Poll puts Cat (Connolly) among presidential pigeons!

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

We’ve said it before in this column, and now we’ve evidence to back it up: Catherine Connolly is a credible candidate to become the next President of Ireland.

During her stint as Leas Cheann Comhairle of the last Dáil, the Galway West TD was liked and, more importantly, was respected as impartial by politicians across the political spectrum.

The left-leaning Independent who grew up in a Council house, is a trained barrister and former clinical psychologist, who understands the issues faced by ordinary citizens.

Crucially, her legal training means she is articulate when diagnosing and speaking about solutions to problems. She has a sharp mind, and unusually for a busy politician, reads reports in full – rather than the summaries – to get on top of the topics.

The Claddagh Queen is far from perfect, though. And she may not even get a nomination, never mind survive a gruelling Presidential election campaign.

These are more personal, as national media focuses less on policy and more on side issues, personalities, and skeletons in candidates’ closets (trawl through Cat Connolly’s speeches and no doubt there’ll be ample ammunition for right-wing press to scaremonger).

But she’s cut from the same cloth as Higgins, her former nemesis in the Labour Party. She was his Director of Elections for his Dáil campaign in 2002 before she left Labour and contested the 2007 General Election as an Independent.

Catherine Connolly is clearly not everyone’s cup of tea. She was one of the TDs who was criticised for a less-than-enthusiastic clapping reaction when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addressed the Houses of the Oireachtas after Russia invaded his country. The Claddagh politician, who regularly wears the Palestinian keffiyeh, is too left wing, too radical for many.

But if the splintered Left can unite on one candidate – it’s a big if – and that candidate is Catherine Connolly, then there is every chance she can enjoy sufficient popular support to be elected to Áras an Uachtaráin.

A Sunday Independent opinion poll last weekend confirmed it. She was the second-most popular in a list of left-leaning candidates, with 14% support, behind Róisín Shortall (15%), but ahead of Fintan O’Toole (11%), Frances Black (10%) and Alice Mary Higgins (2%).

Pictured: Claddagh Queen Cat Connolly on her bike: A Sunday Independent opinion poll show she could be pedalling her way to the Áras.

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