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 !!!🙄🥲

Not enough people thought Maria Steen was candidate material.

According to John McGuirk, several people in FF were warned they'd face serious consequences if they nominated her. If that's true, it looks likely that at least as far as personal choice went, there were enough people who thought she was good candidate material.

A previous poster made the point that it's normal for parties to forbid their members from nominating other candidates, so I don't think it's a conspiracy or anything like it, but it doesn't change the fact that from the sounds of things there were people who would have nominated her given the option. And I do think FF may have possibly done better to allow her to be nominated, depending on how serious people are about spoiling their vote and the numbers involved - if she had run, I think FF would have been the most likely transfers.

It's interesting that McDowell thought she might win even though in his opinion she should not be allowed run. I wonder why he thought she'd win. I wouldn't have thought so.

I wouldn't have thought she would win either.
I think she would have done well though and that would have rattled a lot of people.
I think there is a view that Ireland is a progressive and liberal country and we have left behind our John Cardinal McQuaid days.
This is true.
But I think that while the majority of people in Ireland have moved on from the grip of the Catholic Church, they are mostly somewhere in the Centre with values that encompass both liberal and conservative opinions.
FF, FG, SF,PBP,Labour and Labour are now all to the Left, with some more to the left than others.
Traditionally FG were mostly to the Centre and FF slightly to the right of centre. Those 2 parties especially seem to be desperate to be seen as liberal and progressive, and seem to be somewhat embarrassed by their more conservative origins.
I think a lot of their more conservative grassroot voters are disillusioned with the direction they have taken and would have opted for Steen as an attempt to balance the pendulum.
I think Steen would have hit the FF vote especially, and Martin knew this. I don't know how much they would have benefited from transfers though.
There was a lot of disgruntlement at how Martin parachuted in Gavin over some of his own party members who had put in the time for the party and were cast aside for a celebrity candidate with no political background.
It's notable that over the last couple of days Steens failure to make it into the ballot has received a lot more coverage than Connolly, Humphreys and Gavin's campaigns.
I think a lot of journalists see it and, despite being ideologically opposed to Steen, they recognise this was not good for democracy.

I agree with basically all of your post Onehorsetown.

McDowell's remark that he believed Steen would have won is something I would hope is discussed. For democrats, that in itself should have been a big argument in favour of nominating her.

I believe in representative democracy so I don't think we should have referendums every other month and there are a lot of policies which are better settled by people who have the full-time job of studying the details. But the choice of president is something I think can be capably decided by ordinary voters.

I will use my vote, I 💯 believe we should always use our vote but for the first time ever I will be voiding the card.

This whole debacle feels wrong, it’s just not sitting right for me.

My interpretation is FF and FG did not have enough faith in their candidate to win, so limit competition.

It’s my feeling that none of them feel capable to campaign and debate their points with strong potential options. Whether that is true or not that is my interpretation so I gave zero faith on any of them

So a destroyed ballot it is.

FF campaigned for the Brazilian man Caio Benicio who was one of the men to intervene in the Parnell Square stabbing in the local election last year.

They have form for trying the populist vote.

Incisive post @Onehorsetown
I too am thinking I will spoil my vote @DublinFemaleas I just didn’t like the way the process was handled by the main political parties.

I understand the frustration people feel but if you're spoiling your vote, do you feel that it's all the same which of the three gets elected?

I am feeling a bit dizzy today.

Im not understanding the question if there is one.

Brain is broken today

Yes, I do feel it's all the same to me which one of them gets elected. I can't even think of which one is least worst so I'm going to use my voice to call out the undemocratic nature of the process as I see it. It's the only way I can make my dissatisfaction known on the ballot paper. I'll be spoiling my vote and writing 'Maria Steen' on the ballot paper.

I don't like the candidates but I wouldn't have voted for Maria Steen. I'll be amazed if she ever gets elected to anything. We were on the same side for the last referendum re the 'mother in the home' but for very different reasons. She presents a very attractive face and reasoned arguments but at the end of the day, she wants her beliefs to dictate how society functions. She's entitled to hold to her Catholic beliefs but she has no right to try reimpose them on Irish society by adapting our laws.

I feel both she and Catherine Connolly can both be very fundamentalist; they only see things their way. It's why I can't support a party like PBP even though I am a leftist naturally. Their authoritarian stance bothers me. I like to think for myself.

Spoiling my vote feels wrong though, I'll just have to keep listening to what the candidates say and wait until election day to decide.

