{"id":149846,"date":"2025-10-28T16:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T16:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/149846\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T16:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T16:16:10","slug":"catherine-connollys-sister-speaks-out-on-awful-smears-against-president-elect-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/149846\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherine Connolly\u2019s sister speaks out on \u2018awful smears\u2019 against president-elect \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Catherine Connolly<\/a>\u2019s sister has spoken out against the \u201cawful smears that were thrown against\u201d the president-elect during her campaign.<\/p>\n

Speaking on local radio station Ocean FM on Tuesday morning, Sligo-based GP Margaret Connolly described her sister\u2019s election win as \u201chistoric, beautiful, and a dream come true\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne million people have endorsed the truth,\u201d she said, referencing the landslide victory which saw Ms Connolly receive more than 914,000 votes \u2013 63.3 per cent of the total valid poll.<\/p>\n

Expressing pride and gratitude in her older sister\u2019s achievement, Ms Connolly said she was glad people were not \u201cfrightened by lies and such awful smears that were thrown against\u201d the Independent candidate. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf she\u2019s a commie and a loony, I am very glad to be in her camp,\u201d said Ms Connolly, \u201cI am proud that Catherine will speak the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of 14 children, seven boys and seven girls, the president-elect grew up in the Galway city neighbourhood of Shantalla, in one of the biggest council estates in Galway at the time. <\/p>\n

Her mother died in 1966 aged 43, when Catherine was nine years old. \u201cShe was three years older than me when our mum died,\u201d said Ms Connolly, who is one of two sisters now living in Sligo. <\/p>\n

Their father, a carpenter and later a building contractor, brought the children up, with the help of his eldest daughters. At the time of their mother\u2019s death, the oldest sibling was 21 and the youngest a toddler of one.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Catherine Connolly accuses FG of politics of \u2018fear\u2019 and \u2018smear\u2019 in latest debateOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cPerseverance, love and compassion\u201d were some of the core values \u201chard bred into our DNA by our mother and father,\u201d Ms Connolly told Ocean FM\u2019s Niall Delaney.<\/p>\n

These, she said, are Christian values, and ones which she believes will define her sister\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n

\u201cJesus was probably the first socialist,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

On Saturday night, Catherine Connolly vowed to be \u201ca president for all\u201d during her victory speech at Dublin Castle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think absolutely she will rise to be a president for all,\u201d said her sister on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Last year, Margaret Connolly married her long-term partner, then-mayor of Sligo, councillor Declan Bree, in a historic ceremony at City Hall in Sligo. The wedding was the first at the venue since it was built 159 years ago, in 1865.<\/p>\n

Speaking of his sister-in-law\u2019s win on Saturday, Mr Bree praised her Sligo-based sisters, saying they \u201cdidn\u2019t leave a stone unturned\u201d in their campaigning.<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly won 63.46 per cent of the Sligo-Leitrim vote.<\/p>\n

Mr Bree said that Ms Connolly\u2019s election \u201cmarks the start of a movement for an alternative Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Catherine Connolly\u2019s sister has spoken out against the \u201cawful smears that were thrown against\u201d the president-elect during her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,1921,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-149846","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-catherine-connolly","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-presidential-election","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115452692803150177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149846","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=149846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}