{"id":132981,"date":"2025-10-20T01:15:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T01:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/132981\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T01:15:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T01:15:11","slug":"catherine-connolly-says-comments-by-heather-humphreys-a-new-low","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/132981\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherine Connolly says comments by Heather Humphreys \u2018a new low\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Catherine Connolly has described comments made by her rival for the presidency<\/a> as \u201ca new low\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Independent candidate was in her native Galway where she was asked about an interview with the Sunday Independent in which Heather Humphreys said she \u201cnever tried to make money out of people\u2019s misfortune\u201d, referring to Ms Connolly\u2019s time working as a barrister during the economic crash.<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly said she had been \u201cover and over\u201d the issue, adding: \u201cFor a candidate for the presidency to misuse that in the way she has, it\u2019s just a new low.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Fine Gael candidate\u2019s first stop of the day, the Intermediate Football Championship Final in Athlone, she too was asked about the quotes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ms Humphreys reiterated her stance, saying that Ms Connolly \u201cwas working for UK banks\u201d before she went in to politics, whereas she was working in a credit union \u201cactually helping people to stay in their houses\u201d.<\/p>\n

When previously asked about this period in her career, Ms Connolly has pointed to the \u201ccab rank rule\u201d, which obliges barristers to accept instructions in any case in their area of practice.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Ms Humphreys also posted a message online thanking music star Daniel O\u2019Donnell for his support after he told the Irish Independent he would be voting for her.<\/p>\n

Writing on X, she said she is \u201chumbled\u201d by the support she has received.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach was also out and about on Sunday morning, delivering a speech at a commemoration of Irish revolutionary Wolfe Tone.<\/p>\n

He used the opportunity to take aim at Ms Connolly<\/a>, who he said was among those who \u201cpretend to be pro-EU but in practice invest all of their energy in attacking the Union\u201d \u2013 describing it as \u201ccorrosive and cynical euroscepticism\u201d.<\/p>\n

Miche\u00e1l Martin did not name the presidential candidate in his address but later told reporters gathered in Bodenstown, County Kildare: \u201cCatherine is in that camp, there is no question about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taoiseach Micheal Martin spoke at the Annual Fianna Fail Wolfe Tone Commemoration in Bodenstown, Co Kildare (PA)<\/p>\n

In his speech, he said: \u201cWe need to start calling out people who say \u2018Oh, but I\u2019m pro-EU\u2019 as they constantly announce and reannounce the supposed end of Irish sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to list a number of stances he believes are \u201cnot pro-EU\u201d including standing against European Union treaties, claiming the Union is \u201ccontrolled by a wealthy elite\u201d and \u201cconstantly\u201d saying the EU is \u201cdestroying our neutrality and is in the hands of a military-industrial complex\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Ms Connolly told the D\u00e1il she \u201cproudly\u201d canvassed against the Lisbon and Nice treaties due to concerns about \u201cthe militarisation of Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

But during RT\u00c9 Radio\u2019s This Week debate on October 12 she said it was \u201cabsolutely wrong\u201d to say she had voted against \u201cevery European treaty\u201d.<\/p>\n

After the event Mr Martin reiterated his \u201cvery strong support for Heather Humphreys\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Catherine Connolly has described comments made by her rival for the presidency as \u201ca new low\u201d. The Independent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,70375,79607,9168,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-132981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","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-person-catherine-connolly","22":"tag-person-micheal-martin","23":"tag-place-republic-of-ireland","24":"tag-presidential-election","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132981","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=132981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}