The leader of Ireland’s Social Democrats party has announced the birth of a baby daughter on the day of the country’s general election.
Holly Cairns, who is standing for re-election in the Cork South-West constituency, posted on Instagram: “She’s here. We are completely in love with her.”
One of her followers responded: “What a day to land. Her timing is incredible.” And said: “Polling day baby. Is she getting Polly as middle name?”
Cairns announced that she was pregnant in June. She remained leader during her pregnancy, but the party’s deputy leader, Cian O’Callaghan, represented her at a number of pre-election events, including a national televised debate.
The Social Democrats are one of the smallest parties in the Dáil with six seats, but are considered a potential coalition partner if Sinn Féin wins an authoritative majority in Friday’s election.
At 35, Cairns is the youngest leader of any political party in Ireland, pipping even the prime minister, Simon Harris, who was 37 when he took over the leadership of Fine Gael from Leo Varakdar last year.
Going into hospital for a checkup on Thursday, Cairns, who had missed the TV leaders’ debate because of the late stage of her pregnancy, urged her supporters to go and vote.
“We don’t have the [same] firepower as the bigger parties,” she said, adding “the next 24 hours are critical” – not realising how that applied to her personally too.
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Her Social Democrat colleague Jennifer Whitmore told journalists on Wednesday: “Women have babies … and we have to support them if we want more women to run.”