A woman wearing a lovely blue scarf beetled through the doors of Navan Shopping Centre and into the waiting crowd. She saw the cameras and microphones.
Josephine (82) didn’t give her last name and she didn’t mince her words.
“What’s happening? Who’s coming?”
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Presidential election proving to be a piece of cake for Catherine Connolly
“Tell her to get new clothes.”
It’s tough, being a candidate in a presidential election. Everything is scrutinised.
Josephine is not impressed with Catherine Connolly. She doesn’t think much of Heather Humphreys either.
“They don’t look like presidents. They need to dress the part.”
A knowledgeable bystander suggested this will not be an issue.
“They clean them up when they get in.”
Josephine shot back: “But it’s what’s inside your heart that will come out then.”
She used to work at elections, but “not from a party point of view”. Having a vote is important to her.
But, turned off by the two choices on the ballot paper, she is seriously considering not voting at all.
“But then, I don’t know what a no vote is really saying. It’s not saying anything, I suppose, and my two uncles died to get freedom. They were in the IRA and one of them was shot and killed, on a Christmas Eve. He was only 21. That was in the War of Independence.
“And they fought for freedom for us and a vote, and this is what we’re presented with now.”
As the crowd of supporters, many with local Sinn Féin TD Johnny Guirke, waited for Catherine to arrive from an earlier engagement in Trim, Josephine continued her assessment.
“To be a president you should have some kind of panache, some kind of charisma. Neither of them have it.”
Nonetheless, Josephine, we are where we are?
“Well, it’s a poor aul state if that’s all they could get. If that’s all they could find. She’s a complete lefty, that Catherine Connolly. The other lady is grand until she opens her mouth.”
Right, so.
On the presidential wardrobe front, Deputy Connolly did come in for some stick early in her campaign from some people who felt she was too casually dressed – given that she is running for such a high office, even though she’s never been one for the tailored look.
However, seasoned election watchers have noticed that in the past week or so she is appearing on the trail in a variety of eye-catching jackets.
This, they conclude, is a sign of growing confidence in her camp.
The rest of the ensemble may be trademark black, but there was a very nice crimson jacket a few days ago and on Wednesday, in the Royal County, she stood out from the crowd in royal blue.
On Thursday, supporters were remarking approvingly that she is already beginning to look presidential.
There is certainly a sense of buoyancy about her campaign and campaigners.
In Navan, she was cheered on arrival by a group of women from Meath’s Rathcairn and Baile Ghib gaeltachts.
“Iontach, iontach, iontach!” one of them shouted. “I love her. Iontach ar fad. Thar bar.”
The candidate was escorted through the shopping centre by local TD Guirke and Tesco shop steward Lynn Boland Fennessy, who wore a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf. The group was trailed by a woman, shouting about dangerous vaccines, who was apparently live-streaming from her phone to the world.
Chris Hazzard, the Sinn Féin MP for South Down, joined the canvass. South Down is twinned with Meath. Who knew?
While the group didn’t enter the supermarket, they were welcomed to the centre by manager Peter Dolan who brought Catherine to Whelan’s Butchers shop, which opened for business the day before.
There was banter with butcher Liam Curtis beside the pork chops and large chickens, because that is the kind of thing that people who want to become the President of Ireland have to do to get elected.
Catherine scored a hat-trick on the presidential bingo card before her flying visit was finished.
A friendly butcher. A baby. And a dog.
She met Niamh Ní Fháinnín from Batterstown and her gorgeous seven-month-old daughter, Roisín. Niamh is a fan.
“I just love everything that she stands for and I want her to be the next president for my daughter too.”
Niamh said two of the “big things” for her were Gaza and the ongoing housing crisis. “I know she can’t do anything politically about the houses, but she can talk about it.” She also supported Catherine’s stance on Gaza and the “triple-lock” on Irish neutrality.
“I really stand for peace and I want that peace for my daughter as well.”
Outside the shopping centre, Allie Reilly, who is visually impaired, waited with her guide dog, Evie. She said she watched the debates and “totally agreed” with what Connolly had to say.
There was one pertinent issue she wanted to bring up. While she faces many challenges trying to get on with her everyday life, Allie explained that the ballot papers currently used in Ireland are not suitable for visually impaired people. She doesn’t read Braille and has to have a friend with her in the polling booth to help her vote.
With photogenic Evie ignoring the scrum, Allie and Catherine had a brief discussion and the candidate said she would raise her points in Dublin City University on Thursday when she would be attending a discussion on disability.
After the walkabout, it was on down the road to Ashbourne Youth Reach to meet young people who are studying for their level-three qualification in the QQ1 alternative pathway to the education system.
There were doing a communications class.
The candidate, who is extremely softly spoken, agreed that communicating well with others was a way of building confidence.
“And I remember all that from all the way back when I was a student and we used to hide at the back of the class. You don’t want to be seen or heard. And then, years later I went to England and there were only 10 of us in the class and you had to be seen and you had to read … you know, that big change from hiding and not wanting to be seen … they’ll do that here, too. Fantastic.”
There were similar motivational words at the Ashbourne Women’s Shed, which is fully subscribed with 50 members and a waiting list of 20.
Hazel McLoughlin, from nearby Clonee Women’s shed, is a former member of the Women’s Sheds Ireland association. She told Catherine that, while Government gave more than €1 million to the Irish Men’s Sheds Association to spread across their membership network, the women’s version, which isn’t so well organised yet, got a pittance.
“So there’s no equality” the candidate said to nods of agreement.
There was tea and buns. She said she would have a mug of tea.
“I don’t think we have any mugs, but we have cups,” one of the women said. Sure you wouldn’t giving a mug to a presidential candidate.
They sat around for a chat. The buns were produced. “We were waiting for you to come before we started on them.”
The candidate took a fairy cake.
“It brings me back to my childhood,” she mused, hitting all the right marks.
And no journalists there to hound her by posing the same critical questions which she still hasn’t adequately answered.
This campaign is proving a doddle for Catherine Connolly.
If only the media would stop persisting with those really legitimate questions, she’d be in measuring for curtains in the Áras by now.
The impertinence of them all.
But the importance of it all.
