{"id":39132,"date":"2025-09-02T18:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T18:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/39132\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T18:00:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T18:00:08","slug":"sinn-feins-eoin-o-broin-says-he-would-not-back-bob-geldof-for-president-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/39132\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Eoin \u00d3 Broin says he would not back Bob Geldof for president \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A senior Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> TD has said he would not consider backing Bob Geldof<\/a> to be president. <\/p>\n

Eoin \u00d3 Broin<\/a> was responding to Geldof being linked with a bid for the \u00c1ras after it emerged the musician and activist spoke to Miche\u00e1l Martin about the role last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach, who wants former Dublin GAA manager Jim Gavin<\/a> to be Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s candidate, told Geldof he was not in a position to nominate him as a candidate.<\/p>\n

The Irish Independent has reported that Geldof has been considering a presidential bid.<\/p>\n

Prospective presidential candidates need nominations from 20 Oireachtas members or four local authorities to get on the ballot paper in the election to succeed President Michael D Higgins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At a press conference at Leinster House, Mr \u00d3 Broin said he would not consider backing Geldof for the presidency.<\/p>\n

The Boomtown Rats singer and Live Aid organiser was previously the recipient of an honorary knighthood from the late Queen Elizabeth II.<\/p>\n

Dubliner Geldof has also previously criticised the 1916 Rising, describing it as a \u201cdelusional enterprise\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked about this, Mr \u00d3 Broin said: \u201cThey are clearly both points of strong disagreement with Bob, although they are only two of many.\u201d<\/p>\n

The TD said the presidency was \u201ca serious question for us\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to support the candidate that reflects the progressive republican values of our party,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in is considering whether to run its own candidate or to join other Opposition parties in backing Independent candidate Catherine Connolly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mr \u00d3 Broin said the party was looking at its options and would make a decision on September 20th. <\/p>\n

There has been scrutiny of Ms Connolly\u2019s record including foreign policy views, her nomination of Gemma O\u2019Doherty<\/a> to enter the presidential race in 2018 and a \u201cfact-finding\u201d trip she took to Syria in 2018 when dictator Bashar al-Assad<\/a> was in power.<\/p>\n

Asked if Sinn F\u00e9in had any reservations about such matters, Mr \u00d3 Broin did not answer directly, instead saying: \u201cWe\u2019re looking at a number of options in advance of the ard comhairle meeting later this month. We will make our decision and we\u2019ll let our decision be known then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr \u00d3 Broin praised Mr Gavin for his time in the Defence Forces and as Dublin football manager, but criticised his reported decision to join Fianna F\u00e1il in advance of a possible presidential election run for the party.<\/p>\n

Mr \u00d3 Broin said Mr Gavin had \u201cgiven enormous service both to the country and to the county [Dublin] both as a member of the Air Corps, obviously, as the most successful not just Dublin football manager but football manager in the history of the sport\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also said Mr Gavin gave \u201cvery significant service to the State\u201d by chairing the Citizens\u2019 Assembly on a directly elected mayor for Dublin. <\/p>\n

However, the TD said: \u201cIn the week where the highest levels of homelessness under a Fianna F\u00e1il minister have been recorded and more than 5,000 children are in emergency accommodation, I don\u2019t know how anybody could join Fianna F\u00e1il for any reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr \u00d3 Broin would will not be Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s presidential election candidate, he said.<\/p>\n

Party leader Mary Lou McDonald has not ruled out the possibility she will run.<\/p>\n

Asked if he would seek the Sinn F\u00e9in leadership if Ms McDonald decided to go for the presidency, Mr \u00d3 Broin said: \u201cMary Lou is, without doubt, the best person to lead this party, and I want Mary Lou to be the next taoiseach of the country and will continue to support her until that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr \u00d3 Broin was speaking at the publication of Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s submission to the Department of Housing on the proposed changes to exempted development regulations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A senior Sinn F\u00e9in TD has said he would not consider backing Bob Geldof to be president. Eoin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[21088,1921,18,117,30062,4771,19,17,19487,16594,5765,59,47],"class_list":{"0":"post-39132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-bob-geldof","9":"tag-catherine-connolly","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-eoin-o-broin","13":"tag-fianna-fail","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-jim-gavin","17":"tag-mary-lou-mcdonald","18":"tag-micheal-martin","19":"tag-presidential-election","20":"tag-sinn-fein"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39132","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=39132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}