Support for Catherine Connolly’s campaign for president is solidifying among some Sinn Féin TDs in the wake of Mary Lou McDonald’s decision not to seek the office.
The party finished its preterm think-in in Dublin on Tuesday, including a discussion on the party’s strategy for the presidential campaign. Sinn Féin will not confirm its position until after its ardchomhairle meets on September 20th.
Its officer board will meet before then. However, after party leader Ms McDonald confirmed her future is in the Oireachtas seeking to lead the next government, several TDs said privately they believe the best decision would be to back Ms Connolly, who already enjoys support from other parties on the left.
While caveating their view and warning that the party has not concluded its internal discussions, one TD said they believe the most likely option is that Sinn Féin will support Ms Connolly.
A second TD who favours such a move said they were cautiously optimistic that the party would do this. A third TD felt that the best long-term option for Sinn Féin was firming up strategic alliances across the left, and that backing Ms Connolly would achieve that.
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In comments this week, Ms McDonald praised Ms Connolly and indicated she appreciated her statements on the importance of a united Ireland. These remarks were taken by some in Sinn Féin as a bellwether for the party’s position.
Other TDs cautioned that the situation was still fluid, however, and were loath to make a prediction about what way the party would proceed.
Separately, businessman Gareth Sheridan and barrister Maria Steen are set to have an opportunity to pitch to councillors in North Dublin as they continue to seek local authority support to get on to the presidential election ballot paper.
Aspiring candidates need the support of 20 Oireachtas members or four local authorities to enter the race.
Fingal County Council requires presidential hopefuls to secure four signatures from councillors before they are allowed to make a presentation at a special meeting scheduled for Friday.
This is a higher threshold for addressing councillors than is required by some other local authorities.
Both Mr Sheridan and Ms Steen have the required number of signatures.
Any votes on whether Fingal will ultimately support a candidate entering the race will happen on Friday evening.
The Independent councillors facilitating Mr Sheridan to make his presentation are deputy mayor Grainne Maguire, Joe Newman, Jimmy Guerin and Tony Murphy.
This does not mean he necessarily has their support in a vote to appear on the presidential election ballot paper.
Mr Murphy has also signed papers for Ms Steen, with Independent councillor Cathal Boland and Aontú’s Ellen Troy and Gerard Sheehan also prepared to facilitate her address to the council.
Mr Murphy signed both sets of papers because he thinks Mr Sheridan and Ms Steen are both “credible candidates”.
He said whether or not either of them ultimately has his support to get on the ballot paper will depend on their presentations.
The local authority path to nomination has narrowed, with Fine Gael, whose candidate is former minister Heather Humphreys, telling its councillors to oppose the nomination of other candidates.
Fianna Fáil, which selected former Dublin GAA boss Jim Gavin as its candidate, has not issued any such instructions to its own councillors. Sinn Féin will not be issuing instructions to its councillors.