Independent presidential election candidate Catherine Connolly has confirmed she voted against European Union (EU) treaties in both Nice referendums and in both Lisbon referendums.
Ms Connolly clarified her position after telling reporters on Sunday that she had “probably” voted for some of the referendums on EU treaties. She said: “I would have to think back.”
In an interview on RTÉ’s News at One on Monday, Ms Connolly confirmed she had voted No in all four votes.
She said she had absolutely canvassed against the Lisbon Treaty on both votes because she had concerns about it. “The first was the building up of the military of Europe and the second was the neoliberal ideology.”
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She said that her political consciousness had been “awakened” by the Nice Treaty and was “fully awake in Lisbon”.
Asked if she had voted against the Nice Treaty twice, she said: “Absolutely. I have often said publicly, in a sense, that I felt ashamed is too strong a word for it, I wish I had awakened sooner.
“And I pay tribute to the people on the ground who (were aware) sooner than I was in relation to the militarisation of Europe.”
Following criticisms of her candidacy by former Labour leader Alan Kelly, Ms Connolly was asked if any former Labour leader had publicly supported her. She said the Labour Party was led by Ivana Bacik who had played a “blinder” on her behalf during the campaign.
[ Catherine Connolly accuses FG of politics of ‘fear’ and ‘smear’ in latest debateOpens in new window ]
She said there was a large momentum behind her on the left and by historical standards she had galvanised the left-wing parties behind her campaign like no other.
She also criticised what she described as a smear campaign against her, as well as a Fine Gael campaign “engendering fear and negativity”.
Ms Connolly vowed that, if elected, she would serve only one seven-year term.
Her presidential opponent Heather Humphreys yesterday described Ms Connolly as a “far left” candidate, saying her views were very different from her own. Speaking at the Jameson Distillery in Dublin, she said Ms Connolly was a decent woman.
Later in an interview with Katie Hannon on RTÉ, Ms Humphreys was asked about the death of Shane O’Farrell who was 23 when he was knocked off his bike in a hit-and-run incident in Co Monaghan in 2011.
The driver of the car had previous convictions and was out on bail at the time. Lucia O’Farrell, Shane’s mother, has said she was “terribly disappointed” that Heather Humphreys did not support the family’s campaign for a public inquiry into failings in the criminal justice system.
She told The Irish Times the Fine Gael presidential candidate was “not capable of being the president for the people of Ireland, when she can’t represent her own people in Monaghan”.
Ms Humphreys said she was “sorry” if the family felt that she had not done enough to support their case.
It was put to her that she never asked a parliamentary question about Mr O’Farrell, nor took part in any Dáil debate, or vigil, nor did she support a vote for a public inquiry in 2018, or in 2024.
Ms Humphreys replied that as a minister she was not in a position to ask parliamentary questions, nor was she in a position when minister for justice to interfere in a judge-led independent process.
“I didn’t want to derail that process by interfering in it. But can I just say I am sorry if she feels that I didn’t do enough for her. I’ve always tried to help everybody that came through my doors.”
Ms Humphreys accepted she made a mistake in dealing with the nomination of a Fine Gael candidate contesting a Seanad by-election in 2014. She appointed party activist John McNulty, who had no involvement with the arts, to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
However, she defended her involvement in an animal cruelty case saying her only action was passing on a representation to the Minister for Agriculture, without any comment. She said TDs received such representations, and forwarded them, regularly.
