{"id":14078,"date":"2025-10-20T10:54:41","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T09:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=14078"},"modified":"2025-10-20T11:19:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T10:19:52","slug":"statement-from-holly-cairns-td-on-fine-gaels-negative-campaigning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/statement-from-holly-cairns-td-on-fine-gaels-negative-campaigning\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement from Holly Cairns TD on Fine Gael\u2019s negative campaigning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cFine Gael sunk to new depths at the weekend with their presidential candidate attacking Catherine Connolly\u2019s work as a barrister and the party putting out a Trumpian social media attack ad on the same issue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is an essential principle of our legal system that barristers are not associated with their clients and that barristers must accept cases in their area of speciality. The duty of confidentiality that barristers owe to their clients is also at the core of that professional relationship.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is clear that Fine Gael have nothing positive to say about their own campaign, and their vision for the Presidency, and are instead resorting to mudslinging in a desperate attempt to damage Catherine Connolly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, the positive and inclusive campaign that Catherine Connolly is running will not be derailed by these cheap and vicious attacks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFine Gael are clearly in panic mode and are so intent on lashing out that they have not noticed that they are part of a circular firing squad \u2013 damaging their own candidate and their credibility.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis election will be over on Saturday, perhaps then they will realise that the only ones covered in mud are themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>October 20th, 2025<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cFine Gael sunk to new depths at the weekend with their presidential candidate attacking Catherine Connolly\u2019s work as a barrister and the party putting out a Trumpian social media attack ad on the same issue. \u201cIt is an essential principle of our legal system that barristers are not associated with their clients and that barristers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[400,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holly-cairns","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - 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