Michelle O'Neill, the Vice President of Sinn Féin and First Minister of Northern Ireland, has defended her and Sinn Féin President TD Mary Lou McDonald's decision not to go to Washington, DC for St. Patrick's Day.
O'Neill and McDonald made the surprise announcement in a press conference in Dublin on Friday morning, saying that they won't be attending "in response to the call for the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza."
There have been calls for politicians across the island of Ireland to boycott the annual events in Washington, DC due to the US response in Gaza. Similar boycott calls were made last year during the Biden administration.
However, the calls for a boycott intensified after US President Donald Trump said he would like to see the people of Gaza "resettled" in other countries, such as Jordan or Egypt, and that the "US will take over Gaza."
Prior to Sinn Féin, the SDLP in Northern Ireland and People Before Profit in Ireland had both announced that they would not be attending.
On Friday, Sinn Féin faced down some criticism for their decision, with a senior Government representative telling the PA that the boycott would not "help anybody in Palestine."
Taoiseach Micheál Martin, the head of Fianna Fail, said on Friday: "Sinn Féin does what it always does, engages in politics."
The Taoiseach reiterated that he will be traveling to Washington DC for St. Patrick's Day, saying that he has a "responsibility" to continue engagement with the US administration.
The PA noted on Friday that the Taoiseach has yet to receive a formal invitation to a bilateral meeting with Trump at the White House, but the Taoiseach has said he expects the meeting to go ahead.
Speaking on RTÉ later on Friday, McDonald said Sinn Féin was not making any call for the Taoiseach not to attend a bilateral meeting with Trump, instead encouraging him to use the opportunity to share the views of the Irish people.
McDonald said if she were Taoiseach, she would be going.
Equally as critical was Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), whose leader Gavin Robinson MP said Sinn Féin's decision not to go is "short-sighted and counterproductive" and turning its back on the opportunity is "reckless."
O'Neill, Northern Ireland's first nationalist First Minister, has defended her decision.
Speaking with the PA later on Friday, O'Neill said that while she endeavors to be "First Minister for everybody," there are times "when political leaders are tasked to make a decision, and I had to make a decision, and I believe that the right decision at this time is to come down the side of humanity."
O'Neill said she couldn't "in good conscience" travel to the US to be part of the shamrock reception in the White House "at a time where the new US administration is actually actively threatening to remove Palestinian people from their land, to seize their land, and they’ve very much moved away from a two-state solution.
“I couldn’t in all conscience make that trip at this time."
She continued: "I just think that there are times whenever we’ll all reflect, and certainly whenever my grandchildren ask me, what did I do whenever the Palestinian people were suffering, I could say that I stood in the sight of humanity.”
O’Neill told the PA that Sinn Féin will continue to engage with the US administration on economic matters, adding that she will travel to North Carolina as part of an economic mission about job creation. (Additionally, Sinn Féin MP Caoimhe Archibald will go on a trade mission to Boston and New York, and Senator Conor Murphy is also due to travel to New York.)
“It’s about investment at home,” O'Neill continued.
“I think we can do both those things at the same time, but there are times where political leaders must make a call. I believe that the right thing to do at this moment in time is to stand firmly on the side of humanity.
“I can only stand over my own decision, and my decision as First Minister is to not travel this year because of what I see as very dangerous, very threatening rhetoric from the new US president in relation to Palestine.”
O'Neill added: “It just could not happen for me.
"I couldn’t live with the decision to go to Washington at a time when they were threatening to annex all the Palestinian people, to steal their land, to move away from a two-state solution and actually finding peace and stability for all the people in the Middle East.
“That’s the Palestinians and the Israelis, because they all deserve peace and stability and prosperity.
“I cannot make a decision to attend this year for that principled reason.
"Others can comment, they can offer their view, I stand over my own decision.”
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