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Jim Gavin, former Dublin GAA football manager, after the requiem mass for Brother Kevin Crowley. Alamy Stock Photo
aras race
Presidency race: Micheál Martin backs Jim Gavin, Maria Steen seeks a nomination
Gavin is a former Dublin GAA manager and an ex-Air Corp Commandant. Maria Steen is a prominent member of the Iona Institute.
LAST UPDATE | 30 Aug 2025
FORMER GAA MANAGER Jim Gavin has sought the Fianna Fáil nomination for the presidential race – and he has Taoiseach and party leader Micheál Martin in his corner.
Speaking to reporters today, the Taoiseach said he has been engaging with Jim Gavin for some time and felt he was the right person to represent the party in the election.
The parliamentary party’s whip TD Paul McAuliffe confirmed Gavin had sought the nomination earlier today on X.
“I would have no hesitation in nominating him to be a candidate to come Ireland’s first citizen. As people around the country get to know Jim, they will see how his humility, his dedication, and his own values make him the right person to represent all of us,” McAuliffe said.
In his letter to party members Gavin said that his campaign would focus on “representing Ireland’s views abroad, facilitating the use of the Áras for the people and promoting Ireland’s language, culture, education and enterprise to the wider world”.
Gavin is a former Dublin GAA manager and an ex-Air Corp Commandant. He is the current operations director for the Irish Aviation Authority.
He’s known for his quiet disposition, and is famous for his five-in-a-row All Ireland wins between 2015 and 2019. Today the Irish Independent reported that Taoiseach Michéal Martin is to give Gavin his full backing.
Gavin is up against MEP Billy Kelleher, who has expressed his intention to contest the Fianna Fáil candidacy. In a post to X today, Kelleher wrote: “Just a short message to wish Jim Gavin well and that I’m looking forward to a robust debate about how we put forward the values of Fianna Fáil in the coming campaign and also the vision for the Presidency.
“Go n-éirí an t-ádh linn!”
MEP Barry Andrews has backed Kelleher. Describing his fellow MEP as someone who has stood for Ukraine, Palestine, and was a leading voice in the abortion referendum, he finished with, “[Kelleher] has my full support”.
.@BillyKelleherEU has over 30 years of service to Fianna Fáil, was a leading pro-choice voice during that referendum, and has stood up for the defence of Ukraine and justice in Palestine as an MEP.
— Barry Andrews MEP (@BarryAndrewsMEP) August 30, 2025
He has all the credentials to be the next President of Ireland. He has my full…
Public Expenditure Minister and deputy leader of Fianna Fáil Jack Chambers has already announced that he will be backing Gavin to become the party’s candidate.
Elsewhere, barrister and campaigner Maria Steen is to seek the nominations to allow her to contest the presidency, she confirmed to The Journal.
Asked if she was eyeing either the council route or nominations from Oireachtas members, Steen said she is “open to either route, though both are difficult for a non-party candidate”.
A member of the socially conservative Catholic advocacy group the Iona Institute, Steen was a prominent ‘No’ voice in the run-up to the 2018 abortion referendum, and in the gay marriage referendum in 2015.
She most recently campaigned against the failed family and care referendums in 2024. She took part in numerous debates on the matter in the run up to polling day, including one against then-Tánaiste Micheál Martin.
A qualified barrister, Steen is now a stay at home mother with her children.
Steen’s name was initially presented by Independent senator Sharon Keoghan alongside a number of other Independent names, including Declan Ganley, Nick Delehanty, Gareth Sheridan, and senator Aubrey McCarthy.
However, Steen appeared to dismiss the idea of herself running for office in a statement last week, where she said she was “grateful” her name had been mentioned as a possible candidate.
“I suspect this reflects widespread disillusionment with a system in which the only choice we are given is to elect one of the usual suspects, all of whom share the “right kind of views’,” she wrote, and said she did not have any plans to seek a nomination nor did she have a campaign in place.
The Iona Institute was founded in 2007 by David Quinn, a former religious affairs correspondent. Quinn is now a columnist for the Irish Independent. Reacting to the news of Steen’s intention to run for the presidency yesterday, Quinn remarked that there are a lot of “homeless voters” who would vote for the campaigner given the chance – “including me”.
Steen is the niece of Joan Freeman, former Independent senator and founder of Pieta House. Freeman unsuccessfully contested the 2018 presidential election.
The only officially confirmed candidate is Independent TD Catherine Connolly. Heather Humphreys is set to be ratified as Fine Gael’s candidate, and Sinn Féin is continuing to mull over its prospects: backing Catherine Connolly or running its own candidate.
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