At this time I'm inclined to spoil my vote - maybe write 'none of the above'.
I'll wait and see what the debates are like but it is disappointing that there is no charismatic and genuinely likeable candidates. Perhaps I'm being harsh but I find all three a bit meh. (I'm sure they're nice people but this is a presidential election).

I'm not wild about the choices but still feel that of the three, a politician who was well respected by her dept civil servants and got important and complex legislation over the line, and who once worked in a credit union (so understands family and community level finances) has something going for her.

If IF we're going to have a border poll in the next 7 years, an Ulster Presbyterian president married to member of the Orange Order would send a very strong message just by existing.

Of course, she has plenty of opportunity to blow that goodwill out of the water over the next few weeks.

I'm not going to spoil my vote. I don't think I'd have voted for Steen but I think she should have been on the ballot. I find both Humphreys and Gavin extremely uninspiring but like TomBaileysFlyingGoggles I think Connolly can be fundamentalist, and I'd rather either of the other two. Ireland needs a broadening of the Overton window and more amicable disagreement - I don't think you'll get that from Connolly or her supporters, who will feel vindicated if she wins.

Likewise if you are learning towards Connolly, I don't really understand spoiling your vote. Connolly is for retaining the triple lock, the other two want to get rid of it. That's a big difference between them and directly related to their role.

Saw 10 minutes of the gentle questioning of the 3 candidates as its NOT a debate. Did FF scour the country for Mehole Martins twin or has he been getting intensive tuition in how to be Mehole. Even how he uses his hands to make a point is Mehole to a T. I wasn't planning to vote for him as despise parachuting in minor celebrities as candidates for anything but after what I saw tonight its an even bigger joke.

I agree about the debate - it was useless, the host clearly thought that he was doing one of his political interviews, and kept asking questions about things that are not within the remit of the presidency. It was really annoying.

I ended up thinking I'd give my vote to whoever had the guts to interrupt him and say 'Your questions are misplaced, my constitutional role as Uachtarán would not involve government policy and party politics, I would respect the constitution by leaving that to the elected parliamentary representatives of the people. Next question - but make it about the presidency, please'

Sadly none of them did! It would liven up a future debate if one of them put it up to the host to ask about how they would carry out the the actual constitutional role of president.
I won't hold my breath🙄

Ironically that is something Maria Steen has spoken about with clarity in the past, one of the reasons I'm sorry she isn't on the list. She'd say new things.

btw, I voted 'yes' in the first two referendums that Steen voted 'no' on, but feel strongly that neither abortion nor qualification for marriage should be in the Constitution at all. It is a complex and useful document, and leaves some things to be decided by legislation, as is proper.

Interesting posts from @DeanElderberry and @Mermoose

Wasn't much inspired by last night's "debate", sounded much too much like rehearsed soundbites to me.
Interestingly, my 18 Yr old, who is voting for the first time, is voting for Connolly. But he is staunchly anti government (as only an 18 yr old idealist can be).
Personally, her politics are not for me... so not sure what way I'll vote.

I also saw Jim Gavin as a MM clone @HayGal - it was the hand gestures! Found it very distracting.

I suppose we must be grateful we have served Conor and Bertie. The other three would all do a reasonable job no doubt. We've already had two Protestants in the Park so I don't think that's even an issue. Neutrality is a big issue for me. You don't know what you've got til it's gone. It's grand cooperating with other nations on security here in our corner of Europe.

But we don't want to wake up and see Abu Ghraib style photos of our soldiers abusing people in their own country. So NATO is a no no.

Protestants in the Park is a non-issue in the 26 counties, but a border poll would be cross-border and there are people in the 6 counties who think we've rounded up all our protestants and murdered them, so a visible one could be very useful.

I'd like to live to see a 32 county Ireland, in case that isn't clear.

We've rounded up all our Protestants forced them into leadership positions for decades. Fair play to them btw. But even if we elected Graham Norton as Taoiseach I can't see a united Ireland in the near future. Some kind of federal system seems more likely. Like the GFA itself perhaps ; sort of messy but doable and something for everyone?

Graham could rotate with Patrick Kielty.
As far as presidents are concerned I am trying to work out who I dislike most. And second worst.
Pamela Anderson has changed her hair colour. Liam and Pamela was my choice.

Catherine Connolly is a complete loose cannon. She couldn’t remember who she met in Syria? Implied the Germans are gearing up similarly to pre WW2. That is not how a president behaves. Heather Humphreys is the only of the three who would actually represent Ireland properly in a responsible stateswoman-like way.

I need to know a bit about spouses. They play a role too.