{"id":88333,"date":"2025-09-27T06:53:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T06:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/88333\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T06:53:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T06:53:08","slug":"maria-steen-reflects-on-failed-bid-for-presidency-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/88333\/","title":{"rendered":"Maria Steen reflects on failed bid for presidency \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the soft luxury of the high-ceilinged lounge in an ornate south Dublin<\/a> hotel sits Maria Steen<\/a>, reflecting on a rollercoaster week in Irish politics.<\/p>\n

The first week of the 2025 Irish presidential election<\/a> was dominated by the one candidate who can\u2019t run in it. Tensions ran high with brickbats flying online. <\/p>\n

Asks if she feels she has become a \u201cDisney villain\u201d in people\u2019s minds, she replies: \u201cAbsolutely \u2013 pantomime villainess.\u201d <\/p>\n

In a high-octane political drama, Steen managed to secure 18 of 20 signatures required to be an official candidate on the October 24th ballot, with just hours to go until the close of nominations on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cI did keep making phone calls. I didn\u2019t give up. I kept making phone calls up to as late as possible, but people just didn\u2019t pick up the phone,\u201d says the campaigner and barrister whose social and political positions stem from Catholic social teaching.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of her failing to get on the ticket, there has been very public rancour from a cohort of anti-establishment voters who now feel they effectively have no candidate in the race. <\/p>\n

Her opponents are equally vocal, with some openly suggesting that someone who holds Steen\u2019s views has no place in politics. <\/p>\n

Steen herself feels she exists as a caricature in the minds of some because she is a practising Catholic who holds traditional views on social issues. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an effort by some to make me out to be anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-whatever,\u201d Steen tells The Irish Times in her first lengthy interview since failing to secure enough support for her nomination.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Presidential election field thins to three, the shortest ballot paper since 1990Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these things are completely untrue, and they\u2019re a fairly hamfisted attempt to paint me in a particular light, but I think most ordinary people can see through that and can see what\u2019s going on here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steen came closer than any other non-party candidate to running in the presidential election and some analysis suggests the reason she failed is because she left it too late. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t accept that,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

While she concedes that starting earlier down the county council route \u2013 through which a successful candidate requires the support of four councils to get on the ticket \u2013 might have helped her, she points out that fellow unsuccessful hopeful Gareth Sheridan, also an Independent, had been working on his bid for much longer. <\/p>\n

She says she delayed running until she knew for sure that Independent Senator Michael McDowell was not running for president. <\/p>\n

Her honest belief is that she never could have secured more than 18 signatures from the Oireachtas because some TDs and Senators flat-out refused to talk to her. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was over a month trying to contact TDs and Senators, some of whom knew me personally, or were certainly aware of me,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd there are some Senators and TDs who just simply never returned my phone calls, refused to meet me or answer any emails or any texts. So that made things difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steen is best known as a conservative campaigner, though she rejects the label. <\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly have never regarded myself as that,\u201d she says, considering herself a \u201ccentrist\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s just that everybody else has moved so far left, it makes me look right,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\"MariaMaria Steen in Dublin. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw <\/p>\n

Formerly a spokeswoman for the Iona Institute, the socially conservative think-tank, she campaigned against the same-sex marriage and abortion referendums in 2015 and 2018 respectively, falling on the losing side in both.<\/p>\n

Steen doesn\u2019t believe she was locked out of the Oireachtas because of her views on social issues, but thinks it was being used as an \u201cexcuse\u201d.<\/p>\n

When she was trying to get through the council route to the presidential ballot, she experienced \u201cquite a lot of hostility\u201d from councillors. The way she was addressed was \u201cquite disrespectful\u201d, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I was pro-life, one female councillor told me that she would be worried for her daughters, that I was dangerous, that the country would be a dangerous place if I were president, despite the fact that my baseline position as a pro-life person is that we should start from a perspective that we shouldn\u2019t kill other human beings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s extreme. I think it\u2019s utterly reasonable,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

McDowell, who campaigned alongside Steen during the 2024 family and care referendums (when they were on the winning \u201cNo\u201d side), effectively refused to talk to her in the four weeks that she spent trying to get on the ticket. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe sent one text. He didn\u2019t answer any phone calls \u2013 not one phone call,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

