Catherine Connolly’s sister has spoken out against the “awful smears that were thrown against” the president-elect during her campaign.
Speaking on local radio station Ocean FM on Tuesday morning, Sligo-based GP Margaret Connolly described her sister’s election win as “historic, beautiful, and a dream come true”.
“One million people have endorsed the truth,” she said, referencing the landslide victory which saw Ms Connolly receive more than 914,000 votes – 63.3 per cent of the total valid poll.
Expressing pride and gratitude in her older sister’s achievement, Ms Connolly said she was glad people were not “frightened by lies and such awful smears that were thrown against” the Independent candidate.
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“If she’s a commie and a loony, I am very glad to be in her camp,” said Ms Connolly, “I am proud that Catherine will speak the truth.”
One of 14 children, seven boys and seven girls, the president-elect grew up in the Galway city neighbourhood of Shantalla, in one of the biggest council estates in Galway at the time.
Her mother died in 1966 aged 43, when Catherine was nine years old. “She was three years older than me when our mum died,” said Ms Connolly, who is one of two sisters now living in Sligo.
Their father, a carpenter and later a building contractor, brought the children up, with the help of his eldest daughters. At the time of their mother’s death, the oldest sibling was 21 and the youngest a toddler of one.
[ Catherine Connolly accuses FG of politics of ‘fear’ and ‘smear’ in latest debateOpens in new window ]
“Perseverance, love and compassion” were some of the core values “hard bred into our DNA by our mother and father,” Ms Connolly told Ocean FM’s Niall Delaney.
These, she said, are Christian values, and ones which she believes will define her sister’s presidency.
“Jesus was probably the first socialist,” she added.
On Saturday night, Catherine Connolly vowed to be “a president for all” during her victory speech at Dublin Castle.
“I think absolutely she will rise to be a president for all,” said her sister on Tuesday.
Last year, Margaret Connolly married her long-term partner, then-mayor of Sligo, councillor Declan Bree, in a historic ceremony at City Hall in Sligo. The wedding was the first at the venue since it was built 159 years ago, in 1865.
Speaking of his sister-in-law’s win on Saturday, Mr Bree praised her Sligo-based sisters, saying they “didn’t leave a stone unturned” in their campaigning.
Ms Connolly won 63.46 per cent of the Sligo-Leitrim vote.
Mr Bree said that Ms Connolly’s election “marks the start of a movement for an alternative Ireland”.
