Presidential Election 2025

Have a read of the threads,the consensus is against Daly and Wallace,to put it mildly

Glibly ignore that if you wish,makes no odds

Its also not even about goodness equaling charisma or other campaigning requirements, look at Joan Freeman she is in my opinion absolutely a good person however we discovered during her campaign that she is also myopically naive, I would argue Connolly also falls into this goodness = naivety category, for instance in her objections to arming Ukraine which she seems to believe would stop people dying but it more than likely would just mean Ukraine getting annihilated.

On top of this an Irish president has had to intervene on three occasions to defend the constitution against the Dail and the government, including having to invoke their powers as C-IN-C the defence forces. That is not lost on the voters.

I have seen comments similar to this a number of times. What were the 3 occasions when a president had to intervene? I genuinely have no idea what this claim refers to…

That's shifting the goal-posts and your post is quite simplistic and facile.

Now back to what you said..

'huge numbers of people who don't like a candidate with her associations'

Where's your evidence for this statement?

Labour, The Greens and Fine Gael all lost votes and seats in that election.

Who were they 'associating' with? 😁

 have an independent thought?

I think that is a huge requirement in this role

That's a personal opinion of yours that may not be shared by a significant chunk of the electorate, particularly the centrist and right-leaning cohort that McGuinness is pitching to. Perhaps there is a sizeable cohort out there who would like to revert to the pre-Robinson apolitical style of president who is seen and not heard…

I think

Yes it is an opinion.

I am not sensing the electorate want a different style of presidency to the one the incumbent has. Maybe they do want to revert, we'll find out if any candidate is offering that.

Well I can't see McGuinness entirely repudiating the innovations of the last three presidencies but she may suggest MDH pushed the envelope too hard on occasion…I'd be pretty sure she will be at least implicitly indicating that a McG presidency will be less of a soapbox for the incumbent's personal views than a Connolly one…

Labour lost seats in neither recent election that Daly/Wallace failed to retain or return in.

2024 Euros was 0→1, 2024 Dáil was 7→11.

FG also gained some seats (3) in the 2024 Dáil.

Lets be clear here, the presidency of Michael D. Higgins is not all that different to those of Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese.

What has changed is the geopolitical environment in which his terms of office have taken place.

In her time in office, Mary Robinson went to Somalia and came back and addressed the UN and the media about the starvation and the genocide which was underway and got deeply involved in the blame game against global powers for feet dragging and total inaction.

Mary McAleese got stuck into the Catholic church over child abuse and institutional misogyny, and the complicity of various national governments, all over the world, again through cover-up, feet dragging and downright inaction.

Michael D. Higgins' sensibilities are practically identical to Mary Robinson's, but because he is speaking out in a deeply divided world, against a very divisive nation like Israel, when so much of the old western hemisphere has swung to the right, his position just appears more stark, when really it comes down to the same thing, stopping conflict and feeding and sheltering the innocents caught up.

And so I doubt very much that a Mairéad McGuinness presidency will present that much differently - particularly because Michael D has opened a few doors that won't easily be closed again. The only difference is that McGuinness will likely be much more tactical in her interventions and work with Foreign Affairs and the Taoiseach on her public pronouncements.

So really, either way, the electorate aren't going to get a hugely different style of presidency between McGuinness and Connolly. They will just have to choose whether that is to be carried out by a skilled European parliamentarian, diplomat and official, with peerless substance and hugely effective communications style, or a left winger of very chequered background who has no charisma, is a poor communicator, and has very questionable associations in her political past.

I don’t disagree with anything there

However Fine Gael do have a track record in elections of banana skin creation,slips and falls

It would be a near miracle for them if this one is any different

Ergo taking a McGuinness presidency as read would be foolish

My Question wasn't answered it was dodged by shifting the goal posts.

I'm not getting into the 2024 euro elections or your simplistic take on the outcome of same, they're irrelevant now.

Now back to my question.....over to you once more.

Nobody is suggesting we talk to Putin.

What our abilities are to influence are a subject for elsewhere.

The point is that what Connolly suggests is not done as a favour to Putin or the world that Putin envisages or wants.
That is not what motivates her.