{"id":99712,"date":"2025-10-02T19:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T19:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/99712\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T19:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T19:42:12","slug":"what-tcd-students-make-of-the-presidential-hopefuls-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/99712\/","title":{"rendered":"What TCD students make of the presidential hopefuls \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friends Lulu Murray (19) from Dublin and Eva Harbourne (20) from Co Wicklow are registering to vote in student council elections at a booth in the Arts block in Trinity College Dublin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The presidential election<\/a> is just over three weeks away and the students are already making up their minds.<\/p>\n

The politics and sociology students said they are both leaning towards Independent Catherine Connolly<\/a> as their preferred candidate.<\/p>\n

This is a choice which seems overwhelmingly popular among their peers on campus, as they prepare to decide between the three candidates who will be on ballot papers later this month.<\/p>\n

Students from Trinity College Dublin share their thoughts on the three presidential candidates following the first televised election debate. Video: Ella Sloane <\/p>\n

\u201cI know we\u2019re kind of in such a bubble here. With the course I do there would probably be a lot of support for the Soc Dems and Catherine Connolly,\u201d said Harbourne. <\/p>\n

She had an idea which way she planned to vote in the election on October 24th before watching clips from the first debate last Monday, but said this has \u201csolidified\u201d her decision to opt for Connolly on the ballot.<\/p>\n

For Murray, Connolly\u2019s stance on Palestine is \u201cvery important\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI also like that she emphasises her use of Irish and I think that\u2019s very important for the figurehead of the Irish state,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Referring to opposing candidates Heather Humphreys<\/a> for Fine Gael and Jim Gavin<\/a> for Fianna F\u00e1il, Murray believes \u201ctheir qualifications are somewhat disappointing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Of Humphreys, she believes \u201cher speech was not what you would expect a presidential candidate to be at the level at\u201d.<\/p>\n

Law and politics student Tom\u00e1s Murphy, from Belfast, also plans to vote for Connolly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m from Northern Ireland and I think she\u2019s really the only candidate that has a real interest in supporting a united Ireland. She cares about northerners in a way I don\u2019t think that Fine Gael and Fianna F\u00e1il do.\u201d<\/p>\n

He feels another positive is \u201cthat the left is united behind one common candidate\u201d. <\/p>\n

Others like Lorcan Canavan (22), are still undecided on where their loyalties lie.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Humphreys campaign trail: \u2018Wee selfies\u2019, spirit of Big Tom and Fianna F\u00e1il votersOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m from Carlow and there\u2019s a lot of posters up around the town,\u201d said Canavan, adding that the majority of the campaign material he has seen at home belongs to Fianna F\u00e1il candidate Jim Gavin. <\/p>\n

Sydney O\u2019Reilly (19), from Meath, has reservations about Humphreys \u201cjust because of the connections to the Orange Order\u201d. <\/p>\n

During her campaign, Humphreys has spoken about her Protestant heritage and attending Orange Order parades as a child.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m leaning towards Catherine Connolly, mainly because she can speak Irish,\u201d said O\u2019Reilly.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Gavin\u2019s GAA roots, O\u2019Reilly adds: \u201cI know a lot of people like him because he\u2019s brought Dublin to victory, but I don\u2019t know if he\u2019d make the best representative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sophie Morrissey (19), from Kildare, also watched the presidential debate on Monday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cJudging by the debate the other day, I think [Connolly] represented herself the best, versus the comments [from Humphreys] about 3D printing being able to solve the housing crisis which were a little bit left field for me,\u201d said the philosophy and politics student.<\/p>\n

Sarah Nolan (19), from Dublin, also tuned into the presidential debate and believes Connolly\u2019s performance was strongest.<\/p>\n

For Nolan, Connolly\u2019s fluency in Irish is \u201ca massive plus\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s really important today, especially when we\u2019re trying to advance the use of our national language. It\u2019s in the Constitution that it is Ireland\u2019s first language.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nolan said Connolly would likely be getting her vote on election day because \u201cher ideas generally benefit young people\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friends Lulu Murray (19) from Dublin and Eva Harbourne (20) from Co Wicklow are registering to vote in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,1921,18,13,14,4771,553,6,555,19,17,19487,11,12,15,16,5,72,59,7,8,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-99712","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-fianna-fail","15":"tag-fine-gael","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-heather-humphreys","18":"tag-ie","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-jim-gavin","21":"tag-latest-news","22":"tag-latestnews","23":"tag-main-news","24":"tag-mainnews","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-palestine","27":"tag-presidential-election","28":"tag-top-stories","29":"tag-topstories","30":"tag-trinity-college-dublin-tcd"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99712","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=99712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}