{"id":50878,"date":"2025-09-08T13:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T13:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/50878\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T13:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T13:39:07","slug":"mary-lou-mcdonald-rules-out-aras-bid-as-sinn-fein-considers-backing-catherine-connolly-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/50878\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary Lou McDonald rules out \u00c1ras bid as Sinn F\u00e9in considers backing Catherine Connolly \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> is set for talks with Independent presidential candidate Catherine Connolly<\/a> as the party edges closer to making its decision on its participation in this autumn\u2019s race for the \u00c1ras. <\/p>\n

Speaking in D\u00fan Laoghaire on Monday, where Sinn F\u00e9in is meeting ahead of the start of the parliamentary term, Mary Lou McDonald<\/a> said her party would seek to discuss Ms Connolly\u2019s political record \u2013 including a 2018 trip to Syria \u2013 and also welcomed comments by Ms Connolly on the importance of preparing for a united Ireland.<\/p>\n

Earlier today, Ms McDonald said she would not be running for president<\/a>, but that the party had yet to decide its strategy \u2013 including whether it would run its own candidate or back another.<\/p>\n

In D\u00fan Laoghaire, the Sinn F\u00e9in leader reiterated her view that the president must place a significant degree of emphasis on the potential for a Border poll and reunification. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was very pleased to hear Catherine Connolly state very clearly that she is a supporter and advocate for Irish reunification, and not in some dim and distant future, but in the here and now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if former Sinn F\u00e9in leader Gerry Adams could be the party\u2019s candidate, Ms McDonald said the former TD for Louth had definitively indicated he would not be in the mix \u201cbut I\u2019m not going to presume any of that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said Ms Connolly was part of the \u201cactive consideration\u201d process the party was giving to its decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the process comes to this phase, we will be looking to engage with her campaign to discuss matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms McDonald said she would not speak on Ms Connolly\u2019s behalf when it came to her undertaking in 2018 to support former journalist Gemma O\u2019Doherty\u2019s putative presidential bid \u2013 even after Ms O\u2019Doherty had queried the use of vaccines.<\/p>\n

She did, however, confirm that this and other issues regarding Ms Connolly\u2019s political record would form part of the conversation with her campaign and with the candidate when it took place \u2013 including her previous trip to Syria, where she met a supporter of the Assad regime. Ms Connolly has since said she didn\u2019t support the regime in any way and that it was a mistake to meet the supporter, Fares Al-Shehab. <\/p>\n

Ms McDonald indicated that the matter of whether former MEPs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace were to play a part in Ms Connolly\u2019s campaign was a matter for the Galway West TD and her team. <\/p>\n

With Sinn F\u00e9in not set to confirm its decision for almost two weeks \u2013 well after the other large and smaller parties \u2013 Ms McDonald insisted that her party was not leaving the decision too late. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have plenty of time,\u201d she said. \u201cThis campaign officially starts on the September 24th, and that will give almost five weeks of campaigning for each of the candidates to be scrutinised and evaluated.\u201d <\/p>\n

Speaking on RT\u00c9 Radio earlier about her decision not to run, Ms McDonald said she had to \u201clead from the front\u201d in holding the current Fianna F\u00e1il-Fine Gael Coalition to account.<\/p>\n

How does the presidential election work? Kate Byrne explains. Video: Dan Dennison <\/p>\n

\u201cI have a real sense of the importance of this time in Irish political and indeed in Irish historical life,\u201d Ms McDonald said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that whoever is the Uachtar\u00e1n following the election will likely be the Uachtar\u00e1n in office as we move into referendums and Irish reunification and all of the politics and the interaction that needs to happen around that, and I think the Uachtar\u00e1n will play a very, very important role at a time of huge opportunity and transition in Irish life and for that reason I\u2019ve considered very carefully what we as a party do, but also what I do myself personally.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the party had tested \u201cevery proposition\u201d in relation to a candidate.<\/p>\n

She would not be drawn on who that candidate would be, but refused to rule out Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O\u2019Neill. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy preference is that we call this right and, at the risk of sounding repetitive, we have options, but I\u2019m clarifying today that my name is no longer in the mix,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms McDonald said her party would make a decision on September 20th. <\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we have the winning of this thing,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Who will be Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s nominee for president? An insider says the ground may be shiftingOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Asked who \u201cwe\u201d was, she responded that it included Sinn F\u00e9in and parties who were \u201cnot Fine Gael and Fianna F\u00e1il\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Dublin Central TD said there will be no explicit instruction to Sinn F\u00e9in councillors when it comes to votes on local authorities for those seeking to get on the ballot paper via the support of four such bodies. \u201cWe\u2019re not issuing an instruction, there isn\u2019t a whip being imposed,\u201d she said \u2013 but reminded councillors that they were also part of a \u201ccollective enterprise\u201d in being part of Sinn F\u00e9in and said they were \u201csensible\u201d people.<\/p>\n

Asked if she felt pressure to deliver a strong result for Sinn F\u00e9in as she faces into her eighth year as its leader in 2026, without a decisive electoral victory to date, Ms McDonald said there was \u201calways pressure\u201d on anyone leading a team.<\/p>\n

\u201cBelieve you me, nobody will ever put more pressure on me than I put on myself,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are always going to challenge ourselves to do better. I\u2019m disappointed that we didn\u2019t make government last November,\u201d she said. Ms McDonald added she was \u201cabsolutely determined and convinced we can make it next time\u201d, and said she felt an obligation to lead from the front. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sinn F\u00e9in is set for talks with Independent presidential candidate Catherine Connolly as the party edges closer to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,1921,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,16594,5,59,47,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-50878","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-mary-lou-mcdonald","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-presidential-election","24":"tag-sinn-fein","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50878","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=50878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}