The Presidential Election 2025

[deeahgwitch]

Your thoughts.
i’m in the ABB camp.
I accept he did a great job re The Good Friday Agreement but his government pre the economic crash !!!🙄🥲

Most Catholics today are a la carte Catholics. Traditional Catholics don't like being called Fundamentalists. I understand this , like FFFG don't like being called Tories. I mean who would ? For some reason we apply this term more to Protestants who take the Bible literally. Whereas devout Catholics leave scriptural stuff to the Vatican - whose edicts they take literally. Toss a coin I guess.

Btw any Muslim running for the Áras will very definitely have their religious views scrutinised! I think of myself as a hopeful agnostic. But culturally Catholic for sure. Anyone should be able to run for the Park? Fine. Good luck organizing debates nobody will watch 24/7/365 , between a minimum of 32 candidates no doubt . And a maximum of what , 3m ? What if there were only 31 people in the ballot .....it's a sham and a disgrace! Longford ignored again. Cancel this charade....and so on ad absurdum.

Fundamentalism as a term is pretty recent of course , dating from 1920. And it does indeed refer to Bible literalists who are nearby all Protestant. Not including eg the C of I or other Anglicans , Episcopalians. The latter take the Bible seriously not literally. Devout doesnt cover it for strict Catholics either? I know devout Catholics who voted for Equal Marriage and Repeal. But there are certainly those Catholics who think Francis was a Communist and others who think there hadn't been a Pope since Pius the 10th - I can't remember why .

Whatever the Catholic version of fundamental is, I'd consider the Iona Institute part of it. I do think that the selection of Presidential candidates needs some refining and I'd like to see a background of public service as a requirement. And definitely cross examination by journalists who understand the role and who ask questions that are related. Looking at you Kieran Cuddihy

So the tenant who didn't get his money back is a journalist. His friends have known for years.
Not giving someone what you owe is bad. Ignoring their attempts to sort it is bad. Being an unregistered landlord is bad.
Not remembering all this is very bad indeed.
I don't really want to vote for either candidate. I have to decide who is the least worst.

I have to decide who is the least worst.
There seems to be a lot of people in the same predicament.
IMO HH is probably the safer option, she is more likely to play the game and smile her way through the next 7 (14😮) years and say nothing that will ruffle feathers.
But it will be seen by FG as a win.
They haven't really evaluated why they were so heavily defeated the 2024 Referendums or why they only received 20% of the vote in the last election.
A win now will be taken as permission to just carry on.
I am inclined to spoil my vote for the first time in my life. I really cannot bring myself to vote for what's on offer.

14 years is too long. And maybe there should be an age limit. I can say they as I'm ancient! I know we see the sports fixtures and visiting heads of state stuff but being able to understand new legislation is important so a celebrity needs the right background.
I don't want to spoil my vote but I want to be able to vote.

I can’t vote for HH @Onehorsetownas she said the electorate voted against the referenda ( she was Director of it ) because we were stupid didn’t understand.
Also she says she received a letter regarding a cruelty to animals case in Monaghan and passed it on to the Department of Agriculture. She says she didn’t comment on the letter but just passed it on.
The Secretary of the Department said there was no interference.
Fine
But why would you pass on the letter ? 🤷‍♀️

The case was dropped.

I wish I hadn’t looked into the details of that animal cruelty case.

I see Gay Community News has commented on the candidates:

• Humphreys is a steady, if cautious, supporter of social change, framed within a centre-right, status-quo mould.
• Connolly stands out as the most principled and progressive, with clear commitments to equality, neutrality, and human dignity.

What Ireland’s 2025 presidential nominees say on LGBTQ+ rights • GCN

This was published before C Connolly's interview with Tipp FM in which she repeatedly refused to give any direct answers on gender issues e.g. whether or not trans identifying men are actually women:
“There’s a small group of people who wish to identify in a different manner than I do. I accept that completely; I think that’s not a big challenge to a democracy, to a healthy society, and that’s all I can say really,”
Catherine Connolly 10/10/25 - YouTube

On the basis of this interview I think CC would now be hailed as the candidate who accepts completely that TWAW, men can identify as women and vice versa, and she doesn't think that's a problem.

I had seen some snide remarks online along the lines of 'She doesn't even know what a woman is' and I thought it was just the usual knee-jerk comment on anybody more to the left than the person making the comment.

