{"id":83390,"date":"2025-10-16T01:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T01:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/83390\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T01:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T01:56:08","slug":"connolly-quizzed-on-eu-militarisation-syria-trip-and-cats-in-tv-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/83390\/","title":{"rendered":"Connolly quizzed on EU \u2018militarisation\u2019, Syria trip and cats in TV interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Presidential hopeful Catherine Connolly has said she is \u201cconcerned\u201d the EU has \u201cgone down a route of further and further militarisation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Independent candidate appeared on The Katie Hannon Interview Live on RT\u00c9 on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Asked about previous controversial comments she made about Germany\u2019s current military build-up, which she compared to the country in the 1930s when it was under Nazi rule, Ms Connolly said: \u201cI expressed my serious concerns about the similarities between now and the 30s, and I use the example of Germany, who\u2019s rebooting its economy, going buying more and more military, more arms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IrishPresidential candidate Catherine Connolly (Conor O\u2019Mearain\/PA)<\/p>\n

When pushed to differentiate between countries building up arms for economic, defensive and aggressive purposes, she replied: \u201cAs a woman and as a mother, I\u2019m seriously concerned at the direction that countries are going, spending more money on arms and the militarisation while we reduce the money spent on welfare.\u201d<\/p>\n

There has also been much scrutiny throughout her campaign of her decision to hire a woman convicted of a firearms offence, who had been a member of the group \u00c9ir\u00edg\u00ed, which is critical of the Good Friday Agreement.<\/p>\n

During the programme, Ms Connolly said a woman hired by her in the D\u00e1il was a \u201csupporter of the peace process, as I understand it\u201d.<\/p>\n

When questioned if she asked her employee about her membership of the organisation, she said: \u201c\u00c9ir\u00edg\u00ed is a registered political party. You don\u2019t ask someone if they\u2019re a member of a registered political party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another issue which has dogged the Galway West TD\u2019s path to the presidency is her 2018 trip to Syria.<\/p>\n

Questions have been asked about the optics of an Irish parliamentarian being seen with supporters of then-president Bashar Assad.<\/p>\n

Discussing an excursion to the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, during which she was shown around by members of a pro-Assad militia, Ms Connolly said: \u201cWe met quite a lot of people there who showed us around.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sole purpose was to understand the refugee situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have stood openly and honestly in the Dail<\/p>\n

Catherine Connolly<\/p>\n

During the interview, Ms Connolly claimed 14,000 volunteers have signed up to her campaign, \u201cthe majority of whom have never taken part in an election before\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, when asked about two people who have not been visible on her campaign, ex-MEPs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, who were also on the Syrian trip, she said: \u201cI have fairly little contact with Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, because most of the time they\u2019re not in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed on if she was modifying her political persona to appeal to a wider group of voters, Ms Connolly answered: \u201cI\u2019ve stood honestly and openly in the D\u00e1il.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have supported the government when it was right on the issue, and otherwise I\u2019ve disagreed with the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always pointed out constructive solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Independent candidate was quizzed about whether she would carry out the campaigning work she has been known for, and in particular, if she would still champion the Women of Honour group which has campaigned on issues of bullying and misogyny in the Defence Forces.<\/p>\n

The organisation has criticised the terms of reference of a tribunal set up to investigate discrimination and sexual harassment within the Force.<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly said: \u201cI think I have supported them every step of the way, particularly in relation to their dissatisfaction with the terms of reference.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as a president, I have a completely different role.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly said she \u201cabsolutely would support\u201d a change to allow the Office of President to face more public scrutiny by making it subject to the Freedom of Information legislation.<\/p>\n

When asked if any animals would be joining her at \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in, she said she had two black cats, a brother and sister who were known as \u201cCat One and Cat Two\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly also said her husband, or \u201ccurrent husband\u201d as she refers to him, Brian McEnery would be likely to bring \u201cmore than one\u201d of his beehives with him to the \u00c1ras.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Presidential hopeful Catherine Connolly has said she is \u201cconcerned\u201d the EU has \u201cgone down a route of further…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-83390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83390","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=83390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}