Ireland’s new president, Catherine Connolly, is a proud leftist who has served for almost a decade as an independent socialist member of the Irish parliament (Dáil Éireann), a blunt critic of the failures of neoliberalism and corporate globalization, and a visionary advocate for the sort of dramatic interventions that are needed to address the economic inequality that has made life increasingly unaffordable for working-class families.

Connolly, who was elected in a landslide on Saturday with 63.4 percent of the vote, also has an anti-colonial and anti-imperialist sensibility rooted in her own country’s long struggle against the British Empire. As such, she campaigned as a defender of Ireland’s long-standing policy of military neutrality—decrying the international arms trade and “the warmongering military-industrial complex”—and a fierce supporter of Palestinian rights. She said that, when it comes to Israel’s assault on Gaza, she would not hesitate to tell Donald Trump to his face: “Genocide was enabled and resourced by American money.”

Elected as an independent who challenged candidates backed by Ireland’s two major center-right parties, Connolly will hold the largely ceremonial—but often influential—presidential post as an outspoken official who observers from across the political spectrum predict will serve as the most left-wing president in Irish history.

The result drew note from beyond the borders of Ireland—with former British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn hailing “a landslide victory for humanity and for hope”—and offered at least a few lessons for progressives in the United States.

Connolly won the presidency after a whirlwind election campaign that united Ireland’s disparate leftist parties, attracted thousands of volunteers, and overcame determined efforts to “smear the bejaysus out of her” by establishment politicians and media outlets. And it wasn’t even close. She swept to victory, beating her nearest rival by nearly 35 points.

“It is the first time that the left has won a majority of votes in a national election,” declared Irish parliamentarian Paul Murphy, an anti-austerity campaigner and leading figure in the People Before Profit party that backed Connolly. “This was not a narrow victory either; Catherine won the largest percentage and largest total vote of any presidential candidate in history.”

Current Issue

May 2026 Issue

Murphy hailed the result as “a watershed moment” that saw unprecedented left unity and a dramatic decline in support for the major parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, that have historically dominated Irish politics. Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, whose party backed Connolly, described the result from Saturday’s election as a “game changer” for her party, for the left, and for supporters of the vision of a united Ireland that Connolly and Sinn Féin have championed. “When we come together, when we work collaboratively, when we show up for each other, we can win,” said McDonald.

Now that she has won, Connolly, a 68-year-old lawyer and clinical psychologist, feminist, and bicycling parliamentarian from Galway, is still being dismissed by the political elites who opposed her candidacy. They point to the fact that the Irish president has few official powers as compared to Ireland’s prime minister.

But Connolly, who has a long record of shaping debates from her position as an independent parliamentarian, and whose candidacy generated Bernie Sanders–style enthusiasm among young voters, says, “The Presidency, we are told, is largely symbolic. But symbols matter. And actions taken under those symbols matter even more. I believe the President should be a unifying presence—a steady hand, yes, but also a spark. A reminder of what is possible. A moral compass in a world increasingly driven by profit and spectacle. A voice for those too often silenced. That is the role I seek to play.”

Connolly’s determination to clear space for a politics based on moral values—“Not Left versus Right, but right vs wrong”—allowed her to appeal to the sort of disenfranchised voters who have surrendered to right-wing populism in many European countries and the United States

That appeal was rooted in her sincerity and her willingness to speak truth to power—both in Ireland and on a global stage, where Irish presidents such as Mary Robinson and outgoing President Michael D. Higgins have proven to be uniquely engaged and often influential figures.

Like Sanders in the US, Connolly leveraged her history of serving as an independent leftist—rather than a major-party insider—to build a coalition that had previously seemed impossible. While past elections had seen candidates of smaller parties on the left competing with one another, she won initial support from Ireland’s Social Democrats and Greens, from the People Before Profit–Solidarity movement and the Labour Party. Eventually, Sinn Féin, the largest party on the left, which many had expected to run its own candidate, got on board—providing a powerful boost to the surging campaign.

Ireland is a small country, but it often captures the international imagination. And when past presidents, such as Robinson and Higgins, have spoken, the world has listened. It is a good bet that Catherine Connolly will be heard too—as will her message that voters in Ireland, and around the world, are rightly fed up with politics as usual. “People are tired—tired of being unheard, unseen, uncertain. Tired of promises broken, of a social fabric fraying,” she says. People, argues Connolly, seek a politics not just focused on what is “but about what it could be,” a politics “not driven by fear, but by hope. Not shaped by division, but by shared dreams.”