But listening to the interview, I realise that in fact it's accurate: CC refuses to give a clear definition of what a woman is, and is OK with men identifying as women and vice versa.

There's nothing like going back to direct reporting of what a candidate actually said, rather than second hand interpretations - that's what CC said about gender ideology, and it's on the record, in her own voice.

I think it's more that Connolly thinks gender is a real thing and is okay with it replacing sex. I don't and amn't.

Round these parts Jim Gavin's posters have been taken down since Saturday morning. He'll still get my number 1.

Thanks Marie, that rules CC out for me (though I'd already ruled her out as she seems like a loose cannon and god knows what she'd say and do on the world stage). HH is also ruled out for me as she campaigned for a Yes vote in the family referendum so was perfectly happy to throw women and mothers under a bus.
That leaves me back at square one- spoil my vote. It goes against my nature as I've never spoiled my vote before but that's the situation I find myself in.

Judging by polls, CC is likely to win. I'm not happy with HH but I will definitely vote, to me a spoiled vote is a vote for CC.
I honestly think HH will be a much better ambassador for Ireland than CC. We have a rocky road ahead in terms of the economy. A president who's decent enough as a trade ambassador could very well mean better or worse lives for people.
HH is much softer on the gender issue than CC, who is shaping up to be a vocal president. Whichever one it is will be helping to fix the Overton window and HH strikes me as much easier going than CC.

It's a shit show. I really don't want either of them! CC is my least preferable of the two but I don't want HH either. I'm worried that spoiling my vote could backfire. Ugh, maybe not vote at all? But I've always voted up to now.

I'm following from England but my mum is in the situation described, always voted, doesn't want to spoil her vote, tempted to vote for Jim Gavin anyway but really doesn't want CC.
So she looks like holding her nose and voting for HH.
If it's 14 years, that will see my mum (85) out (most likely) - what a low to finish on!

My feeling is that the worst backfire from a Gavin vote would be that rather than giving us a new election with new candidate, as is the law, they may fudge it and try to give us a candidate all the politicians agree on, possibly Bertie Ahern. At last I'd have the comfort of knowing I didn't vote for him. And he has always come across reasonably well overseas.

I need at least to able to stick a 3 in front of Connolly.

I'm planning to spoil my vote..

Could you put eg 2 for HH and 3 for CC, thus giving the 3 you want??

Without putting a 1 for anybody?

@SomersetBrie I am really hoping for another 2 crises in the next 10 days so your mum and the rest of us will be able to vote for someone better. I am still bewildered.

To be fair, a lot can happen in 10 days!

Spoiling your vote is completely pointless. Nobody cares what your reason for spoiling is and it will just be ignored.

I could, but I'd rather not spoil my vote (privilege, women died, etc etc, blah di blah), hence the tactical use of #1 for Gavin. Of course, the other down side of doing that is that FF will probably recoup their deposit. It is a mess, and I am OUTRAGED.

If you don't put in a 1, your vote goes nowhere, it's the same effect as a spoiled vote.

Like so many, I think I'll have to hold my nise to vote for HH just to avoid CC.

That would depend. Usually a spoiled vote is of little interest, unless the margins are very tight, in which case they are looked at very closely.
But there is a huge campaign for #spoilthevote in this election.
It won't change the outcome,either CC or HH will win.
But if the number of spoiled votes is substantial then it sends a message to that there are a lot of people who feel unrepresented in this election and those votes are there for whichever party actually listens and tries to represent those voters.
These politicians all want to be in power and will do what it takes to get there.
So the more people who spoil the vote, the more likely it is that it will effect change.
The other option is to vote for Jim Gavin and hope that he tops the vote,in which case it might result in another election.
But it's unlikely that he would secure enough to win, and then FF would, not only get their money back, they would think Gavin was a good choice after all 😮.

So the more people who spoil the vote, the more likely it is that it will effect change.
Just to add, I know a lot of people are voting for HH as they are worried about CC.
But a vote for HH is a vote to maintain the status quo. If you aren't happy with the status quo, then spoiling is probably the best option.

IF Gavin tops the poll we will almost certainly get an election within 60 days - that's what the law sets out. And if we're getting a new election I hope we'll get new candidates.

Spoiling will just reduce the numbers of votes that have to be counted in the straight HH vs CC competition.

Voting for Gavin brings the possibility that he might top the poll, which will force them to have a new election. That's the rules.