Who’s afraid of Catherine Connolly?

by Paul Murphy

“Video footage of Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to the Dáil in April 2022 shows that she didn’t applaud the Ukrainian president. She insists she did”, Mary Regan writes in the Sunday Independent (17 August 2025). If you check the video footage yourself, here, at 14.19, it is absolutely clear that Catherine Connolly was applauding after Zelensky’s speech. So we have a barefaced lie in the biggest circulation newspaper in Ireland. 

Over the past week, the media has made crystal clear that, when it comes to the presidential election, they don’t think much of Catherine Connolly. Their dismissal, smears, and even complete erasure of Catherine’s campaign (even though, to date, she’s the only candidate with enough votes to run) is a reminder that the media ultimately serves the political establishment.

Regan’s article headline could have been written in advance of the interview even taking place: “From Gemma O'Doherty to Syria, Catherine Connolly isn't fond of hard questions - and she doesn't like some of the easy ones either.”

On Syria, Mary Regan’s piece states that Connolly “adds that she is on record for condemning Assad, although she did vote against sanctions on Syria.” But she doesn’t do the service to the reader by checking the claim that Connolly condemned Assad (she did), and instead implies that somehow being against sanctions makes one in favour of the regime being sanctioned. In that case, presumably Micheál Martin is to be chalked down as a Hamas supporter for opposing Israel’s blockade of Gaza. 

The Irish Times was one day ahead of the Independent with a frontpage story on 16 August with quotes from a speech from February where Catherine Connolly correctly said that we “cannot trust” the US, England and France while pointing out that the EU is becoming “increasingly militarised”. These simple facts were given a framing to suggest that these views were in some way outlandish. The Syria visit, of course, gets an outing.

Fionnán Sheehan, Ireland Editor of the Irish Independent, gave the game away the following Monday when he wrote:

“Catherine Connolly keeps wondering why she is repeatedly asked the questions she won’t adequately answer. There’s a hint in there somewhere for the Independent TD. Her stances on the EU, neutrality and militarisation ­continue to be teased out, as they should be.”

The problem is clearly not that Catherine Connolly doesn’t answer questions. It is her “stances” that are the problem. The political establishment and their media outriders simply do not like the answers that she gives. 

They do not like that she defends neutrality, opposes militarisation and criticises the EU. These are all views which are deeply offensive to a political establishment which sees a world being divided into imperialist camps and wants to enthusiastically join the US-led camp. This is the one actively arming, funding and enabling a genocide in Gaza. It is why they are actively trying to water down the Occupied Territories Bill.

They also deeply resent that her answers are actually the answers of the majority in this country, and Connolly is consistently polling as a leading contender for President. For this reason, they are determined to smear her as a sort of fifth columnist for a foreign power and halt the campaign to make her President.

After the experience of a left-wing President who has criticised the US empire, condemned the housing disaster and spoken out against genocide, the political establishment desperately wants the Presidency back in ‘safe’ hands. With Mairead McGuinness having stepped down from being the candidate, they currently see former Fine Gael Minister Heather Humphreys, a supposedly down-to-earth figure (forgetting for a minute her attempt to introduce ‘I, Daniel Blake’ style assessments for disability allowance), as their best chance.

Most of the mainstream media will be working overtime to make this come to pass. Fianna Fáil looks likely now to run a sweeper candidate designed to get their base out to vote in order to transfer to Humphreys. It will likely be a straight fight between the political establishment and Catherine Connolly as the left candidate.

The lesson, hard learnt from the Corbyn campaign, is not to give an inch to the smears and attacks. Any concession they get will simply be taken, and the attacks renewed.  Zarah Sultana, ex-Labour MP and a founder of the new left party in Britain, recently correctly declared: “When it came under attack from the state and the media, it should have fought back, recognising that these are our class enemies. But instead it was frightened and far too conciliatory.” 

We need to go on the offensive. Mobilise tens of thousands of people behind the Connolly campaign on the basis of defending our neutrality, demanding meaningful action in solidarity with Palestine, and opposing the policy of driving up rents to benefit the vulture funds. Organise them into activists for the campaign, running voter registration drives, building in the colleges, in the trade unions, in working-class communities. Connect with those suffering from the cost-of-living and housing crises and drive up turnout of those most alienated from the political system. 

But while the political establishment will have the media in their corner, what our side can have is people power, mobilisation and organisation. The prize is a significant one - an opportunity to deal a significant electoral blow to the government and its right-wing plans, while building a movement that can challenge the government on housing, climate, neutrality, and Palestine. This movement can gain confidence in victories and grow into a force capable of electing and supporting a left government and pushing for the need to break capitalism’s rules and finally put people before profit.