Heather Humphreys: From a rural farm on the border to a presidential bid

Much of the focus in Northern Ireland has been on Heather Humphreys, a Presbyterian who was raised on a rural farm near the border and became a popular minister who made a bid for the Irish presidency.

She was well behind Catherine Connolly when the last polls of the campaign were conducted this week.

The 64-year-old mother-of-two Ms Humphreys met her husband Eric, a farmer, at a local dance, and they have several grandchildren including James, who was born in the weeks before polling day.

She grew up on a farm outside a village called Drum, located at the Cavan-Monaghan border.

She, her parents and two younger brothers lived on the farm with her paternal grandparents.

From a young age they fed calves, dug potatoes, and handled hay bales, which her father made smaller so she and her siblings could lift them.

Her grandfather signed the Ulster Covenant, a document opposing Home Rule in 1912, and her father was a member of the Orange Order.

She said she has a unique understanding of different traditions on the island of Ireland, and has described her experience of growing up near the border.

She attended a small primary school, which had one teacher and around 15 pupils, in Drum.

She said when the Troubles started, her mother told her before she attended secondary school to "keep your head down, keep your mouth shut and don't be bringing trouble on your family".

She said she became a bank manager and in 1999 became the manager of Cootehill Credit Union, which gave her the freedom to get involved in politics.

She has served as a minister for the arts, heritage and the Gaeltacht, as minister for business for more than two years, and as minister for social protection and rural and community development.

She has described the hot school meals programme, which gives primary school pupils a meal a day, as one of her proudest achievements.

She also led the sensitively-handled centenary celebrations of the 1916 Easter Rising.