Catherine Connolly taking nothing for granted as she urges 'everyone to come out and vote'

'Galway Girl' on track to become country's 10th president

Presidential candidate Catherine Connolly meets Tom Flynn, an 87-year-old shopkeeper, in Castlerea. Picture: Bairbre Holmes/PA

On a day that began with her being serenaded with Galway Girl as Gaeilge, Catherine Connolly did a very, very Galway thing — she got stuck in traffic.

When she reached the Galway Arts Centre to meet with creatives and trade unionists, Ms Connolly told those in attendance that her marathon campaign began in the third week of July and would end, fittingly, in her native city, though she lamented having left her bike behind as she came from the Roscommon leg of her last campaign swing earlier in the day. She might have been quicker, if a little wetter, she said.

The day led up to a final rally, an attempt to energise supporters, in the Galway Bay Hotel, which saw the leaders of the parties which have backed Ms Connolly — Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats, People Before Profit, and the Green Party — in attendance. 

But energy has already been taken from a pair of polls published in the last 24 hours, which show  Ms Connolly is on track to become Ireland's 10th president by Saturday. 

If Wednesday's Business Post/RedC poll was good, putting Ms Connolly ahead by 44% to Heather Humphreys's 25%, lunchtime on Thursday brought better news: The latest Irish Independent/Ireland Thinks poll shows the Independent candidate at 40%, compared to Ms Humphreys on 25%, but when undecided voters are excluded, Ms Connolly’s lead widens further, with 55% saying they will back the Independent candidate, while Ms Humphreys rises to 35%.

While you might expect Ms Connolly

An election poster asking for votes for Fine Gael candidate Catherine Connolly outside the Radisson Blu Hotel & Spa, Rosses Point, Co Sligo. Picture: Mark Marlow/PA

to be buoyant and effusive, that is absolutely not her style, and she remained guarded as she spoke to journalists in St Anne's Convent National School in Castlerea, the former school of her guide on the day, MEP Luke Ming Flanagan.

"I would appeal to everyone to come out and vote. We're taking absolutely nothing for granted. And to be president of Ireland, it would be an absolute privilege, and I will leave that to the people of Ireland to decide. 

From day one, the engagement on the ground was fantastic. It has just grown in intensity and numbers. And from day one, people of all ages have come up and engaged with me. It's over three months, so I'm looking forward to a rest tomorrow.

Ms Connolly was more forthcoming with the children in the school, describing it in Irish as a "magic place" before she headed off to meet Tom Flynn, whose family shop has stood in the town for nearly 200 years and which sells a beguiling but charming array of items from iodine to fishing rods to meat to sweets and pet food. 

Mr Flynn knows Ms Connolly's husband Brian McEnery, and the pair compared notes on beekeeping, as Ms Connolly's husband and Mr Flynn both do.

In Roscommon town, Ms Connolly visited the Willow Outdoor Preschool, but not before a journalist from the Irish Daily Mail approached with a photographer seeking an answer to a question around a video of Ms Connolly from 2016. 

In the video, which came to light last weekend, Ms Connolly is challenged by a fellow Galway woman regarding her representing banks in repossession cases when working as a barrister before her election to the Dáil. 

The journalist's request for an answer was given short shrift, and the Connolly team enters the schoolyard with the media in tow.

A feature of the Connolly campaign has been meetings with pro-Palestinian protesters, and in Roscommon, this continued as around 70 activists applauded her arrival and queued for selfies or just to shake her hand. 

More interestingly, the commotion attracted two groups of teenage schoolgirls who, when they realised who was at the centre of the scrum, bordered on delirious.

Catherine Connolly during a visit to St Anne's National School in Castlerea, Co. Roscommon. Picture: Bairbre Holmes/PA

It is this demand for pictures, not just the Galway traffic, which delayed Ms Connolly and pushed back the campaign closing event, which everyone in attendance was adamant was not a victory rally, with the party leaders stressing the need to get people to vote.

There, Ms Connolly teold supporters that she "is just a symbol of a movement". That is the "cause". 

In the room, there were 300 or so people, the truest of believers. 

Ms Connolly said that her decision to run was "tortuous", coming after months of contact from the public.

"They saw characteristics in me that I didn't see in myself," she adds.

It is probably the most candid and personable that she has been in front of a microphone, and she warned that while you may not like what she says going forward, it will be based on "conscience and conviction".

The audience is receptive and at times raucous, but this home turf, Ms Connolly leaning on her Galway-ness, her Gaeilge, and poking fun at the accusations which have been thrown at her through the campaign.

Back in Castlerea, Ms Connolly had been treated not just to the Steve Earle classic about her home city, but also the Irish folk song Téir Abhaile Riú in which a woman is urged to leave Galway and go home. 

Within two days, we'll know if Ms Connolly will be leaving Galway for a new home in Phoenix Park.