""Voting 'no' in relation to a treaty is not a negative thing," Ms Connolly said. "It's indicating the concerns that I and lots of people had. And, in fact, in voting 'no' we had to vote a second time on Nice and on Lisbon and we were given absolute, solemn promises in relation to our neutrality that seem to mean nothing at the moment.""
"Ms Connolly also accused Fine Gael of engaging in a campaign that is "engendering fear". "What's happening here in the last few weeks is a policy of fear, of diminishing the candidate," she said. "And I say you're actually not just diminishing me, you're diminishing the role of the presidency, and you're also diminishing the people on the ground who are all actively canvassing for me, actively looking for hope.""
Catherine Connolly confirmed voting "no" to the Lisbon and Nice treaties and recalled canvassing against Lisbon while not remembering canvassing against other treaties. She described voting "no" as a way to register concerns and said repeated referendums included solemn promises on neutrality that now seem meaningless. She warned that Ireland risks treating the Triple Lock as not central to neutrality. She accused Fine Gael of running a negative, fear-engendering campaign about her foreign policy positions on the US, NATO, the Middle East and Russia and said that tactic diminishes the presidency and supporters.
Read at Irish Independent
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