Pro-Hamas lawmaker sweeps Irish presidential election

Catherine Connolly, a far-left lawmaker who denounced Israel as a “genocidal, terrorist state” while legitimizing Hamas, is elected by a wide majority to become Ireland’s next president.

By World Israel News Staff

A far-left candidate and staunch critic of Israel is poised to become the next head of state of Ireland, after she swept the country’s presidential election.

On Friday, over 1.5 million Irish voters turned out at the polls to vote for a successor to their current term-limited president, Michael D. Higgins, who is set to leave office next month.

Facing off against Heather Humphreys of the center-right Fine Gael party and Jim Gavin of the centrist Fianna Fáil party, Catherine Connolly swept the vote, receiving over 914,000 ballots, or 63.4% of the total valid ballots.

Humphreys received just 29.5% of the vote, while Gavin received 7.2%, despite having withdrawn from the race earlier this month.

Connolly, an Irish MP who has served in the lower chamber of the Irish parliament since 2016, ran as an independent, but was endorsed by a slew of center-left, left-wing, and far-left Irish parties, including Labour, the Social Democrats, Sinn Féin, the Greens, and the communist Solidarity party.

Described in a profile by Politico as “anti-Western” and anti-European Union, Connolly has also displayed overt hostility towards Israel, describing the Jewish state in July as being “genocidal,” and a month before calling Israel a “terrorist state.”

In May of this year, Connolly said she was “ashamed to be European,” accusing the European Union of being “pro-Israel,” despite the EU leadership’s harsh criticism of Israel’s war against the Hamas terror organization and proposals for sanctions against Israel.

In October 2021, two years before Israel’s current war with Hamas, Connolly accused Israel of trying to “accomplish Jewish supremacy.”

Along with her sharp, persistent criticism of Israel, Connolly has legitimized Hamas, last month calling it “part of the fabric of the Palestinian people.”

In September, Connolly told BBC Radio Ulster that she was “reluctant to unequivocally condemn” the Hamas massacres of Israelis in October 2023.

“I come from Ireland which has a history of colonization. I would be very wary of telling a sovereign people how to run their country.”

Connolly defended relying on Hamas’ figures for Gaza casualties in the war with Israel, calling the terror group the democratically elected representative of the coastal enclave.

“[Hamas] were elected by the people the last time there was an election. Overwhelming support for them back in 2006 or 2007. They are part of the civil society of Palestine. We’re reliant on them for figures in relation to the deaths.”

Catherine ConnollyIreland