McDowell has been experiencing intense abuse from Steen\u2019s allies and supporters online this week, who can\u2019t understand how the man who shared a platform with her during the 2024 referendums would refuse to support her. <\/p>\n

He told The Irish Times he reluctantly shared a platform with Steen last year and that he never would have supported her for president. <\/p>\n

The acrimony between Steen and McDowell reached boiling point on Friday as each \u2013 in separate exchanges with The Irish Times \u2013 angrily rejected the other\u2019s account of a phone call between them in the run-up to last year\u2019s referendums when Steen was asked, ahead of McDowell, to represent the \u201cNo\u201d side in an RT\u00c9 televised debate. <\/p>\n

\"MariaMaria Steen with Independent Senator Michael McDowell in February 2024 as part of the Lawyers for No campaign group. Photograph: Bryan Meade <\/p>\n

Steen says she had \u201choped\u201d McDowell would support her and is \u201cdisappointed\u201d he didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn fairness, it wasn\u2019t just McDowell. There were other Independent Senators and TDs as well, some of whom would have aligned with me on almost every issue,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

After Kerry Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae agreed to sign her nomination papers, an intense lobbying effort focused on fellow Government Independents such as Sean Canney, Noel Grealish and Kevin \u201cBoxer\u201d Moran. <\/p>\n

Steen says it \u201ctook me a long time to reach them\u201d.<\/p>\n

When she finally reached them, the Ministers told her they would not back her, \u201cthough they didn\u2019t really explain why\u201d.<\/p>\n

Steen also claims there was an \u201cattempt to tarnish\u201d her name and her campaign in the Seanad, by asking her to account for abusive tweets sent by people demanding politicians to support Steen. <\/p>\n

Independent Senator Gerard Craughwell later blamed the \u201coutrageous online campaign\u201d for his decision not to sign Steen\u2019s papers. In a meeting with Steen this week, Craughwell asked Steen to distance herself publicly from the social media abuse he was receiving. <\/p>\n

Steen felt it unfair to expect her to take responsibility for social media posts that had nothing to do with her. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t even get nasty tweets that are written about myself taken down,\u201d she says, adding: \u201cSo how on earth would I have control over what somebody else writes?\u201d <\/p>\n

She is critical of RT\u00c9\u2019s coverage of her, claiming the broadcaster has an agenda against her, as she says was evidenced in the interview with presenter David McCullagh on RT\u00c9\u2019s Six One news programme on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Maria Steen complains she was shut out of presidential race after nominations shortfallOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She felt there was a \u201cclearly an attempt\u201d to link her to rumours circulated by businessman Kieran Kelly about Fianna F\u00e1il candidate Jim Gavin.<\/p>\n

Kelly said in an online post he had spoken to Steen on the phone about her presidential bid and that he was supportive of her. Steen says a councillor had asked her if it was okay to give her number to Kelly. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the midst of a campaign, I said: \u2018Sure.\u2019 I didn\u2019t know anything about him,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

She describes McCullagh\u2019s question \u2013 that she wanted to bring Ireland \u201cback to the 1930s\u201d as president \u2013 as \u201can attempt by RT\u00c9 to frame a narrative\u201d.<\/p>\n

She felt RT\u00c9 showed bias against her during the 2024 referendum debate, saying the broadcaster set up the debate \u2013 now a cause of tensions between Steen and McDowell \u2013 \u201cto try to paint me as part of old Ireland”. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was what they were hoping. It didn\u2019t work out for them,\u201d Steen says.<\/p>\n

\"SteenSteen says she experienced ‘quite a lot of hostility’ when she was trying to get through the council route. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw <\/p>\n

She says she was \u201crushed\u201d in to the studio with a minute to air, while her opponent in the head-to-head debate, then t\u00e1naiste Miche\u00e1l Martin, was settled in his seat getting his make-up done. <\/p>\n

