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Investigates Investigates Money Diaries The Journal TV Climate Crisis Cost of Living Road Safety Newsletters Temperature Check Inside the Newsroom The Journal Investigates Daft.ie Property Allianz Home The 42 Sport TG4 Entertainment The Explainer A deep dive into one big news story Sport meets news, current affairs, society & pop culture have your say Or create a free account to join the discussion Advertisement More Stories From top-left clockwise: Gareth Sheridan; Joanna Donnelly; Kieran McCarthy; Nick Delehanty Looking Back Four one-time Áras hopefuls on what they'd do differently if they could turn the clock back What might have been? We caught up with Gareth Sheridan, Kieran McCarthy, Nick Delehanty and Joanna Donnelly. 7.16am, 26 Oct 2025 Share options THIS YEAR’S PRESIDENTIAL election saw the fewest number of candidates since 1990. Only three candidates made it on to the ballot but it was a two-horse race following the dramatic withdrawal of Jim Gavin, who had been Fianna Fáil’s candidate. In a recent Ipsos/B&A poll, some 55% of respondents said they would favour a change to the constitution to make it easier to get on the ballot. Earlier this week, The Journal caught up with some of the would-be candidates to find out what they made of the campaign and ask what changes they’d like to see to the process last time around. Of the four we spoke to, Gareth Sheridan, Kieran McCarthy and Nick Delehanty all pursued a nomination via the local authority route - seeking the backing of four councils in order to secure a spot on the ballot. Joanna Donnelly, who we also caught up with, briefly planned a tilt at the Áras via the same method but called off her campaign after just a few days. Could you have done anything differently to get on the ballot? Sheridan is a pharma tycoon and the former CEO of US-based company Nutriband who secured the backing of two local authorities. He told The Journal his campaign had “spent the better part of a year building relationships” and said there was a “very definite and unprecedented block at government level”. And while Sheridan pointed to scheduling issues, with several local authorities across the country looking to hear from potential candidates on the same day, he said the most pressing issue was the “major parties enacting a block”. Similarly, Councillor Kieran McCarthy, a former Lord Mayor of Cork who managed to get the support of one council, said that he would like to see a wider variety of nominations from local authorities. “It would’ve been great if other people, for example myself or Gareth (Sheridan) got through,” he said. Nick Delehanty, a 35-year-old doggy day care owner, online campaigner and former lawyer, said that there’s “nothing” he could have done to get onto the ballot as independent candidates like him were “blocked”. Delahanty previously ran in local and general elections and is a prominent critic online of public spending on international protection. He told The Journal: “Had we hired most professional people in the world, it was never happening, they blocked us … There’s nothing I could do differently.” There are two routes by which a candidate can get on the ballot. Candidates must either be nominated by 20 members of the Oireachtas (which includes TDs and Senators) or by at least four local authorities. In September, Fine Gael instructed its councillors to oppose the nomination of Independent candidates through the local authority route. And while Fianna Fáil didn’t issue such a diktat, Gareth Sheridan has said the party leadership was “more covert” in “encouraging” its councillors to block independents. Should the nomination process be reformed? Sheridan told The Journal that the council route to be nominated “is not fit for purpose as it currently stands”. He added that if it isn’t “seriously looked at” it could spell the “end of independent candidates going forward”. He also remarked that his campaign “started a conversation on the nomination process, which a lot of people now probably agree is not fit for purpose in its current state”. Meanwhile, Delehanty remarked that the “system has always worked until now”. “Up until now, the parties engaged in the system in very good faith and it allowed avenues for independent candidates to get on to the ballot,” said Delehanty. But now they’ve cracked the whip and they’ve exposed the flaws in the system. He called for another avenue to getting on the ballot, such as the endorsement of 50 or more individual councillors or 10,000 signatures from the public. However Joanna Donnelly, who called off a planned campaign after a short-lived bid for nominations, feels the process is fair. “We have an opportunity to vote for councillors to represent our views. Then potential candidates have an opportunity to canvas those councillors for votes. That’s democracy. That’s the way it should work,” she said. She added, however, that the election campaigns should be more focused on what the candidates would do as president, “as opposed to being a reward for politicians for the work they’ve done in the past – almost like another pension”. Advertisement Thoughts on the Connolly and Humphreys campaigns McCarthy said he found both campaigns “quite bland”. He identifies as a centrist, but he doesn’t feel Humphreys effectively communicated her ideas. He said she had been pushing a “smear campaign” against her opponent, Connolly, which has left a bad taste in his mouth. It’s one thing attacking somebody, but what are you going to do? Delehanty praised Connolly’s campaign for “never