While the President of Ireland (Uachtarán na hÉireann) has limited executive power and the role is largely symbolic, it carries some important constitutional responsibilities. The present incumbent, President Michael D Higgins, has taken important steps to represent progressive opinion in the face of a supine Irish government which is committed to the agenda of the Euro-Atlantic alliance, the European Union and NATO.

The Workers Party of Ireland has held consultations amongst our membership on the forthcoming Presidential Election in the Republic of Ireland and the Party Central Executive Committee (Ard Comhairle) has agreed to offer conditional support to the candidacy of Catherine Connolly T.D.

While Catherine Connolly is the candidate for social democracy in this election, the other two candidates (one of whom has withdrawn but will remain on the ballot paper) unashamedly represent the Irish bourgeoisie. While Catherine Connolly does not offer the revolutionary agenda necessary to satisfy our demands for political, social and economic change, she has taken a progressive stance on several issues such as social inequality, energy poverty, the housing crisis, cost of living crisis, healthcare and education.

It is also important to recognise that, unlike the other establishment candidates, she has expressed a commitment to the re-assertion of Ireland’s sovereignty and neutrality which is particularly important in the context of the current government’s agenda on dismantling the Triple Lock, its ongoing deference to the European Union, its obsequious attitude towards NATO, its bellicose support for the Zelensky regime in Ukraine and its lack of real, effective action against the murderous Zionist, Israeli regime. It is also important to openly condemn and confront the misogynistic, racist and homophobic culture currently rampant in Ireland.

However, Catherine Connolly’s simplistic position on support for a border poll that, lately a fashion among the Southern bourgeois government parties and their allies in the Dáil, ignores the harsh sectarian realities on the ground in Northern Ireland, fails to understand that such an agenda only serves to continue sectarian conflict based on the reactionary and divisive ideologies of British and Irish nationalism and neglects to recognise the conditions necessary to build unity of workers across this island.

Such an agenda has nothing to offer the working class in Northern Ireland, already divided but which like workers across Ireland, faces the reality of a cost of living and housing crisis, working long hours at minimum or low wages with precarious job security, often lacking the right to strike or being unable to access the protection of a trade union and being vulnerable to poverty, mental health problems and homelessness.

While the Presidential election cannot address the fundamental questions of inequality, poverty and destitution that are the reality of workers’ lives across Ireland, our Party asserts that peace and progress in Northern Ireland can only be achieved through a united working class, mindful of Tone’s injunction to demand the unity of Protestant, Catholic, and Dissenter in the common struggle to build a socialist future.

As this election takes place, the expansion of imperialist blocs, imperialist aggression and growing militarisation represent real threats to peace and the peoples of the world. The inter-imperialist confrontation between the Euro-Atlantic powers (USA, NATO, EU) and Russia in Ukraine continues with the working class of Ukraine and Russia paying the price for the competition between imperialist blocs.

The devastation of Gaza and the murderous actions of the Israeli regime throughout Palestine demonstrates the dangers of imperialism and requires a President who must fearlessly support the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people in an independent sovereign state, rejecting the plans of the war criminals Trump and Netanyahu who are complicit in a genocide against the Palestinian people and a project to obliterate the question of Palestinian national and social rights from the agenda, supported by the world’s capitalist states and the reactionary Arab regimes.

As Europe once again faces the scourge of fascism and racism, the Workers Party asserts our determination to contribute to the building of a new world of peace, social progress and socialism, free from capitalist exploitation and oppression and the threat of imperialist war.

The Workers Party recognises the limited functions of the Presidency and the inadequacies of many of the positions adopted by Catherine Connolly, however, the alternative cannot be permitted. For this reason, and with our reservations, the Workers Party offers our qualified support to Catherine Connolly in this election.


11th October, 2025