A spokesman for RT\u00c9 said that it \u201cstands over the line of questioning\u201d of Steen on the Six One programme: \u201cRT\u00c9 provided Maria Steen with an opportunity to clearly distance herself from the tweets referred to and the question about the 1930s followed Maria Steen\u2019s reference to the role of the president being to bring the nation back to the values that the country was founded on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesman said the broadcaster also \u201cdoes not accept any suggestion of unfair treatment of Maria Steen\u201d in last year\u2019s Prime Time debate.<\/p>\n

After the 2018 referendum, Steen decided to take a break after a \u201cvery exhausting two years\u201d of intense campaigning. She went back to being a stay-at-home mother. The pandemic hit, and in 2021 she had her fifth child \u2013 a girl whose fourth birthday she celebrated on Wednesday after Steen\u2019s presidential hopes ended. <\/p>\n

When the family and care referendums were announced for March 2024, Steen felt they would pass but thought it important that somebody should debate the proposals as she felt \u201cvery few people\u201d would be willing to come out and oppose them.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving been at home with my children, I had a thing or two to say about mothers and the work we do in the home,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

She campaigned for a \u201cNo\u201d vote as a stay-at-home mother and lawyer, and not part of any official group such as the Iona Institute, which she says she hasn\u2019t worked for as a spokeswoman since 2018. <\/p>\n

She looks back at the campaign as a \u201chealing\u201d experience as she worked alongside people with different perspectives and felt it was different from the \u201chostility\u201d of previous referendums, which she thinks \u201cwere quite damaging to our society\u201d.<\/p>\n

Being on the winning side last year motivated her to launch her presidential bid. She believes McDowell got most of the praise for the victorious \u201cNo\u201d side, saying \u201cvery few women got any credit for it\u201d.<\/p>\n

The fallout from her failure to get on the presidential ballot has been fierce.<\/p>\n

Online, Steen\u2019s supporters have threatened to punish electorally McDowell, Grealish, Canney, Moran and any other politician who didn\u2019t sign her nomination papers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, people feel the way they feel, and if they\u2019re angry, they\u2019re entitled to express their anger, so long as it\u2019s obviously within the boundaries of being respectful and all of that,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Handbag at the D\u00e1il for Maria Steen as her \u00c1ras run comes to an endOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She also believes there is \u201ca kind of righteous anger that people are entitled to express\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think politicians need to listen to that,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

One feature of her final public appearance in the presidential nominations race that generated much comment on traditional and social media was a Herm\u00e8s handbag on her arm, estimated to cost anywhere between \u20ac10,000 and \u20ac40,000. Some on the conservative right, reacting to the style she displayed at the moment, went so far as to describe Steen as their \u201cJackie O\u201d.<\/p>\n

She laughs when the subject of the handbag is raised.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe handbag was deliberate,\u201d she says of its appearance at the most public moment of her failed presidential bid this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to expose the hypocrisy of the left who don\u2019t love the poor; they just hate the rich,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\"MariaMaria Steen outside Leinster House after she failed to enter the presidential race. Photograph: Brian Lawless\/PA <\/p>\n

Steen argues that it\u2019s hypocritical for feminists to argue that they want more women in public life and then \u201ccriticise a woman who happens to have the wrong values for carrying the expensive handbag\u201d. <\/p>\n

She also considers it misogynistic. <\/p>\n

\u201cNobody would ever question a man about the price of his car or of his suit \u2013 or if he\u2019s wearing an expensive watch \u2013 but a woman carries an expensive handbag, and that\u2019s all the news,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

Besides, she argues, if you\u2019re applying for a job, it\u2019s a sign of respect \u201cto look as well as I can\u201d.<\/p>\n

Her supporters are already wasting no time; they are already pushing her to run again for the presidency in 2032. Steen doesn\u2019t know if she wants to. In the interim, competing for a D\u00e1il seat would be \u201ctoo difficult\u201d to contemplate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe life of a TD is very difficult, particularly for a woman with a young family,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople talk about women who take time out to be at home as lacking ambition. It\u2019s not that I lack ambition, but my ambitions lie elsewhere.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the soft luxury of the high-ceilinged lounge in an ornate south Dublin hotel sits Maria Steen, reflecting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,30253,5,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-88333","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-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-maria-steen","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-presidential-election","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88333","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=88333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}