TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald should boycott the St Patrick’s Day visit to the White House this year due to the stance the US has taken with Israel, according to People Before Profit.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is due to make the trip stateside in March for the St Patrick’s Day celebrations. McDonald also travels to the US and Washington DC annually to mark the event.
Speaking to reporters at Leinster House today on the first day of the new Dáil term, People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said St Patrick’s Day is traditionally an occasion when the Taoiseach presents a bowl of shamrock to the US President.
The event is enormously symbolic, said Murphy.
“We think this year that should not happen. The US is the number one supporter of what is happening in Palestine right now. Without US support, it could not be happening,” he said, stating that it “crucial” that the government makes the right call.
“No politician should meet with Joe Biden or any members of the US administration for St Patrick’s Day “as long as this genocide is continuing, as long as the US is providing huge amounts of military and political support”.
He said Ireland has to send a signal to show that the vast majority of the people in the country oppose the actions of Israel.
The boycott of the visit and the handing over of the shamrock would “have an impact symbolically in the US and around the world,” added Murphy.
The Sinn Féin leader told The Journal in December that she would not be in favour of boycotting the St Patrick’s Day visit to the White House over US support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
When asked if the situation carries on into the new year, and the US continues its support for Israel’s bombardment of Palestine, would she be supportive of calls to boycott the traditional St Patrick’s Day visit to Washington DC, she said:
“I think you need to be very careful about any idea of boycotting, the Irish relationship with the United States is a very long standing one, a very valuable one, on many, many dimensions.
I don’t think boycotting an event like that would resolve the issue at hand in the Middle East.
“I think we need to be clear that that relationship for us is valuable, not least in terms of the evolution of our own peace process. But I certainly accept, and I have no doubt that the American system, if you listen to President Biden recently, he has acknowledged himself that Israel has lost the world.
“They have lost world opinion, for the simple reason that that no reasoned person, irrespective of the political spectrum they’re on, could witness that. Just stop, this has to stop.
“So I don’t think anybody should imagine that anybody in the American system is in any way confused about the Sinn Féin stance as regards Palestine, or indeed the Irish stance, the Irish public opinion on Palestine. And it’s interesting, if you look stateside, it’s different now. American public opinion is in a different place than it would have been saying a decade ago on this on this question,” said the Dublin Central TD.
McDonald said she spoke to the US ambassador to Ireland “quite recently” and other US officials where “the issue of Palestine did come up”.
“They know full well our analysis. I’m not shy about sharing it with them… America is very much on the right side of things in terms of the Irish peace process. I would like to see the United States very much on the right side of building peace in the Middle East,” she said.
Murphy said he hopes that Sinn Féin changes its position on the matter.
The People Before TD said the party changed its position on expelling the Israeli ambassador, stating that if enough pressure comes the grassroots, he would be hopeful that Sinn Féin would shift its position.
“That in turn would add pressure onto the government to change their position,” he concluded.
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