The fallout from the landslide win for Catherine Connolly in the presidential election began immediately this weekend.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the result was a sign of what could be achieved when left-wing parties worked together – while Fianna Fáil TDs demanded discussion of Micheál Martin’s future.
Speaking on RTÉ, Ms McDonald said Ms Connolly’s victory showed people how parties other than Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael could win an election.
“When we come together, when we work collaboratively, when we show up for each other, we can win,” she said, though she said the party would run its own candidate in the forthcoming Galway West byelection.
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Leaders of the other left-wing parties who supported Ms Connolly sounded similar notes during Saturday’s count and after the results of the presidential election were announced at Dublin Castle.
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said: “Change doesn’t stop here.”
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy called for “a major conference of the left to discuss the next steps of continuing and deepening left co-operation”.
[ Momentum that boosted Catherine Connolly spells trouble for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil ]
He said the Government must immediately drop plans to reform the triple lock governing Irish military deployment. Ms Connolly said during the campaign it was “at the core of our neutrality”.
For Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, however, the postmortems are likely to be bruising.
Fine Gael is likely to set up a post-election review when its national executive meets soon. There is also a separate so-called Commission on the Renewal of Fine Gael, which is expected to report before the end of the year.
In Fianna Fáil, three TDs said the party must now discuss the leadership of Micheál Martin in the wake of the election campaign.
TDs John McGuinness, James O’Connor and John Lahart said yesterday they wanted the party to discuss Mr Martin’s future – though all are regarded as long-time critics of the party leader.
Dublin South-West TD Mr Lahart said: “Fianna Fáil has suffered. There was a lot of hurt, embarrassment, humiliation.
“A modern political party can’t afford those errors in judgment.”
Mr Lahart, however, stressed his comments should not be seen as the start of a heave against the party leader.
Carlow-Kilkenny TD John McGuinness said on Sunday that Fianna Fáil’s election campaign was a “shambles” and said the party needed to “reinvent itself for the future”, including a change of leader “in due course”.
Cork East TD James O’Connor said it had been “a very embarrassing number of weeks for the Fianna Fáil organisation” and there was “anger” that “we allowed something like this to happen” as well as “fury” with the party leader.
“No matter what is done, it’s going to take a long time for Fianna Fáil to recover from the actions of the last two months,” he said.
Asked if he thought the party needed to change its leader now, he said: “I think everything needs to be on the table.”
While party sources said there was some level of co-ordination between Mr Martin’s internal opponents, they are not thought to be working with the approval of Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan, considered by many to be Mr Martin’s most likely successor.
Mr O’Callaghan previously said he had no intention of challenging Mr Martin for the leadership, though he has acknowledged he had ambitions to lead the party some day.
A Fianna Fáil spokeswoman said a review of the election had been established by the parliamentary party, and the party would be making no further comment until its work has been completed.
Meanwhile congratulations continued to roll in for president-elect Ms Connolly after her overwhelming victory in Friday’s election.
The Independent TD was elected Ireland’s 10th president in a landslide result that saw her take 63.4 per cent of the vote, comfortably winning on the first count.
Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys took less than half that figure, winning 29.5 per cent of the first-preference vote.
Fianna Fáil candidate Jim Gavin, who ended his campaign in early October but whose name remained on the ballot paper, took 7.2 per cent of the vote, his party’s worst performance.
Turnout was higher than expected at 45.8 per cent, exceeding the 43.9 per cent of the 2018 election, buoyed in part by a campaign to encourage disaffected voters to cast a spoiled ballot. Spoiled votes came in at 13 per cent – multiples of the usual level.
Speaking after her election victory was formally declared at Dublin Castle, Ms Connolly said she would be a president for all: those who voted for her and those who did not.
She said she would “speak out when necessary”, specifically mentioning Ireland’s neutrality and said she would “raise my voice”, citing her campaign promise to “shape a new republic together”.
