{"id":31302,"date":"2025-08-29T18:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T18:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/31302\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T18:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T18:36:08","slug":"labours-alan-kelly-tells-colleagues-of-regret-over-radio-interview-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/31302\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour\u2019s Alan Kelly tells colleagues of \u2018regret\u2019 over radio interview \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Labour TD Alan Kelly<\/a> has expressed \u201cregret\u201d to party colleagues if his intervention on the presidential election earlier this week caused \u201cconfusion or concern\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Kelly is understood to have sent a private message to Labour Party<\/a> TDs and Senators on Thursday evening in which he sought to address what he described as \u201cthe elephant in the room\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the former party leader launched a broadside<\/a> against the party and Independent presidential candidate Catherine Connolly<\/a> on Tipp FM. It is understood he told colleagues that he had a long discussion with Labour leader Ivana Bacik<\/a> to \u201cclear the air\u201d.<\/p>\n

While he did not resile from his views, and indeed argued he had made his position clear privately to his party colleagues many times, he nonetheless told the parliamentary party that he regretted if there was confusion or concern arising from his interview regarding the Labour position on the presidential election. <\/p>\n

He said he respected the decision of the party without agreeing with it.<\/p>\n

In the interview on the local radio station, Mr Kelly said: \u201cI\u2019m not sure what Catherine Connolly did to deserve our support … I respect everybody\u2019s views in the party, but I was against this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Kelly was critical of Ms Connolly\u2019s views on international relations, mentioning Syria, Russia and the EU, as well as her association with former Independent TD and MEP Mick Wallace.<\/p>\n

He was particularly critical of the party\u2019s decision in light of Ms Connolly\u2019s criticisms of Labour\u2019s time in government, after which she said the party had lost its soul.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Catherine Connolly\u2019s continuing association with Clare Daly and Mick Wallace is troublingOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the party has to have some self-respect. Catherine Connolly has shown disdain for us since 2006,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also criticised Ms Connolly\u2019s indicated support for Gemma O\u2019Doherty when she was seeking nominations to run for the presidency in 2018, especially in light of views Ms O\u2019Doherty expressed about vaccines at the time. <\/p>\n

At the time she felt Ms O\u2019Doherty was a \u201cbetter option\u201d than Michael D Higgins, who has been an \u201cexceptional\u201d president, Mr Kelly said.<\/p>\n

The Tipperary North TD told colleagues that he was looking forward to welcoming them to Nenagh for the Labour Party think-in next week, which will be held at the Abbey Court hotel \u2013 reminding them that they will be visiting the home of the All-Ireland hurling champions when they come to his constituency.<\/p>\n

Privately, Labour Party sources had expressed concern in the wake of his radio interview about the optics of Mr Kelly hosting the event in Nenagh, which would usually involve the local TD sharing the limelight of media engagements with the party leader. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour TD Alan Kelly has expressed \u201cregret\u201d to party colleagues if his intervention on the presidential election earlier…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[22055,9,10,1921,18,13,14,24700,6,19,17,9170,9171,11,12,15,16,24699,5,59,2121,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-31302","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-alan-kelly","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-catherine-connolly","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-gemma-odoherty","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-ivana-bacik","20":"tag-labour-party","21":"tag-latest-news","22":"tag-latestnews","23":"tag-main-news","24":"tag-mainnews","25":"tag-mick-wallace","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-presidential-election","28":"tag-tipperary","29":"tag-top-stories","30":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31302","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=31302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}