By Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN (Reuters) -Ireland looks set to elect a veteran independent left-wing lawmaker backed by the main opposition parties as president on Friday in what would be a bruising rebuke to the recently re-elected centre-right coalition.

Catherine Connolly, 68, a leading pro-Palestinian voice in parliament and long-time critic of the European Union in one of the bloc’s most pro-EU member states, holds a wide opinion poll lead over the sole government-backed candidate.

Her election would continue a recent trend of putting a more independent voice in the largely ceremonial role. It would also reinvigorate the left-wing opposition, led by Sinn Fein, barely a year after the party’s bid to break the governing Fianna Fail and Fine Gael parties’ century-long grip on power fell sho

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