Kerry’s Gaeltachts saw Connolly’s authenticity on presidential trail claims councillor

By Alastair Tibbs, The Kerryman

Kerry’s Gaeltachts backed Catherine Connolly significantly more in the presidential election than the rest of the county, with the Irish language being a huge factor according to a local councillor.

Polling data showed that, on average, Gaeltacht areas voted over 70 per cent in favour of Ms Connolly, while the rest of the county polled at 62 per cent on average.

As the dust settled on Ireland’s 15th presidential election, Dingle-based Sinn Féin councillor Robert Brosnan said Irish language had been a major influence in the way the peninsula’s Gaeltacht had voted.

During one presidential debate on RTÉ, Ms Humphreys was grilled about her previous failed pledge to learn Irish by presenter Cormac Ó hEadhra, who himself is a gaeilgeoir. Ms Humphreys previously pledged to learn Irish when she became the became the Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Minister in 2014.

Cllr Brosnan said that Irish speakers hadn’t forgotten this oath and cited the old Irish phrase "Glaine ár gcroí, Neart ár ngéag, Agus beart de réir ár mbriathar" – roughly translated as "the purity of our hearts, the strength of our limbs and our word is our bond".

“When your word isn’t your bond, you lose the trust of people,” he said.

“Catherine’s word is good when it comes to culture, language, standing up for downtrodden people all over the world. She stands for peace and is totally against violence, those are things that hit home with people.

“But your word being your bond as an Irish person is a big plus because she is principled and I don’t think she’ll be beholden to anybody as a president. She’ll be very independently minded.

“She comes from a place of truly caring rather than the lip service that was offered by other candidates gave. People see through that and she is a genuine person.”

Gaeltacht areas also stood out as having half the number of spoilt votes than the rest of the county, with on average only 13 per box. Turn-out was also marginally higher, with a Sinn Féin tally sheet showing a 42 per cent turnout in Gaeltacht areas, three per cent higher than the rest of the county.

Cllr Brosnan said another big factor was Ms Connolly’s visit to the peninsula a week before the voters went to the polls. Her appearance in Dingle and other places around the Gaeltacht gave a “big lift” to her campaign locally, and left many impressed with her command of the Irish language.

“She’s a very personable, she took a lot of time to speak to everybody and stood for photographs. She made that human connection with people that sometimes doesn’t come across when you read articles about her,” said Cllr Brosnan.

“She even came up to Lispole Hall and met kids, the youth club and the football team that were training at the time. That was after a long day’s canvassing, nearing 8:30pm, and she took the time to go that extra mile. It made all the difference locally.”