The 2025 Irish Presidential Election
So far....and a new dedicated section for the election.
Hello subscribers and non-subscribers. The 2025 Irish Presidential Election is upon us. I’m launching a dedicated section in the Newsletter about the upcoming election. It will contain regular updates on the candidates, the parties, the latest polling data, who is in, who is out, what the betting shops are predicting and more importantly, the latest rumours and gossip from the campaign.
As it stands, there is only one confirmed candidate. That is the far-left Unity candidate, Catherine Connolly, who is already mired in controversy. Heather Humphreys will be the likely Fine Gael candidate after Mairead McGuinness dropped out due to health reasons. Conor McGregor, Michael Flatley, Gareth Sheridan and Nick Delahanty have all stated their intention to run for the presidency. But there’s more chance of Trump releasing the Epstein files than any of that lot even getting on the ballot paper without Fianna Fáil’s backing.
Unknown Unknowns
Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin are still doing their best wallflower act at the presidential disco—standing around the non-alcoholic punchbowl pretending they don’t actually want to dance. Of course, the rumour mill says they’ve both got partners in mind. On the latest Path to Power podcast, Ivan Yates dangled a name in front of Matt Cooper with the relish of a man who enjoys tossing hand grenades into polite conversation: Pádraig Ó Céidigh, the ex–Aer Arann boss and former Independent senator, according to Yates, might very well be the Fianna Fáil candidate. Ó Céidigh has a name recognition problem. Not insurmountable, but that might well be an issue in this election, depending on who Sinn Féin run. As it happens, I got the same whispered Ó Céidigh tip last Saturday before I got on a plane to Florence for a well-needed break from writing about the bearpit that is Irish Politics.
Of course, former Fianna Fáil Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's name still lingers in the air like a drone loaded with explosives, ready at any moment to blow up years of painstaking image rehab on Fianna Fáils long, carefully crafted road back from perdition. The Irish Independent is reporting that at least a dozen Fianna Fáil TDs and Senators are willing to back Bertie for the Presidency. I’d be quite keen on finding out what drugs these Fianna Fáil members of parliament are using because that’s a serious amount of delusion to be entertaining in backing Bertie for President. It must be one hell of a “trip” to sincerely envision Bertie “Mahon Tribunal” Ahern as the saviour of Fianna Fáil’s presidential respectability. It’s not so much a leap of faith as a vault off the Cliffs of Moher into a vat of pure, grade A -LSD infused delusion.
So my first post dedicated to the 2025 Irish Presidential Election section will be about the multitude of reasons why Bertie won’t be the next president of Ireland. It will be out over the weekend and will be found here in the dedicated 2025 Irish Presidential election section. You will automatically receive emails from the new section if you're already subscribed to the Newsletter. There will be regular updates to that section of the newsletter, which will increase as the campaign catches fire.
In the meantime, the bookmakers have Heather Humphreys as the favourite in the 2025 race, so far, down from 9/1 last week, and the bookmakers already seem to think Connolly’s star is waning. No surprise there.
