Catherine Connolly: Ireland's president-elect and vocal critic of Israel's war on Gazahttps://en.majalla.com/node/328074/profiles/catherine-connolly-irelands-president-elect-and-vocal-critic-israels-war-gaza
Catherine Connolly: Ireland's president-elect and vocal critic of Israel's war on Gaza
Her landslide victory suggests that her call to "stand up and stop the genocide taking place because we are complicit" is a hugely popular one across the nation
AFP-Reuters-Eduardo Ramon
Ireland's president-elect Catherine Connolly
Catherine Connolly: Ireland's president-elect and vocal critic of Israel's war on Gaza
Before the coronation of King Charles III, there were concerns that he might be inclined, given his strong views on a variety of topics, to politicise his role as monarch. There was even a play written, in blank verse no less, describing a future constitutional crisis that might ensue.
It didn’t happen. King Charles has followed his mother in keeping the role strictly apolitical. Yet, like her, he has been powerless to avoid the politics in his own family.
As the royal family endures one of its periodic scandals, people in the UK might be forgiven for glancing ruefully in the direction of Dublin.
The French, too, may have reason to envy the Irish way of doing things, given the powers of their own president and the current paralysis of the French parliament. In contrast to both those countries, Ireland has a largely ceremonial head of state elected directly, for a seven-year term of office, to represent the country at home and abroad.
This week, amid the shocking news of Prince Andrew’s fall from grace and the continuing travails of Macron’s fourth—or is it fifth?—prime minister, the arrangements in Ireland might seem eminently sensible and free of drama. Its brand-new president has just received a historic vote of confidence from the electorate. Most Western leaders could only dream of receiving 63.4% of the votes cast. It was the highest percentage any Irish president has received since the creation of the role in 1938.
So, who has swept the country off its electoral feet?
Well, despite his immense confidence after the event, it wasn’t Bob Geldof. He had been tipped to run, but never actually entered the race, despite the belief that he would —in his own words—have ‘walked it’.
In a characteristic outburst of politeness, Geldof admitted that the candidates were “very capable, very nice people”, but the campaign had not been “very inspiring”. It’s probably a blessing that the ageing rock star decided not to put his popularity with his compatriots to the test. He might just have spared the country seven years of embarrassment.
Instead, it took a woman called Catherine Connolly, supported by a unified force on the left of the political spectrum—including Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, Labour, the Greens, and People Before Profit—to beat rivals supported by the two main parties.
Pins in support of Independent Presidential candidate Catherine Connolly and of Social Democrats, at the vote count centre for the Irish presidential election, in Dublin, Ireland, on 25 October 2025.
Hitherto almost unknown outside her own country, and not even particularly prominent in her own, Connolly has become the third woman to hold the post after Mary Robinson (1990-97) and Mary McAleese (1997-2011).
Landslide victory
At first glance, the winner seems an unlikely focus for such enthusiasm. She has a modest, even rather austere demeanour. Yet her landslide victory suggests she has more than enough charisma to rival that of her predecessor, Michael D. Higgins, the man who had been in post for 14 years.
Connolly now has to find her own way of carving out a role at the top of the Irish system. Professor David Kenny of Trinity College Dublin, who specialises in constitutional law, has noted that the presidency is “like the conscience of a nation.” He went on to speculate that Connolly’s rise “might reflect a shift in the values of Irish voters towards candidates who are more outspoken on certain issues, perhaps towards candidates of the left”.
Her left-wing credentials are impossible to ignore, and yet this might actually be an indicator of continuity. For decades now, controversial views have been the common currency among presidents. Both of the women who preceded Connolly were left-leaning and unafraid to court controversy.
Connolly's views are largely in line with public opinion: critical of Israel's war on Gaza and the governments that have continued to sell it arms
Topically enough, Israel has often been the bone of contention. After relinquishing the presidency, and in her role as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson presided over the World Conference against Racism, held in Durban, South Africa. In a tongue-in-cheek article, Michael Rubin suggested she be tried for war crimes for presiding over "an intellectual pogrom against Jews and Israel."
Similarly, Mary McAleese got into big trouble when, following her attendance at a ceremony commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, she compared the way some Protestant children in Northern Ireland had been raised to hate Catholics, just as European children "for generations, for centuries" were encouraged to hate Jews. These remarks provoked outrage among unionist politicians in the north, and McAleese later apologised, conceding that her comments had been unbalanced because she had criticised only the sectarianism found on one side of the community.
Thus, while the early presidents were exceptionally cautious in delivering speeches and on almost every occasion submitted them for vetting, Robinson, McAleese and Higgins would make much more use of their right to speak without government approval, with McAleese doing many live television and radio interviews. That said, by convention, presidents refrain from direct criticism of the government. Connolly has said that she will speak out only when she feels it is 'necessary', which leaves her a good deal of discretion.
