Ireland’s PM Gaza
London — The Taoiseach, or Irish prime minister, has defended a decision not to describe the situation in Gaza as a “genocide” when meeting US President Donald Trump, arguing he had focused on the delivery of aid.
Micheál Martin met Trump in Dublin and Clare during the 47th US President’s two-day visit to Ireland.
Speaking after the second encounter at the latter’s golf resort in Doonbeg, County Clare, the Taoiseach said on Sunday that their first discussion had focused on “accelerating and getting more aid into Gaza” after Trump’s peace plan for the region.
He said the US president had “undertook to do everything he possibly could to get aid into Gaza” after their meeting.
Martin has previously said “the immense suffering of the Palestinian population in Gaza” could be “credibly described as a genocide.”
Asked if he used the word genocide in his discussions with Trump, he told reporters: “No, I didn’t use that term specifically.”
Ireland’s PM Gaza
Martin said it was “unfair” to raise the point and said the Palestinian ambassador to Ireland had thanked him for mentioning limited aid access in Gaza during the engagement.
He said he had deliberately focused on aid as it was the priority for Palestinians living in Gaza and the United States is “probably the key interlocutor” with Israel.
On not using the word genocide, he said: “This is again – the campaigners kind of trying to denigrate people unfairly.
“The issue is the peace plan happened, aid is not getting into Gaza – the peace plan has not been implemented.
“Our focus is now to get proper peace in Gaza, to get a civilian administration established which – in accordance with the peace plan – that Israel would move out of the way in terms of all of that happening.”
He added: “There are a lot of good bona fide people involved who want to really make a difference in respect of Gaza.”
Asked if he had changed his language for the meeting given he had used the word genocide before, Martin said: “I haven’t changed my language. I haven’t changed my language at all in respect to the president – or in respect to that issue.
Ireland’s PM Gaza
“I think that’s unfair, and I think that’s the opposition’s … and I think we should see it as the opposition, and it doesn’t hold water.”
Reflecting on his meeting with Trump, Martin said the “key issue now for Palestinians” was that not enough aid is getting into Gaza.
He told reporters that he received a “thank you message immediately afterwards from the Palestinian ambassador, in respect of raising the need for humanitarian aid to get into Gaza.
“It’s vital for the children of Gaza.”
He added: “We’ve raised it constantly across the European Union, and Europe hasn’t had the capacity to hold Israel to account.
Ireland’s PM Gaza
“So I did deliberately focus in on the need to get aid, and he undertook, particularly in the context of any Irish aid, that it would get in.
“Now we’ll follow that through because that is the core issue for the two million people living there.
“And also the settlers, the terrorist settlers, in the West Bank, whose continuing activities on the West Bank are rendering unviable a two-state solution.”
Martin, who has visited Gaza and the West Bank, said Ireland supports the Palestinian state.
“That’s what we want to create, and we now have to focus on doing that and trying to get momentum behind the peace process.”
He added: “We believe in a two-state solution.
“Ultimately, that will not happen if the settlements continue apace, and certainly in the violent manner that they are at the moment.
“His response was he undertook to do everything he possibly could to get aid into Gaza, and particularly any Irish contribution in respect of that.”
Martin also said Ireland had intervened in the South African case in respect of genocide in Gaza.
“I think sometimes some in the opposition are more interested in the campaign to denigrate the government’s position on Gaza rather than the substance of the issue itself.”
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Notes from APS Radio News
In related news, Mr. Trump made claims that someday Ireland will be “reunited”
Ireland Will Be Reunified – Trump
The Republic of Ireland and the UK’s Northern Ireland will eventually be reunified, US President Donald Trump has predicted.
The Republic of Ireland gained independence from Britain in 1922, while six northeastern counties remained part of the UK as Northern Ireland.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in Dublin on Saturday, Trump said that he would “love to see [Ireland] unified.”
“I think it would be a great feather… in everybody’s cap if that happened. It’s going to happen eventually. Might as well happen now,” the US president added, suggesting that Martin is the “right man… to get it moving.”
While Trump acknowledged that the “UK will have something to say about it, obviously,” he insisted that a reunified Ireland “would be a great thing.”
Trump also said he and the Irish prime minister are “friends” and described relations between Washington and Dublin as being better than ever before.
Speaking at the US ambassador’s residence later in the day, Trump acknowledged that his remarks could prove controversial, conceding that “it’s one of those questions where no matter what you say, there’s no good answer.”
Earlier this year, Trump similarly suggested that there should be a “merger” between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, citing what he described as a good rapport between Martin and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Emma Little-Pengelly.
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Trump’s predecessors in the White House supported the status quo that was established by the US-brokered 1998 Belfast Agreement, also known as the Good Friday Agreement. The accord largely ended roughly three decades of political violence in Northern Ireland between the Irish Republican Army and several other smaller groups, which sought reunification with Ireland, loyalist groups that wanted the region to remain part of the UK, and British security forces.
The agreement explicitly provides a path to Irish reunification should a majority in Northern Ireland express support for it. This would require the secretary of state for Northern Ireland to call for a referendum on the issue.
In a post on X on Saturday, Gavin Robinson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, decried Trump’s latest remarks.
“President Trump knows better than most that elections matter… Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom because that is the settled democratic will of its people,” the politician wrote.
He expressed confidence that Northern Ireland “will continue to choose the UK and the security it offers.”
Speaking during his first visit to Northern Ireland last month, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham likewise stated that a referendum on Irish reunification was “off the table.”
