DUBLIN (Reuters) -Ireland’s presidential election will in the end be contested by a former minister, a former Gaelic football coach and a left-wing lawmaker after household names such as Conor McGregor, Bob Geldof and Michael Flatley had all expressed interest.
After months of online speculation, the mixed martial arts fighter, the singer and the former Riverdance star did not formally seek the required support from members of parliament or local councils before nominations closed on Wednesday.
The line-up will pit two candidates backed by each of the country’s centre-right ruling parties, against a third supported by the opposition parties of the left in the race to succeed Michael D. Higgins in the October 24 vote for the largely ceremonial role.
One of the two governing parties, Fine Gael, has put forward former social affairs minister Heather Humphreys while its centre-right partner, Fianna Fail, nominated Jim Gavin, best known for managing the Dublin Gaelic football team.
Independent lawmaker and former deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament Catherine Connolly has built up a coalition representing most of the opposition, including the largest member Sinn Fein, which opted in recent days not to put forward a candidate of its own.
While Sinn Fein sees the role as symbolically important in its quest to unify the Republic and British-run Northern Ireland and its leader Mary Lou McDonald considered running, the party hopes Connolly can show a block from the left can defeat the centre-right parties that have led every Irish government.
A September 14 opinion poll, taken before Sinn Fein decided its strategy, put Humphreys in the lead on 22%, Gavin on 18% and Connolly on 17%.
Higgins, a former arts minister from the centre-left Labour party, has been relatively outspoken during his two seven-year terms, in particular in his support for the rights of Palestinians in Gaza.
Connolly, one of the leading pro-Palestinian voices in parliament, would be viewed as most closely aligned to Higgins on the issue. All the major political parties support Ireland’s position as one of the most pro-Palestinian EU member states.
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin;Editing by Alison Williams)
