Ms Cairns had won by a single vote, having initially lost by the same margin.<\/p>\n
For someone who knows the value of a single vote, Ms Cairns found herself in the strange position of not being able to vote for herself in the last D\u00e1il election.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On polling day, she was, of course, rather preoccupied in Cork University Maternity Hospital, in labour with her first child<\/a>, a daughter.<\/p>\n “We’d made a plan for her arriving before polling day and after polling day. It just seemed statistically unlikely that she would arrive on polling day,” Ms Cairns told the Irish Examiner.\n <\/p>\n As Ms Cairns and her partner welcomed a baby girl into the world, the Social Democrats were on course to take an impressive 11 seats in the general election, just 20 months into Ms Cairns’ stint as party leader.<\/p>\n “I have to say, my biggest fear was that I would be in labour during the count. But the other one was polling day.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It was really surreal. People always tell you what labour is like, particularly when you’re so visibly pregnant, but you can’t explain what it’s like until you experience it.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It was obviously just such an amazing day, personally and politically.\u00a0<\/p>\n “When she arrived, it just like blew our hearts wide open. It was so amazing. You’re so just blown away by it. <\/p>\n “But then to have a situation where my phone would be going off with messages\u00a0\u2014 ‘It looks like P\u00e1draig Rice is going to do it in Cork’, or ‘Cian O’Callaghan topped the poll’, and ‘Jen Cummins is in!’\u00a0\u2014 all these things going on at the same time. It was a surreal experience.<\/p>\n \n And truthfully, if I could change it and do the two on different days, I definitely would.\n <\/p>\n Ms Cairns had flagged well in advance that she would be taking maternity leave, but her leave had barely started when the party found itself in the midst of a controversy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Newly elected Eoin Hayes was suspended<\/a> from the parliamentary party with immediate effect after he admitted lying about when he sold shares in a controversial US company that has been providing the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) with AI tools.<\/p>\n Ms Cairns says that Mr O’Callaghan, who as deputy leader was leading the party in her absence, kept her abreast of everything.<\/p>\n “Cian kept me up to date with all important information and decisions around the party when I was on maternity leave, including that one and, yeah, I was really disappointed when I heard.”<\/p>\n For a party \u2014 and a party leader \u2014 that had been on the forefront of issues related to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the issue was a blow.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I was disappointed. I think it was undoubtedly a difficult time for the party. But just to be clear, we will continue to lead on that issue (condemning Israel), and I’ll be back out on Molesworth Street with a megaphone. It didn’t take away from that for any of us in the party. <\/p>\n “It was quite a serious sanction, and Eoin has apologised, and I think he deserves a chance now to earn people’s trust back.”<\/p>\n With that incident put to bed, Ms Cairns’ return to her role was then overshadowed as pictures emerged from a fancy dress party in 2009, of Mr Hayes wearing ‘blackface’ makeup, apparently an attempt to dress up as Barack Obama.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ms Cairns says blackface “is racist” but that Mr Hayes’ acknowledgement of his actions as “reprehensible and idiotic” was important.\u00a0<\/p>\n She insists any issues within her parliamentary party are squared away.<\/p>\n “I think it was a really hard time, but I think we’ve come out stronger from it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n In political parties, there are always going to be issues like this, and it’s how we deal with them. How do we learn from them? How do we come through them?\u00a0\n <\/p>\n “I’m really excited to work together as a team.”<\/p>\n Her work will take on a new impetus after the Social Democrats’ role in Catherine Connolly’s presidential election win<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Holly](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4851849_8_articleinline_011Eoin_20Hayes.jpg\" "\\"Holly")
Holly Cairns said that party member Eoin Hayes ‘deserves a chance to earn people’s trust back’. Picture: Leon Farrell<\/p>\n
![\"Social](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4851846_9_articleinline_2.81713963.jpg.jpg\" "\\"Social")
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns with newly elected president Catherine Connolly and Sinn F\u00e9in leader Mary Lou McDonald in September. File picture: Niall Carson\/PA<\/p>\n