The headline of the election of the new Uachtarán na hÉireann is of course, the extraordinary election of Catherine Connolly herself. Her pretty flawless campaign demonstrated not only her principles but also an unexpected and astonishing ability to keep a ball in the air. We have maintained the tradition, now more than thirty years of old, of keeping the Presidency for thoughtful Liberal-to-Left types, while sending charlatans and criminals into Government Offices. The cooperation of the populist, social democratic and socialist Left with elements of the Liberal Right who like to dress up as leftists, has been a runaway electoral success. 

And how the Partitionist Elites hate her success! The implosion of one candidate of the Right, the strange disappearance of the other—even as she theoretically engaged in a full campaign—left the Media reporting only on Connolly’s shocking misdemeanours: accepting the terms of being a barrister, for example, which involved taking on clients she was personally opposed to; hiring a sociolinguist with a criminal record who had already served her time; pointing out that Nato is a malevolent entity set on increasing violence and instability in the World, et cetera. The establishment voices were furious not only at having to report on a popular leftist politician, but also at the lack of anything else to report on, given how clear it was that Connolly was going to win. The Irish Times relished a turn at copying the English Guardian’s eruption of spite some years ago towards Corbyn. 

Despite the systematic disenfranchisement of citizens at home and abroad, Connolly gained the largest personal vote in Irish history. Macdara looks forward to seven years of truth-telling and a corresponding seven years of the Liberal Media agreeing with themselves that Connolly was an aberration, the result of the Irish people wandering into ballot boxes absentmindedly and casting a vote for the best candidate by accident.

Your correspondent would not however be himself if he failed to warn of the problems to come if this Alliance wishes to work together again: the Labour and Green sub-branches of the Partitionist Party cannot be trusted. Already they have shown how disloyal they are. If they are serious about a United Left then they will disband themselves; if they are serious about pretending to take part in a United Left then they will sit down and let others take the lead. It may be guessed how unlikely we are to see either of these options taken.