{"id":6533,"date":"2025-08-18T06:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T06:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/6533\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T06:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T06:40:07","slug":"tony-holohan-drops-presidential-bid-to-avoid-abuse-of-family-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/6533\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Holohan drops presidential bid to avoid \u2018abuse\u2019 of family \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former chief medical officer Tony Holohan<\/a> has announced he will not now seek a nomination to run for the presidency<\/a> because he wants to protect his family from the \u201cpersonal abuse\u201d of a campaign. <\/p>\n

Prof Holohan said he could not expose his family to \u201cdistress, criticism or abuse at a time when we are all still rebuilding our lives\u201d.<\/p>\n

He had been strongly considering trying to enter this year\u2019s presidential race, after a poll commissioned by his supporters last week put him at 15 per cent. <\/p>\n

But in a statement to The Irish Times, Prof Holohan said that, \u201cafter a lot of careful consideration and reflection, I have decided not to seek a nomination to contest the election\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile a number of different factors have influenced my decision, my overriding consideration has been my wish to protect my family from the kind of personal abuse which is becoming increasingly normalised in Irish politics generally and in presidential elections in particular,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI understand the very tough nature of modern politics and, while I am more than capable of defending my reputation and the decisions which I have taken over a long career during challenging times in public service, my family is not. I cannot now expose them to further distress, criticism or abuse at a time when we are all still rebuilding our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Covid, CervicalCheck and the Trinity job: questions for Tony Holohan if he launches a presidential runOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Prof Holohan said he \u201cearnestly\u201d hopes the upcoming campaign will be marked by \u201ccivilised and respectful debate\u201d. He wished the next president success, and said they will have his \u201cfull support\u201d. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Fine Gael will meet on Monday to consider the presidential election<\/a> campaign as support grows inside and outside of the party for Heather Humphreys<\/a> to run.<\/p>\n

The former minister has said she is giving the matter \u201cvery serious consideration<\/a>\u201d. She had ruled out the possibility in May.<\/p>\n

Ms Humphreys, who did not contest last year\u2019s general election, has emerged as the favourite to replace former MEP Mairead McGuinness<\/a>, who on Thursday announced she was stepping down as the Fine Gael candidate on health grounds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Can you have too much democracy?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

A number of Independent politicians have come out in support of Ms Humphreys running to succeed Michael D Higgins<\/a>. Ministers of State Michael Healy-Rae<\/a>, Noel Grealish<\/a> and Se\u00e1n Canney<\/a> have said they would support her candidacy, noting her \u201cbroad\u201d appeal and ability to \u201cbring a lot of people together\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Humphreys is also understood to be the preferred candidate for a number of senior Fine Gael ministers.<\/p>\n

Fine Gael MEP Se\u00e1n Kelly<\/a>, a former GAA<\/a> president, on Saturday said he was weighing up his options about seeking the party\u2019s nomination after this week\u2019s news about Ms McGuinness.<\/p>\n

He said last month that he would not run, describing it as the \u201cmost difficult decision\u201d of his political life, but on Saturday told Newstalk<\/a> \u201cthe goalposts have changed\u201d. Mr Kelly said the discussion within Fine Gael on who it would now run as its candidate \u201chasn\u2019t started really\u201d out of respect for Ms McGuinness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think next week will be time enough to reflect properly on that and take action. There\u2019s no rush,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Fine Gael MEP Regina Doherty, a member of the national executive, said there should be a contest if Mr Kelly and Ms Humphreys both put their names forward. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former chief medical officer Tony Holohan has announced he will not now seek a nomination to run for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,555,19,17,11,12,15,16,556,5283,5,5284,59,559,5285,58,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-6533","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-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-heather-humphreys","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-mairead-mcguinness","22":"tag-michael-healy-rae","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-noel-grealish","25":"tag-presidential-election","26":"tag-sean-kelly","27":"tag-sean-canney","28":"tag-tony-holohan","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\/6533","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=6533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}