{"id":105268,"date":"2025-10-26T16:36:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T16:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/105268\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T16:36:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T16:36:07","slug":"sinn-fein-to-run-own-candidate-in-byelection-prompted-by-connolly-presidency-win-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/105268\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinn F\u00e9in to run own candidate in byelection prompted by Connolly presidency win \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> will run its own candidate rather than getting behind a united left candidate in the byelection due to take place as a result of Independent TD Catherine Connolly<\/a> winning the presidential election<\/a>, party leader Mary Lou McDonald<\/a> has confirmed. <\/p>\n

Ms McDonald instead expressed a preference for encouraging transfers with other left-wing parties for the Galway West byelection. <\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in joined the Social Democrats, Labour and People Before Profit and left-wing Independents in backing Ms Connolly in the presidential election.<\/p>\n

The move to row in behind a single candidate was hugely successful, with Ms Connolly winning 914,143 votes \u2013 just more than 63 per cent.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Catherine Connolly elected 10th president of Ireland in landslide victoryOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The election to fill her D\u00e1il seat in Galway West must be called within six months of Ms Connolly taking office on November 11th.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in topped the poll in the Galway West constituency with its candidate Mair\u00e9ad Farrell in last year\u2019s general election.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Ms McDonald was asked on RT\u00c9\u2019s The Week in Politics about the possibility of a united left candidate in the byelection.<\/p>\n

Ms McDonald said: \u201cSinn F\u00e9in will contest the byelection. We\u2019re all individual, distinct parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also said: \u201cI hope in that contest, as with others, we will find a way to transfer to and from each other\u201d and \u201cwe can still on areas where we have common cause and common platforms, we can put that forward in a very, very constructive way\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms McDonald added: \u201cBut remember, in Galway West, the Sinn F\u00e9in candidate topped the poll. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean we\u2019ve got a very strong mandate for there, and not alone will we contest that election, we will contest to win that seat and to make sure that it doesn\u2019t fall to the Government. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that would be a bad outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the prospect of a transfer pact in the absence of a united left candidate, Ms McDonald said: \u201cOf course I can\u2019t be presumptuous. I have to go and talk to colleagues on that. But that would be my instinct on it, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the result unfolded during Saturday, leaders of left-wing parties said Ms Connolly\u2019s victory was a repudiation of the current Fianna F\u00e1il-Fine Gael coalition Government and a message that a left-led government, without either Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael, was possible after the next general election.<\/p>\n

Ms McDonald said \u201cthe next job is to get Fine Gael and Fianna F\u00e1il out of Government\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sinn F\u00e9in will run its own candidate rather than getting behind a united left candidate in the byelection…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3656,42,3658,43,978,3415,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-105268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-catherine-connolly","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-mary-lou-mcdonald","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-presidential-election","13":"tag-sinn-fein","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}