Catherine Connolly’s landslide shakes Ireland’s establishment – but not its politics

Catherine Connolly won 64% of votes – an across-the-board sweep of villages and cities and, above all, the young. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA

Catherine Connolly’s landslide victory in Ireland’s presidential election is a stunning political feat that humiliates the establishment but does not signify a national swerve to the left.

There was nothing inevitable about her triumph, let alone its scale. In July, when she declared her candidacy, she was a one-woman act: an independent leftwing member of parliament from Galway who was unfamiliar to most voters.