{"id":144732,"date":"2025-10-25T14:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T14:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/144732\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T14:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T14:18:08","slug":"catherine-connolly-set-to-become-irelands-next-president-as-rival-concedes-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/144732\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherine Connolly set to become Ireland’s next president as rival concedes | World News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Independent candidate Catherine Connolly is set to become Ireland’s next president after her rival conceded.<\/p>\n

Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys said: “Catherine will be a president for all of us and she will be my president, and I really would like to wish her all the very, very best.<\/p>\n

“I have absolutely not one regret.”<\/p>\n

Ireland’s deputy premier has “sincerely” congratulated Ms Connolly, 68 and who has the backing of Sinn F\u00e9in, on “becoming our next president of Ireland”.<\/p>\n

Simon Harris, who leads the Fine Gael party that nominated Ms Humphreys, said in a statement that Ms Connolly will be a president “for all this country and for all of us”.<\/p>\n

\"Ms<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Ms Connolly. File pic: PA<\/p>\n

The final result will be officially declared by presidential returning officer Barry Ryan once all 43 constituencies have completed counting.<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly previously said she was “absolutely delighted” with the tallies showing she was on the path to replacing Michael D Higgins, a popular poet and former arts minister who has served the maximum two terms in office.<\/p>\n

The role – which has been held by Mr Higgins for the last 14 years – is largely ceremonial, but one with real national significance.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Ms Connolly is a former clinical psychologist and barrister who served as deputy speaker of Ireland’s lower house after
being first elected in 2016.<\/p>\n

Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns also congratulated Ms Connolly on the apparent win, saying it represented a “seismic moment in our history”.<\/p>\n

The Social Democrats were one of a number of parties backing Independent Ms Connolly in the election.<\/p>\n

She said: “The momentum behind Catherine’s presidential bid was incredible, growing from a small campaign run by dedicated volunteers to the grassroots movement it became.<\/p>\n

“From day one, her message of inclusion, equality and social justice resonated with voters in every corner of Ireland.<\/p>\n

“Catherine had a clear vision for the presidency and was determined to speak out on issues that mattered to people – housing, cost of living, disability services, climate action, the Irish language and neutrality.<\/p>\n

“Catherine’s considered, focused and compassionate approach to this campaign was hugely impressive.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Independent candidate Catherine Connolly is set to become Ireland’s next president after her rival conceded. Fine Gael candidate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-144732","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-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115435241991554033","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144732","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=144732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}