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fine Gael is \u201cvery worried\u201d about the momentum behind Catherine Connolly\u2019s campaign, the left-wing Independent candidate claimed as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-125472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-presidential-election","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}