swerving off course” and for “staying solid and true”. However, he added that a “good campaign could have beaten Connolly”. He described the Humphreys’s campaign as “soulless” and “lacking any sort of vision or ideas”. Meanwhile, Sheridan remarked that Connolly “won a lot of voters with her keepy-uppy skills” and joked that his household has dubbed her “Cristiano Connolly”. However, he said there isn’t a “vast difference” between her and Humphreys, leaving voters with an “underwhelming choice”. They’re not hugely dissimilar on major issues – you can try and argue the case that they are, but it’s not a complete black and white difference. Donnelly’s main gripe with the candidates is their use of posters in the campaigns, which she says “goes against any claim to environmental responsibility”. Despite this, Donnelly says she’s voting for Connolly, citing her disappointment in Humphreys’s poor Irish language skills. Gavin’s doomed campaign Delehanty compared Gavin’s short-lived campaign to a quote Brian O’Driscoll once gave in a press conference. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad. He said: “Just because somebody is high profile in one realm of GAA does not mean that they can go through the rigour of a presidential or any sort of election campaign.” In some recent elections, parties have been running “celebrity candidates” who are then “hidden away”, said Delehanty. However, it is impossible to “hide” in the presidential campaign and Gavin was a “fish out of water, in many ways, being asked about very hot topics like Gaza, housing, and the cost of living”. Sheridan meanwhile said it’s “unfortunate how it turned out for Jim”. However, he said it was “Fianna Fáil’s failure” and that the “whole election has been poorly managed from the government parties”. Could you have won and would you run again? Donnelly is under no illusions that she would have been successful had she fought longer. “As I said when I withdrew my request to seek the nominations, I wasn’t prepared for this campaign,” she said. She hasn’t ruled out another bid in future, as public service is still a passion of hers. McCarthy is unsure how far he would have gone if he got the necessary nominations, but he plans to run again in 2032. He believes a weakness of his campaign was not gathering support from councillors earlier, which he intends to correct next time. Sheridan says it’s “hard to know” if he could have won. “I can’t say I was confident necessarily,” he added, “but I’ll definitely say we were as prepared as anyone, as prepared as Catherine and Heather, to compete”. When asked if he would run again, Sheridan remarked that “seven years is a long time” but that he would like to see the process changed in the interim. I would not like to turn around and say no independent should ever try go that route if there isn’t a change, but I strongly believe this needs to be looked at for the sake of the democracy of the country. Delehanty said his message was “totally different” to the others, which would’ve been an advantage. “I’m a lot younger, I have a young family, I don’t own a home, I’m directly affected by the housing crisis,” he explained. “But whether I would have won or not is another question altogether and who knows?” When asked if he would run again, Delehanty remarked that he doesn’t know where he will be in seven years. He said he could be in a different elected office by then but also acknowledged that he may never be elected to a political office. However, he added that there might be a “different atmosphere” when the next presidential election rolls around and that even if there are no changes to the nomination process, the “parties may facilitate people onto the ballot, as they usually did”. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Support The Journal Mairead Maguire and Diarmuid Pepper Viewcomments Send Tip or Correction Embed this post To embed this post, copy the code below on your site Email “Four one-time Áras hopefuls on what they'd do differently if they could turn the clock back”. Recipient's Email Feedback on “Four one-time Áras hopefuls on what they'd do differently if they could turn the clock back”. 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Leave a commentcancel Newly created accounts can only comment using The Journal app. This is to add an extra layer of security to account creation. Download and sign into the app to continue. Access to the comments facility has been disabled for this user View our policy ⚠️ Duplicate comment Post Comment have your say Or create a free account to join the discussion Catherine Connolly gareth sheridan Heather Humphreys Looking Back Nick Delehanty Presidential Election stalled campaign News in 60 seconds Mind the App Opinion: The people of Dublin deserve a proper public transport app 11 mins ago Dumb move on mortgage interest relief shows how hard it is to stop ‘temporary’ spending Paul O'Donoghue 11 mins ago Talking tariffs Trump lands in Malaysia to kick off Asia tour ahead of meeting with China's Xi 23 mins ago good morning The clocks went back an hour last night - did you forget? ireland thinks Should the President criticise the government? New poll shows why people voted the way they did done and dusted Inside the campaign: 'I got 2,000 likes on a post about Catherine. That's when I knew it was big' Jane Matthews Premier League Liverpool’s Premier League title defence in tatters after defeat at Brentford Catherine Connolly will be the 10th President of Ireland How did your constituency vote? 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