Catherine Connolly has won a resounding victory in the presidential election, with the largest percentage and largest total votes of any presidential candidate in history. It is also the first time the left has won a majority of votes in a national election in Ireland.
Connolly did this while up against the political and media establishment, and with a strong left platform that included opposing Israel’s genocide and aspirations for a more just and equal society.
Isaac Nellist spoke to Irish ecosocialist activist Paul Murphy about why Connolly’s campaign was so successful.
Murphy is now a member of People Before Profit and is a Teachta Dála (TD, member of the lower house of the Irish Parliament) for the party in Dublin South-West. People Before Profit played a big part in the Connolly campaign.
Murphy is a former Member of the European Parliament for the Socialist Party for Dublin. He has been active in a number of campaigns, including against water charges, against racism, for refugee rights, solidarity with Palestine and against re-armament of Europe and NATO expansion.