LAST UPDATE | 27 Aug 2025

FORMER LABOUR LEADER Alan Kelly has broken ranks with his party over its support for Catherine Connolly’s presidential bid, declaring he will not nominate the independent Galway TD.

Labour announced in July that they would be endorsing Connolly’s campaign, alongside other left-leaning parties including the Social Democrats and People Before Profit.

The decision was not a unanimous one, although The Journal understands just under 60 per cent of members supported backing Connolly during a party meeting on the issue.

Connolly and the party have had a strained relationship, after the presidential hopeful left the party in 2007 when they would not run her alongside Michael D Higgins in the general election. She had served as a Labour councillor.

When she was elected to the Dáil for the first time in 2016, Connolly said the Labour Party had “lost its soul”.

Speaking to Tipp FM today, Kelly said his “fundamental issue” with backing Connolly was her controversial decision to back Gemma O’Doherty’s presidential bid in 2018.

Connolly has said that she doesn’t regret her decision to sign O’Doherty’s papers at the time, stating that she did not know her personally but saw her as a journalist who had done some very good work in the past.

Kelly said that he does not think it is possible for the Labour Party to support a candidate who leant her support to O’Doherty and maintain its “self-respect”.

“People can do what they want. I have no issue with them supporting her, that’s their own business. But I have to be honest with myself,” he said, adding that the range of party opinions on Connolly did not mean there was a “wider split” within Labour.

‘I’m not sure what she did to earn our support’

He confirmed that he was not a part of the majority of Labour members that opted for the party to back Connolly, and said he would not be nominating the independent Galway West TD.

Kelly went on to strongly criticised Connolly for her views on international relations in Syria and Russia, and her ties to former Ireland South MEP Mick Wallace. He said recent comments from an ex-Labour grandee, Fergus Finlay, were “on the money”.

Finlay slammed the party’s decision to back Connolly, claiming that he had asked Ivana Bacik for the party’s presidential nod in January instead.

“I’m not sure what Catherine Connolly did to deserve our support,” Kelly said. “For the record, I respect everybody’s views in the party, but I was against this.”

He claimed it was a “narrow majority” that decided to back Connolly: “I know there’s a large cohort within the Labour Party, and other councillors here in Tipperary of the same view.”

Kelly added that he comes from “old-school Labour”, adding: “I believe in cooperation on the left, but I’m not a far left TD.”

Connolly to ‘expand’ role of President

Speaking to Virgin Media News, Connolly said Michael D Higgins has been a “courageous” president, particularly when calling for peace in Ukraine and on Palestine, and said she admired former presidents Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese.

“All in their own way have expanded the role of president, albeit within the constitution and within the law, and I would see myself as continuing that tradition and using the role of president to the best of my ability,” she said.

Asked about her support of former MEPs and TDs Wallace and Clare Daly, she said: “I think Mick Wallace and Clare Daly did a great job in the Dáil.”

Connolly is awaiting Sinn Féin’s confirmation on whether the party will back her candidacy, as it weighs up potentially fielding its own candidate. She told the station that it would not be “curtains” for her campaign should she not receive support Sinn Féin.

With reporting by Press Association and Muiris Ó Cearbhaill