The White House in Washington, DC lit up green for St. Patrick's Day in 2021.Getty Images

The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP)  will not attend any St Patrick’s Day events in Washington this year, party leader Claire Hanna MP announced on Tuesday, February 11.

“Last year the SDLP made the decision not to send anyone to Washington for St Patrick’s Day as we could not endorse the US Government while it armed and supported the bombardment of Gaza," Hanna said in a statement on Tuesday.

"We hope the fragile ceasefire will deliver a lasting peace and the return of hostages to their families, but the rhetoric of Donald Trump, around the displacement and ethnic cleansing of millions of people, is absolutely beyond the pale.

"We can’t in good conscience attend parties hosted in that context."

Hanna continued: “The SDLP, and the island as a whole, has many friends in America who we will continue to engage with outside the trappings of St Patrick’s Day events. US politicians, investors and the Irish diaspora have been a positive influence here and we will retain links, particularly with those trying to resist and combat the overreach of the current administration.

“We understand the importance of the relationship between the US and this island, but the politics of the current US administration mean it is essential that we stand up for what is right, and when it comes to Gaza, what is wrong.

“The SDLP’s values are incompatible with what we are seeing and hearing and we won’t be endorsing it on St Patrick’s Day.”

 The SDLP took a similar stance last year during the Biden administration. Ahead of St. Patrick's Day 2024, the party's then-leader Colum Eastwood MP said the SDLP would not take part in "celebratory" St. Patrick's Day events at the White House, but would send a delegation to Washington DC "to engage with senior lawmakers, Irish Americans, and Palestinian Americans to make the case for an end to violence."

Also like last year, an online petition has been launched urging all politicians across the island of Ireland not to attend St. Patrick's Day events at the White House.

"We call on all political parties on the island of Ireland to listen to the people and not go to Washington on St. Patrick's Day to shake hands soaked with the blood of Palestinians," the petition on ActNowNI states.

As of Tuesday evening, the petition has more than 3,200 signatures in support.

Calls for a boycott intensified last week after US President Donald Trump said that "the US will take over Gaza." Human Rights Watch afterward said such a move would "amount to an alarming escalation of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza,"

Responding to Trump's "plans," Ireland's People Before Profit (PBP) party urged all Irish politicians to not attend St. Patrick's Day events at the White House this year.

"It is absolutely critical that we do not allow the normalizing of genocide, of ethnic cleansing, and of increased oppression," TD Ruth Coppinger of PBP said in the Dáil on February 5.

Meanwhile, there is speculation that the St. Patrick's Day events at the White House might be scaled back under the new Trump administration as Republicans are reportedly "struggling to see what they get" out of it.