Catherine Connolly highlights need for ‘courageous and independent voice’

By Nicole McBride, PA

Presidential candidate Catherine Connolly has expressed the need for a “courageous and independent voice” as she spoke at a conference promoting Irish unity.

The left-wing independent spoke at a Sinn Féin event in Dublin, alongside the party’s leader Mary Lou McDonald, about a united Ireland and her wish to “stand together to shape a different republic”.

Ms McDonald, who previously announced the party’s backing for Ms Connolly, said the clinical psychologist, from Galway, was a “formidable, fearless, brilliant woman”.

Ms Connolly said: “I want to say I really treasure that support, because for the first time in the history of Ireland, we’re coming together to unite for something that’s much bigger than ourselves, bigger than me, and bigger than the differences between parties.

“I stand here before you humbly to say we are at a crucial point in our history where we must decide to stand together.”

She said that she was passionate about improving Ireland’s public services, including homelessness and the environment.

Ms Connolly, who is also backed by other opposition parties, added: “I’m not going to list out all the things that horrify you, and I know it horrifies you.

“We have to place it on the record that none of this is inevitable, and so we must stand together against the narrative that tells us over 16,000 people homeless is collateral damage to a successful market strategy. That is completely unacceptable to all.

“I want to thank all of the parties and all the courageous individuals, TDs and senators that have come in behind me not because they agree with everything I say, or indeed agree with everything you say or believe in, but because we believe in core values that we must express over and over as loudly as we can against that destructive narrative.

“That narrative has placed the price of everything and the value of nothing one day.”

She added: “We must have housing for all our people as a basic human right, not a market product.

“We must have a public health system that’s accessible to everybody.

“We must have an integrated public transport system, and we must recognise the existential threat posed by climate change, not by naming the poorest on the ground, but by recognising that the big polluters have never, never been brought no sense of accountability with them.”