{"id":72857,"date":"2025-09-19T05:37:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T05:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/72857\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T05:37:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T05:37:15","slug":"sinn-fein-will-endorse-presidential-candidate-with-plenty-of-irish-says-mcdonald-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/72857\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinn F\u00e9in will endorse presidential candidate with \u2018plenty of Irish\u2019, says McDonald \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The focus on the identity of who Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> will endorse as a presidential candidate has narrowed to Pearse Doherty<\/a> and Catherine Connolly<\/a> after leader Mary Lou McDonald<\/a> said the chosen person has \u201cplenty of Irish\u201d. <\/p>\n

Ms McDonald<\/a> said the announcement the party would make on Saturday will be a \u201cgame changer\u201d and would alter the nature of the election campaign<\/a>. She said she would be proposing a name to the ardchomhairle at its meeting that day. <\/p>\n

But responding to a question in Irish as to whether the candidate would speak Irish, Ms McDonald said: \u201cT\u00e1 a l\u00e1n Gaeilge ag an duine.\u201d (The person has plenty of Irish). <\/p>\n

Mr Doherty, the party\u2019s finance spokesman, is a native speaker from Gweedore, Co Donegal, while Independent candidate Ms Connolly is also a fluent Irish speaker. First Minister of Northern Ireland Michelle O\u2019Neill<\/a>, whose name has also been mentioned as a possible party candidate, speaks little Irish. <\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters at the National Ploughing Championship in Screggan, Co Offaly, Ms McDonald said: \u201cI think Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s participation will be a game changer in this election. It\u2019ll be very much game on.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur objective comes down to this. For us in Sinn F\u00e9in, we want to get Fine Gael and Fianna F\u00e1il out of Government, and we want to keep Fine Gael and Fianna F\u00e1il out of the \u00c1ras. That\u2019s what our campaign will aim to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said Sinn F\u00e9in has been talking to Ms Connolly\u2019s campaign and that has been part and parcel of its deliberations. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important that we have the right campaign, the right national conversation. It\u2019s important that we have a president who espouses not only the values, but also the ambitions of Ireland. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, I want Irish young people to have someone in the \u00c1ras who\u2019s in their corner. I want them to know that they have a champion, and someone who will stand up for them and speak out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Aont\u00fa leader Peadar T\u00f3ib\u00edn on Thursday said another Oireachtas member had committed to nominating conservative campaigner Maria Steen to enter the presidential race.<\/p>\n

Eleven Oireachtas members are now said to have given commitments to helping Ms Steen to enter the election.<\/p>\n

However, aspiring candidates need the support of 20 Oireachtas members or four local authorities to get on the ballot paper for next month\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

Ms Steen has been pursuing both routes, but has not yet secured the backing of any councils. Leitrim County Council is to vote on whether or not to nominate her on Monday.<\/p>\n

A series of Oireachtas members last week gave commitments to backing Ms Steen after a meeting where they heard from four presidential hopefuls. Mr T\u00f3ib\u00edn named eight of them as himself, party colleagues Paul Lawless TD and Senator Sarah O\u2019Reilly; Independent TDs Mattie McGrath and Carol Nolan; and Senators Joe Conway, R\u00f3n\u00e1n Mullen and Sharon Keogan.<\/p>\n

Dublin Mid-West Independent TD Paul Gogarty attended the meeting and said he told the candidates that if they were in a position where they \u201cneed a vote or two\u201d to reach 20 Oireachtas member threshold he would add his nomination.<\/p>\n

Mr T\u00f3ib\u00edn on Thursday posted on X saying another Oireachtas member had committed to nominating Ms Steen. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m talking to another TD. If that TD agrees, that will be 12,\u201d he said. \u201cAdd Independent Ireland that\u2019s 16. There is only a small gap to bridge, but time is running out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The closing date for nominations is next Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Independent Ireland, which has four TDs, is open to supporting someone seeking to enter the election if the prospective candidate aligns with its principles and already has 16 other nominations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The focus on the identity of who Sinn F\u00e9in will endorse as a presidential candidate has narrowed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,1921,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,16594,5,9649,59,47,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-72857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","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-pearse-doherty","24":"tag-presidential-election","25":"tag-sinn-fein","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72857","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=72857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}