Heather Humphreys: I Do Not Regret Running for President, but I Regret the Sectarian Undercurrent It Exposed

Heather Humphreys says she does not regret running for Ireland’s presidency. What she regrets is the sectarian undercurrent her campaign exposed.

A year ago, she stepped forward because of her love for the Republic and her commitment to uniting the island. But a minority, she says, tried to weaponise her identity as a Presbyterian woman raised on a rural Border farm. She and her family faced targeted sectarian abuse, malicious online smears and videos that attracted tens of thousands of views.

The attacks suggested that her religious and cultural tradition was inherently un-Irish or incompatible with modern civic life. Humphreys points out that her family has lived in Ireland for hundreds of years, longer than the United States has existed. Yet she was portrayed as less Irish because of her background, and her commitment to the country was questioned.

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If someone is not fluent in the Irish language, or comes from a particular faith tradition or cultural background, are they less Irish?

That experience left her asking whether Ireland has a hierarchy of Irishness. Does someone become less Irish if they are not fluent in the Irish language, or if they come from a particular faith or cultural tradition? She says she had believed the country had moved beyond such tribal prejudice. Instead, the abuse forced Protestant, unionist and loyalist communities to ask whether there is a place for them in the Republic, or whether the “new Ireland” still carries the prejudices of the old.

Humphreys argues that Ireland must break the culture of silence and denial by naming sectarianism immediately and without qualification. Social media platforms, she says, must also face accountability for amplifying vitriol through an ecosystem that profits from polarisation and lies. Irish and European digital regulation should be used against platforms hosting targeted abuse of public figures and their families.

She also points to education and shared cultural life. She welcomed the participation of Ulster Scots and unionist bands in the recent Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Belfast, which she described as a success. Ulster Scots bands have also long performed at the Annual Picnic in her home village of Drum and at the local St Patrick’s Day Parade in Cootehill. “If some people can’t get their heads around a picnic in Drum with a few accordion bands, then what chance do we stand when it comes to bigger, thornier questions?”

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If some people can’t get their heads around a picnic in Drum with a few accordion bands, then what chance do we stand when it comes to bigger, thornier questions?