Connolly campaign clip that featured Higgins amended

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

A campaign clip for Catherine Connolly that featured Michael D Higgins has been amended.

Ms Connolly had said she would “immediately” check a campaign video which featured a short clip of Mr Higgins.

In a campaign video entitled Why Should Catherine Connolly Be President Of Ireland?, clips are used of Mr Higgins and his predecessors, Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson.

The clips are short and appear as one speaker says, “the president represents Ireland on the world stage”.

Asked at Alone’s offices in Dublin city centre about the clip and whether she had received permission from Mr Higgins, Ms Connolly said: “I’m not aware of that because I came straight here, so I will check that out immediately.”

Later, a spokesperson for the Connolly campaign said that the video was amended and resolved “without any issue”.

They said “at no point” was there “refusal or disagreement” to remove a campaign video as suggested in some media reports.

“The video in question was amended following standard editorial review. The matter was handled in the normal way and resolved without any issue.

“The implication that there was any controversy or refusal simply does not reflect the facts.

“It distracts from the real issues in this campaign – fairness, community, and integrity in public life.”

Ms Connolly is the frontrunner, according to an opinion poll from Sunday, in an election that now features just one other election candidate: Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys.

Ms Connolly said: “My whole energy from day one and for the next two weeks is putting myself before the people of Ireland and allowing them to make their minds up.

“I think it’s really important that I repeat that this election is extremely important at the junction we are in our history, and also the people decide.

“They don’t decide who’s tanaiste or taoiseach, they do decide who is president of Ireland, and I have the utmost respect for the democratic process.”

Ms Connolly said that as a barrister she did work for “every side”, including for financial institutions, banking institutions, people who had committed offences and people who were “going under in terms of orders for possession”.

She was also asked about a viral video clip of her keep-ups and basketball skills and said she learned them on the streets of Shantalla in Co Galway.

Ms Connolly said: “I didn’t actually play football. I played volleyball and other sports, marathons, and triathlons. I think it came from skipping. I used to be able to do a lot of skipping at one time – a thousand skips, so I got that flexibility.”

A spokesman for the President of Ireland has been contacted for comment.