Holly Cairns 'would love' if Sinn Féin supported Catherine Connolly as candidate of the Left

Vivienne Clarke

Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns has said that she “would love” if Sinn Féin “got behind” presidential candidate Catherine Connolly.

Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Ms Cairns added that her party would be financially supporting Ms Connolly’s campaign and was now working out the exact nature of that support.

“We did an open engagement with our membership, who would you like to see as the next president? Her name came up organically, and honestly, she's one of the first people that came to mind for me.

“I think we should all get behind Catherine Connolly. I think it's really important that we encourage people to vote left, transfer left. I think if we really want to see a change in this government, that is hugely important.

“At the end of the day, this is a decision for Sinn Féin. I would love it if they got behind Catherine Connolly. I really would.

"It's important that she's rightly scrutinised and she has been and she's addressed those questions, but I think what people maybe don't know yet about Catherine, because a lot of the campaign is focused on these issues that rightly she needs to address," Ms Cairns said.

"She's always stood on the right side of issues like the HPV vaccine. She's also on the right side of issues like Russia and condemning it. She's always stood on the right side of all of the important issues. She's an incredibly warm person.”