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NICK DELEHANTY, a 35-year-old doggy day care owner, online campaigner and former lawyer, formally launched his bid to be President of Ireland today with a flashy campaign launch at a virtual golf bar on Dublin’s Dawson Street.
Delehanty, an Independent, faces an uphill battle to get his name on the ballot, but claims he has rallied enough support to get a hearing with a number of local authorities.
“We’ve definitely got proposers and seconders in six to 10 councils, but a proposer and seconder is not money in the bank at any stage, and so we’re very realistic,” Delehanty said today.
His first foray into politics came last year when he ran unsuccessfully as a candidate in both the local and general elections, with campaign slogans like “Make Crime illegal” and “Build Baby Build”.
His launch today got off to a difficult start when the majority of journalists due to attend the press conference were late arriving following a chaotic press engagement with another presidential candidate, Catherine Connolly.
After some confusion and delay, Connolly spoke briefly to reporters outside Leinster House, where she was supporting Oireachtas broadcast workers in their bid for fairer conditions and pay.
A communications professional working for Nick Delehanty (former ministerial adviser Ferghal Blaney, who now works for Rockwood Public Affairs) made his way from Dawson Street to Connolly’s event to usher the missing media across to Delehanty’s launch.
At Nick Delehanty’s presidential election campaign launch earlier today.
— Jane Matthews (@janeematthews) August 26, 2025
He spoke of how he agrees with UK Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch’s views on multiculturalism and how if he became President of Ireland he would make a “viral series” about learning the Irish language. pic.twitter.com/wevzdYztPv
Delehanty took the delay in his stride, seizing the opportunity to take a dig at Connolly by joking at the beginning of the press conference that he would always talk to the media “no matter what”.
The Tipperary-born small business owner opened his remarks by saying it was a huge day in his life “and a huge day for Ireland”.
He claimed today that he has earned grassroots support across the “length and breadth of the country” due to his content on social media.
So what did he have to say during his press conference today, and why does he think he should be President of Ireland?
Delehanty is best known online, largely for his provocative videos criticising Ireland’s international protection system and the money people receive for providing asylum seeker accommodation.
In interviews recently, he has spoken of the need for a total overhaul of asylum laws internationally.
Asked today if he sees himself as a single-issue candidate focused on immigration, Delehanty said he does not, but that he believes government spending on international protection centre contracts is “a much bigger issue than people realise”.
In a recent podcast interview, Delehanty spoke of how he admires Denmark’s hardline approach to people seeking asylum.
“This idea of multiculturalism doesn’t work there. It’s like, if you come to Denmark and you want to live here, then you are Danish, and I’m like ‘That’s great!’,” Delehanty said on the podcast.
He added: “They still have an asylum system, but they have much more strict control of it.”
Asked today by The Journal to elaborate on his comments around multiculturalism, Delehanty said he agrees with the view of UK Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch relating to multiculturalism.
“She doesn’t believe in, and I agree with this, in multiculturalism, because there should be one culture, you know. Most people sign up to, in a country, that everyone agrees upon and that’s what we’re about.
“But then she believes, and I believe in multi-ethnicity. So it’s good to tease those things out. So it’s good to have an Irish culture and celebrate Irish culture and be proud to be Irish,” Delehanty said.
He added that he would call himself a “Danish Social Democrat” and that he admires the “strict line” Denmark has taken on international protection seekers.
Asked today about his proficiency in the Irish language, Delehanty said he has Leaving Certificate standard Irish but is getting lessons currently.
If elected president, he claimed he would do more for the Irish language than others because he would make a “viral series” tracking his efforts to become a fluent speaker.
He said he doesn’t believe the Irish President should have to know Irish the day they get the job, but that they should definitely make an attempt to learn it.
Asked if he was more interested in being a content creator than a president, or as one reporter put it to him, “Becoming a Pintrest President”, Delahanty said it’s a “basic fact of modern communications” that you have to use social media.
“Listen, I’ve gone viral. I don’t need to go more viral, I’ve done that,” Delehanty said.
Asked for his views on a United Ireland, Delehanty said he wants a United Ireland, but there are a lot of questions surrounding it.
“Ultimately, I am pro-United Ireland. But we have to be careful about this as well, because you don’t want to ignite old issues. I think there’s been a failure since the Good Friday Agreement not to progress things on the ground in the North, socially and culturally. I think people would say it’s fair that nothing has changed much.”
Delehanty has previously said that he believes the government have not considered the ramifications of the Occupied Territories Bill enough.
Asked to clarify his position on it today, and whether he would have any issues signing it into law if president, Delehanty said he agrees with the “morals and the intent” behind the bill, but that the “outcomes” of it need to be weighed up.
In particular, he raised concerns that it could have unintentional consequences in relation to other occupied territories globally.
The slightly amended Occupied Territories Bill, which will go before the Dáil when it returns in September, would make it a crime under the Customs Act 2015 to import goods into Ireland that originate in Israeli settlements built over what is legally recognised as Palestinian land.
“I run a small business, I raise a small family, and I’m a firm member of generation rent. I grew up on a pig farm in Tipperary. I now live in Ringsend. And behind me, coming next, is a wave of young people who I represent, who feel that the social contract has been broken,” Delehanty said today.
He said his core principle is like Article 9.3 in the Irish Constitution, fidelity to the Nation.
“That’s everything I’m about,” he said.
He added that he believes we do not have a “housing crisis or an immigration crisis” currently, but instead “something far bigger, a political crisis”.
“And nobody is talking about it,” he said, taking aim at the rotating Taoiseach agreement that is currently in place between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
Despite the flashiness of his campaign launch, Delehanty was realistic about his prospects:
“We might not get on the ballot, so at least this will be the best launch you were ever at.”
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