‘Irish unity already underway’: Rose Conway-Walsh on Catherine Connolly’s landslide win
Catherine Connolly gathered 65.84pc of the total vote in County Mayo. Out of 42,592 valid votes, Ms Connolly received 28,039.
Reflecting on the result, Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh said her first response was one of gratitude to the people who backed Ms Connolly, and to the people who “saw through the dirty tricks campaign that was being led against her.”
6,311 ballot papers were deemed invalid in Mayo. Deputy Conway-Walsh said she found it disheartening to see efforts encouraging voters to spoil their vote.
“I thought of the suffragette women, and women who fought and died to get a vote. But, we must listen to people who feel they weren’t represented on the ballot paper, and certainly I will be acutely doing that in Mayo.”
Speaking at the count centre in Castlebar, the Sinn Féin TD said she was excited about Ms Connolly’s commitment to preparing for Irish unity.
“That is critically important for me and for many people who canvassed for Catherine here in Mayo as well,” she said.
“We are very much looking forward to preparing for Irish unity, for reunification, for having a new and united Ireland that leaves nobody behind.”
Asked about the potential timeline for reunification, she said the process was already underway.
Deputy Conway-Walsh was critical of Taoiseach Micheál Martin, saying he represented one of the main obstacles to progress on unity.
“To me, one of the biggest blocks to Irish unity is one individual – that is Micheál Martin,” she said.
“That does not say for all of Fianna Fáil, there are members within Fianna Fáil who believe in Irish unity and reunification, and I hope to see them coming to the fore as well, and the individuals within Fine Gael as well, because I do think Irish reunification is much bigger than any one party.”
Deputy Conway-Walsh said she looked forward to working with Ms Connolly to turn the vision into a reality.
Turning to the upcoming Galway West by-election, she confirmed Sinn Féin would contest the seat.
“We will obviously be turning to Galway West. We will be doing our very best to win that by-election. We have several candidates that we can choose from, and we will be looking to win that seat.”
Deputy Conway-Walsh, who was among those tipped to secure Sinn Féin’s nomination, said the party’s decision to align with the left-wing parties and support Ms Connolly was the right one.
“I did give it serious consideration, but it never felt 100pc right to me. It was a great honour for me to be considered, but now was not the time, and Catherine was the best candidate.”
This article has been funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.