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The trio met in Cape Clear Island, Co. Cork, in 2019. Pic: Alex Segre\/UCG\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n
They nearly left it too late. With stormy seas and cancelled ferries, Mr Wallace and Ms Daly were uncertain they could get back to register their candidacy.<\/p>\n
Today, with her erstwhile colleagues toppled by the turbulence of their extreme positions, just Ms Connolly remains in office. And latest polls indicate the Independent TD has established a seemingly unassailable lead in the race to replace Michael D Higgins in the \u00c1ras.<\/p>\n
But the legacy of those she once shared a D\u00e1il alliance with \u2013 people she still says are like-minded supporters \u2013 continues to raise questions for Ms Connolly, who has campaigned for the Presidency in Donegal with former TD Mr Pringle. <\/p>\n
Like Mr Wallace and Ms Daly, Mr Pringle has expressed controversial views in the past. <\/p>\n
In April 2016, he told the D\u00e1il he supported Brexit and hoped it would lead to the end of the EU. \u2018While I do not agree with the reasons why the British have decided to have a vote\u2026 I hope they vote to leave,\u2019 he said at the time. <\/p>\n
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A file photograph of Catherine Connolly and Clare Daly in 2024. Pic: Eamonn Farrell\/RollingNews.ie<\/p>\n
\u2018Anything that brings forth the end of the European Union would be a good idea. If the British vote speeds that up, it would and should be welcomed.\u2019<\/p>\n
Ms Connolly was sitting beside him in the D\u00e1il Chamber as he went on: \u2018If we look at what this great union has done in the past two years, it has carried out two coups within its own member states, where it deposed an elected government in Greece and an elected government in Italy because they did not suit the great economic agenda of the European Central Bank and the European Commission.<\/p>\n
\u2018That is the kind of union we want everybody to stay in and be part of, without mentioning the move within the EU towards the creation of a European army and the great vision [Jos\u00e9] Manuel Barroso had of the EU in 2007 when he said we now have all the trappings of empire.\u2019 Mr Pringle said he hoped \u2018we can see the end of this union completely\u2019.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Clare-Daly-Catherine-Connolly-Mick-Wallace-1.jpg\")
A file photograph of Clare Daly, Catherine Connolly and Mick Wallace in January 2019. Pic: Gareth Chaney\/Collins Photos<\/p>\n
Rising to speak next, Ms Connolly stopped short of agreeing with Mr Pringle\u2019s hope for an end to Europe sparked by Brexit.<\/p>\n
Instead, she simply said: \u2018I agree with Deputy Pringle that we should leave the sovereign state of England to make its own decision\u2019, before moving on to speak about Syrian refugees.<\/p>\n
Mr Pringle\u2019s comments about the EU and Brexit \u2013 and whether or not they gave Ms Connolly cause for concern \u2013 have not been put to her in this election campaign. <\/p>\n
Ms Connolly has often struggled to explain her position on the EU, a viewpoint dominated by her outright opposition to militarisation. Despite her claim to be pro-European, the TD voted against the Lisbon, Nice and Fiscal Treaties.<\/p>\n
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Thomas Pringle. Pic: Gareth Chaney\/Collins Photos<\/p>\n
In an interview on Virgin Media after the 2016 Brexit vote, Ms Connolly described the decision to leave the bloc as \u2018the first step in exposing the EU\u2019, adding: \u2018I think it [the EU] is exposed again now, and I think it\u2019s open for us to grab that opportunity and not let the right have the narrative or tell the story. <\/p>\n
\u2018How could you possibly say that the EU is good as it stands when we have a country where we have to get permission to build homes for our people?\u2019 <\/p>\n
Syria is another topic that has been raised throughout the Presidential campaign as a result of Ms Connolly\u2019s trip there with Mr Wallace and Ms Daly, in 2018. At the time, sitting dictator Bashar al-Assad was engaged in a brutal civil war while Western sanctions were in place.<\/p>\n
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Catherine Connolly. Pic: Tom Honan<\/p>\n