Ireland will elect a new president on October 24. But not all Irish people will get to vote. Residents of Northern Ireland are not eligible. A Northern Irish candidate can stand in the election \u2013 indeed, the Belfast-born Mary McAleese served as president from 1997-2011 \u2013 but not vote for themselves, unless they live in the Republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This time, one of the two remaining candidates in the race is an Ulster Protestant. Heather Humphreys is a Presbyterian from county Monaghan \u2013 one of three Ulster counties that were not included in the formation of Northern Ireland. She is, therefore, a \u201cnortherner\u201d \u2013 albeit not from Northern Ireland<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Humphreys has sought to use this dualism \u2013 being \u201cof Ulster\u201d, but also \u201cof the Irish republic\u201d \u2013 to suggest that she understands both political traditions on the island, Ulster unionist and Irish nationalist. But this pitch, and more specifically Humphreys\u2019s religious heritage, have also been turned against her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Humphreys is standing for Fine Gael, a centre-right Irish party which is part of the current coalition government in Dublin. Jim Gavin, representing Fianna F\u00e1il, the other centrist party in the coalition, was forced to withdraw from the race over a controversy involving his personal financial dealings. This has left Humphreys facing just Catherine Connolly, an independent candidate but former Labour party member who is backed by most of the left-leaning parties in Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Humphreys describes herself as a republican, but also acknowledges her unionist heritage. Her grandfather signed the Ulster Covenant in 1912. This pledge \u2013 signed by thousands of other Ulster Protestants, some in their own blood \u2013 committed them to use \u201call means which may be found necessary\u201d<\/a> to resist Irish independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Humphreys victory would not entirely be a first, however. Indeed, the very first president of Ireland, Douglas Hyde, was Protestant. He was also the perfect candidate to inaugurate the office, which is largely ceremonial, but symbolically powerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A poet and eminent scholar, Hyde was apolitical, and yet had played a crucial role in the \u201cde-Anglicisation\u201d of Ireland \u2013 the effort to revive Irish culture, and particularly the native language, corroded by centuries of British rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having a Protestant as its first president also provided a riposte to those who claimed that independent Ireland was a confessional state. The Catholic church was immensely powerful, but Hyde\u2019s presidency suggested an intention to uphold the non-sectarian ideology of republicanism first articulated by Wolfe Tone<\/a> \u2013 one of the many Protestant leaders celebrated in the story of Irish nationalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Humphreys has also played a part in this story. In 2016, she was the government minister in charge of the centenary celebrations of the Easter rising<\/a> \u2013 a rebellion against British rule that sparked a renewed struggle for independence, culminating in the establishment of the Irish state in 1921.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The centenary celebrations had the potential to reopen old wounds. But as an Ulster Protestant, Humphreys could claim to understand unionists\u2019 sensitivities, and her handling of the celebrations was broadly deemed a success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last major symbol of Catholic power in Ireland was toppled when voters chose to end the constitutional ban on abortion in 2018<\/a>. A referendum allowing gay marriage had passed three years earlier, and liberals celebrated what they could now claim was truly the secular republic imagined by Tone. So why has Humphreys\u2019s religion become a point of controversy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In truth, the question has been raised indirectly, but no less powerfully, by journalists revealing that her husband was previously a member of the Orange Order. This institution is more associated with Northern Ireland and sectarian conflict there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are members among the small number of Protestants in the Irish republic, but the Orange Order is quite different in character there, primarily providing a means of association amongst a minority community<\/a>, and with none of the triumphalist, provocative marching witnessed in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nonetheless, some people in the republic will associate the Orange Order with sectarianism. They may also feel it is fair game to raise this link to a presidential candidate who has suggested that her heritage would allow her to build bridges with unionists.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe place of religion in modern Ireland<\/h2>\n\n\n\n