Long before Catherine Connolly was a household name, Laois TD Brian Stanley was getting aboard the bandwagon.
A member of the same technical group of left-leaning TDs in the Dáil, Deputy Stanley saw the potential that she had to be a presidential candidate – and one with a great chance of winning.
He was one of the first Oireachtas members to sign her nomination papers and announced his formal support in a press statement back in early July.
Speaking in the Laois Count Centre last weekend, he was delighted with her success in last week’s election and proud of the part he had played in getting the ball rolling.
“I was five years in the Dáil when Catherine came in and I’ve been watching her since then,” he said.
“I have to say that she comes across as being very sincere. She believes in what she’s doing, very committed and then obviously for the last ten months I’ve been in the same group as her.
“It’s not a policy group, we wouldn’t agree on everything but, you know, she comes from that kind of broad left tradition. I suppose the three big things that I see in her is her commitment to social justice, reunification of the national territory and a voice for peace and maintaining Irish military neutrality.
“They would be the three touchstones for me as a Republican and that’s why I would back her as a left Republican.
“I told her months before that I would nominate her, that I would be backing her.”
Did it take much convincing?
“Well, if I was to be truthful about it, in the earlier part of the year she was very hesitant and she was, I’d say, could have went either way.
“And she actually went cold on it for a while and it looked like she wasn’t going to go. Then, as the year moved on a bit into the spring and into the early summer, she kind of was more convincible and I’m sure she had other voices in her ear .
“But I would have been saying to her, look, ‘go for this. There’s an opportunity here to elect a president, a left progressive president and I think you’re the ideal person to do it’.
“And the other thing is her qualifications. I mean, legally, like, she has legal qualifications. She’s a fluent Gaeilgeoir, I’m not.
“She’s a good background … having worked as a teacher, having worked as a cleaner and I mean, she is somebody who wasn’t born with a silver spoon in her mouth. From a family of 14.”
Stanley added that it was somewhat frustrating that his former colleagues in Sinn Féin didn’t come with their support earlier.
“Some did come very late to it,” he said. “I would rather they came to it sooner.
“I said back mid-summer or back there late summer in August, I said, you know, that people needed to go off the fence. And that’s what I was referring to.
“I think it’s important to everybody that all parties that are broadly on the same page come together because nobody, no two people will ever agree on anything, never mind two political parties.
“I come from a Republican position, left Republican position. And Catherine broadly would represent me. There would be some things I might disagree with, might not agree with her 100% on.
“I think the important thing as well is that since she’s been now around and I’ve been watching her, that she’s really connected with ordinary people, women and men
“Ordinary people maybe who are not that keyed into politics have started to listen to what she’s saying. And I think she comes across as a very sincere person.”
And with this success behind them, can the united left alliance last into the future?
“Obviously I would like to see a leftist central government. I would like to see a left Republican government because I think it’s the best way of trying to advance what I believe in.
“Unfortunately we haven’t had that since 1922. We haven’t had that. That hasn’t happened in this state.
“I think that there’s a responsibility on the parties of the left and on people like myself who are independent to be able to put differences aside and when we’re broadly in agreement about things, to stick together and go for it.
“I think that was a big failure in the last election that Sinn Féin in particular weren’t big enough to enter into some kind of a broad coalition with the other left parties.
“But this is a starting point towards that. This is a starting point. I think that was an opportunity he missed at the last election.
“I think people had a clear choice – government, central right, or independent left and that kind of peaceful insurgency of the electorate where they’re saying, hang on here a minute on this occasion, this is what we’re doing.
“And I take on board, this isn’t a general election, we’re not forming a government. So people shouldn’t get too excited.
“Sometimes people do run away with themselves, sometimes they get carried away, but I’m around long enough to know that European elections and presidential elections can be different.
“They are different than council elections, and certainly different than General Elections, you know. And there’s a long way to the next General Election.”
“Michael D (Higgins) got my second preference the last time,” he added. And what I would say to you is that he was generally, he was a good president.
“I think Catherine Connolly will continue on in that tradition … I think that Catherine is well fit to carry on that job.
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