{"id":145651,"date":"2025-10-26T04:11:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T04:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/145651\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T04:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T04:11:11","slug":"heather-humphreys-says-family-suffered-awful-sectarian-abuse-during-campaign-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/145651\/","title":{"rendered":"Heather Humphreys says family suffered \u2018awful sectarian abuse\u2019 during campaign \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fine Gael presidential candidate Heather Humphreys said her family was subject to \u201cawful sectarian abuse\u201d during the campaign.<\/p>\n

Ms Humphreys, who conceded defeat to Catherine Connolly before the final results are announced, has insisted she has \u201cno regrets\u201d about running.<\/p>\n

Ms Humphreys is a Presbyterian who was raised on a rural farm near the border.<\/p>\n

She spoke during her campaign for the presidency about how she attended Orange Order parades as a child but stopped going when the Troubles broke out.<\/p>\n

\"Plans<\/a>\"Violence<\/a><\/p>\n

She told RTE: \u201cMy family and I, but especially my family, were subjected to some absolutely awful sectarian abuse and I was disappointed because, as a country, I thought we had moved on from that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there needs to be a greater understanding of other traditions in this country and perhaps that\u2019s something that maybe I can contribute towards because there is a lot of misunderstanding out there and if we are ever to have a united Ireland we have to respect all traditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the level of spoiled votes, Ms Humphreys said it was \u201cunfortunate\u201d, adding that the number of candidates in presidential elections may be looked at by the Government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s next for me? Well I can tell you I intend to go back and enjoy some quality time with family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a seven-week-old grandson that I really haven\u2019t seen much of and I am very fond of my garden, and I can assure you I have a lot of work to do because I haven\u2019t been there for well over two months.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FineFine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys casts her vote with the help of her one-year-old grandaughter Charlotte at Killeevan Central National School in Newbliss, Co Monaghan (Liam McBurney\/PA) <\/p>\n

Ms Humphreys said she had \u201cno regrets\u201d about running.<\/p>\n

Thanking those who voted for her, she said: \u201cThe campaign was busy and I enjoyed it, I really did.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to every part of this country, to every county, and I got a wonderful welcome from many, many people.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what it did teach me was this is a wonderful country, and we should be very proud of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad that I took the opportunity in August to go forward. This is democracy and as I said, I really want to wish Catherine all the very, very best.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI have no regrets. I stepped up to the plate, and that\u2019s what democracy is about.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about people putting their name on the ballot paper, about people going forward. So I have absolutely not one regret, and I\u2019m glad I did it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fine Gael presidential candidate Heather Humphreys said her family was subject to \u201cawful sectarian abuse\u201d during the campaign.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[552,9,10,1921,18,85057,13,14,6,555,19,17,36456,85947,11,12,15,16,5,954,19863,7,8,1294],"class_list":{"0":"post-145651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-aras-2025","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-catherine-connolly","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-election-2025","14":"tag-featured-news","15":"tag-featurednews","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-heather-humphreys","18":"tag-ie","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-irish","21":"tag-irish-president","22":"tag-latest-news","23":"tag-latestnews","24":"tag-main-news","25":"tag-mainnews","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-northern-ireland","28":"tag-republic-of-ireland","29":"tag-top-stories","30":"tag-topstories","31":"tag-uk"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115438517320573025","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145651","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=145651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}