Catherine Connolly stands addresses demonstrators outside the Central Bank of Ireland against the sale of Israeli war bonds throughout the EU, in Dublin, Ireland, on 27 May 2025.
In line with public opinion
The likely topics on which she might speak are evident from her past statements. They are largely in line with public opinion. On Gaza, for instance, she has criticised the actions of the Israeli army, and the governments that have continued to sell arms to Israel, saying "we certainly cannot trust" countries such as "The US, England and France" because they "are deeply entrenched in an arms industry which causes bloodshed across the world".
She has linked Germany's increased military spending to the "military-industrial complex" and said there were some parallels with the 1930s, referring to German rearmament under the Nazis. The German ambassador to Ireland and Taoiseach Micheál Martin were both highly critical of this. Clearly, she had learnt nothing from the fallout after McAleese's equally rash comparison.
Moreover, in words reminiscent of Higgins' assault on the economists, Connolly has criticised the European Union as having a 'blatant neoliberal agenda'. Regarding the UK's referendum to leave the EU, Connolly said the Irish government had taken an active part in the project of fear that sought to "scare the British electorate into remaining" and that, despite trying "to force a desired result, the electorate was not fooled." During the same speech, she remarked that there was a democratic deficit in the EU and dissent was not tolerated with regards to membership.
A vocal critic of Israel and its war in Gaza, in April 2025, Connolly said: "I challenge all of us to stand up and stop the genocide taking place in our name, because we are complicit". Now, Ireland was an early supporter of Palestinian statehood, and it is well-known that the country is opposed to the bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Such a position is not in itself particularly radical.
The same might be said of her criticisms of the European Union's recent moves towards greater miliary expenditure. Ireland is a neutral country. Its president might be expected to oppose militarisation.
The question really is to what extent she will curb her rhetoric now that she is effective head of state. It's obvious that Bob Geldof was never the perfect pick for such a role, but will Catherine Connolly be any more compliant with the understated, ceremonious demands of the job?
Early life and career
Like her predecessor, Connolly comes from a modest background and arrived relatively late in politics. She was one of 14 children—seven boys and seven girls. She was born in 1957 and grew up in the inner-city neighbourhood of Shantalla, one of the biggest council estates in Galway at the time. Her mother died aged 43 when Connolly was nine years old. Her father, a carpenter and later a building contractor, brought the children up, with the help of his eldest daughters.
In interviews, Connolly has talked about her social conscience being honed as a teenager through volunteering work with the Legion of Mary and later with the Order of Malta. She has said she scraped through academically. She did a BA in psychology in UCG (now the University of Galway) in the late 1970s and was awarded a Master's in Psychology from Leeds University in 1981. She practised as a clinical psychologist for several years, but found her true calling when she went back to college and studied law. In 1991, she qualified as a barrister.
Connolly came late to national politics at the age of 57, having served 17 years as a councillor. Despite the late start, her rise was rapid, not to say meteoric.
When she contested the vote for Leas-Cheann Comhairle—the second-most senior position in parliament—she managed to defeat Fergus O'Dowd, the candidate of the largest party, Fine Gael. According to Professor Gary Murphy of Dublin City University, her performance as Leas-Cheann Comhairle will "give comfort" to anyone worried that a "radical Marxist" has taken over the presidency.
President-elect Catherine Connolly speaks after being declared the winner of the Irish presidential election at Dublin Castle in Dublin on 25 October 2025.
Picking and choosing her battles
Gary Murphy's DCU colleague, Professor Kevin Rafter, says she will "have to recognise the limits of the presidency, but she now has a platform unlike anything she had previously". He adds that, if she's wise, she won't look for daily or weekly conflict with the government, but choose her battles. "The cohabitation may be somewhat uncomfortable for both sides but it can work."
Already much is being made of the monthly meetings she will have with the Taoiseach, the Irish prime minister, technically her subordinate. For Professor Rafter, the approach to her new role is key: "The skill is to use the platform effectively – recognising the limitations of a non-political office but exploiting [its] symbolic authority and soft power [...] as her three most immediate predecessors did."
During the final TV debate on RTE's Prime Time, Connolly was reminded that she had accused Donald Trump of enabling genocide. Asked what she would say to the US president if he were to visit Ireland, she replied: "If it's just a meet and greet, then I will meet and greet. If the discussion is genocide, that's a completely different thing."
Could moments like this be the ones when Catherine Connolly finds it 'necessary' to speak?
One usually writes a profile of a politician based on their past words and actions. Maybe this one will find a similar accommodation to her recent predecessors, with only the occasional lapse from protocol. Maybe she will be her own woman and shock us all. With any newly-minted president, the really interesting words and actions are yet to come.
