Who will be Ireland’s “first gentleman” accompanying his wife – either Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys or Independent candidate Catherine Connolly – into Áras an Uachtárain following Friday’s presidential ballot?
Eric Humphreys, husband of Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys
Heather Stewart met her future husband, Eric Humphreys, at a dance in a local hall in Co Monaghan in 1979. She noticed that he was a good dancer.
As he graduated from dance partner to life partner, the private Humphreys has remained a steadfast supporter of his wife’s political career.
Both almost forgot their 38th wedding anniversary earlier this month when it fell in the middle of the chaos of the presidential campaign.
RM Block
Humphreys has long been a source of counsel and support to his wife. When she was first approached by the late Seymour Crawford, the local Fine Gael politician, who asked her to run for local politics in 2003, she sought her husband’s advice.
“Well, opportunities come to pass, not to pause,” he had told her.
Over the course of her career, Humphreys would always tell her that if she wanted to go for something, then she should.
The media-shy Humphreys was startled to find himself at the centre of a story, at his wife’s campaign launch last month.
He was questioned about his former membership of the Orange Order by a journalist at the event and reportedly went into a nearby toilet to avoid the queries.
Fine Gael later confirmed that he is not a member of the Orange Order and “has not been a member for almost 50 years, since before he ever met Heather”.
[ ‘Gotcha’ claims about Heather Humphreys’ husband have no place in modern IrelandOpens in new window ]
Speaking to The Irish Times last week, Heather Humphreys said that her husband “went with his father, the same as many, many young Protestants did at the time, to join an organisation that was about cultural identity”.
“It was about protecting their culture and their heritage, that’s what it was about,” she said, and added that after the Troubles started, July 12th – the order’s annual day of celebration – started to adopt a different meaning.
The couple were married in 1987. They had two daughters, Eva and Tara. By the time Heather first ran for national politics, Eva and Tara were teenagers.
Tara was in her Leaving Certificate year when her mother ran for the Dáil in 2011. Eric faced considerable teenage angst when he collected her off the bus from a teenage disco in a family car plastered with stickers of her mother’s face.
Although described as a private person, Humphreys is a significant figure in local farming circles in Aghabog, a townland not far from the Border, between Clones and Cootehill.
He hails from a big farming family and his wife’s own family had been heavily involved in the local Irish Farmers’ Association.
He was a long-standing member of the cattle breeding society the Irish Hereford Society and became its vice-president in 2004. He was involved in campaigning in his own way when he was part of a deal between the society and the large beef processing firm Foyle Valley to set up a new scheme for farmers selling meat to the company.
Humphreys is a well-known figure at the Ballybay Mart Annual show, where he was often tasked with judging pedigree bulls. He is a pedigree Hereford cattle breeder and currently has 35 cattle on his 100-acre farm.
Humphreys has always been an active community figure, either through the local Lions Club or as a regular player of the local parish lottery.
His favourite film is The Field because, he told reporters at his wife’s campaign launch, it captured the truth that “the land has to come first”.
When Mairead McGuinness pulled out of the campaign on health grounds in August, expectation started to build that Heather Humphreys would replace her, but there was concern in her camp about what would happen to the family farm should she win the election.
“The reality of farming is that when a cow needs calving, even if the Christmas dinner is on the table, the calf has to come first. That’s the reality of life as a farmer,” Eric Humphreys told the Sunday Independent last month.
He added: “When I leave the land, I’ll be dead.”
Brian McEnery, husband of Independent candidate Catherine Connolly
Brian McEnery’s life changed significantly in early 2013 when the active 60-year-old suffered a stroke while carrying out gardening work for the local residents’ association in the Claddagh area of Galway city.
McEnery, Catherine Connolly’s husband, spent three weeks in an acute stroke unit and 10 weeks at Merlin Park Hospital in Galway as part of his recovery.
The former schoolteacher went on to attend the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dublin for a further five weeks where he underwent intense speech and physical therapy.
While the stroke had a big impact on his life, the Clare-born Galway resident did not let it define him.
He remains a dedicated community worker to this day, continuing to be active in the Claddagh area, even as his wife is contesting the presidential election.
The media-shy former woodwork teacher went so far as to attend the recent annual general meeting of the Claddagh residents’ association where fellow residents greeted him as the “first man”.
McEnery has been married to Connolly for 33 years and they have two adult sons: Brian – who works as a teacher in Galway – and Stephen.
The couple, who have been long-time residents of the Claddagh, keep their relationship private but McEnery occasionally accompanies his wife to public events. He was recently photographed with her attending the annual blessing of the boats and the bay in the Claddagh Basin in August.
A member of the area’s residents’ association, who did not want to be named, described McEnery as a man who enjoys being in the background and said he would bring a different style to the role than Sabina Higgins.
“Will he be like Sabina? Brian tends to be in the background, to be honest. He tends to have Catherine out in front and he supports her 100 per cent,” he said.
“He will get involved to a certain extent, but he generally lets her be the main person. He was at the most recent agm, and we slagged him about being the ‘first man’, or whatever he will be called.”
The residents’ association member described him as “a very modest person and very community-minded”.
“He will be supportive from the wings. Catherine was always a strong voice. They say that behind every strong man there is a strong woman – and vice versa.”
Born just outside Ennis in Co Clare, McEnery moved to Galway with his family in 1988. One of five children, he played football and hurling as a child and as an adult became a keen motorcyclist, driving a Harley-Davidson.
He spent 25 years teaching at Garbally College in Ballinasloe and a further nine years at St Joseph’s Patrician College, known as “the Bish”, in Galway city.
When he retired in 2009, he became active in community groups such as the local men’s shed and the residents’ association.
Before his stroke he also took part in four Dublin marathons and triathlons, and completed a number of long-distance cycling trips with his wife.
