Mary Lou McDonald confirms there'll be no Sinn Féin candidate in Presidential race

Sinn Féin has finally announced that it will support Independent candidate Catherine Connolly in the Presidential Election, rather than sending forward a party member.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald confirmed the party's position on Saturday, 20 September following a meeting of the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle in Dublin, just days before the cut off point for official candidates to be named.

The announcement comes after months of speculation on whether or not the party would run one of its own members or throw its support behind Connolly as part of a unified cross-party approach to the election, including the Social Democrats, Labour, the Green Party and People Before Profit-Solidarity.

Some had suspected that if Sinn Féin had decided to run its own candidate, that finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty would have been the most likely in the running alongside public expenditure spokesperson Mairéad Farrell.

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Speaking on Saturday after the announcement, Mary Lou McDonald said: "We met this morning and the party leadership voted to support Catherine Connolly for President. This followed extensive consultation with our elected representatives and wider party nationally.

"We have two priorities to get Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael out of government and to keep them out of the Áras. Today’s decision allows us to do that. This is a big decision to support a candidate from outside our membership and work with the combined opposition to collectively take on the government. To give people a clear choice. To give hope. It is now game on in the campaign to elect Catherine Connolly as Uachtarán na hÉireann."

Connolly has welcomed the support from Sinn Féin, saying: "I welcome the announcement that Sinn Féin are backing my candidacy for president of Ireland. I thank Mary Lou McDonald for her leadership and I’m heartened by their support.

"I believe the coalition of left, centre left parties and independents backing my run for president is a welcome change for Irish politics. However if I am to be successful I will be a president for all Irish people, of all political persuasion or none. See you on the road."

As it stands, there are three confirmed candidates in the race with Catherine Connolly, Fine Gael's Heather Humphreys and Fianna Fáil's Jim Gavin.