Cork councillors reject calls for boycott of St Patrick's Day White House visit in support of Gaza

Council meeting interrupted by pro-Palestinian supporters demanding Taoiseach Leo Varadkar cancel his meeting with President Joe Biden

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar presenting US president Joe Biden with a bowl of shamrock at the White House last year.

Cork’s city councillors have rejected calls for an Irish political boycott of the traditional St Patrick’s Day White House visit after protestors disrupted their council meeting with shouts of “no shamrock for genocide Joe”.

They were almost an hour into the March meeting of council on Monday night when a group of about 20 people who had been sitting in the public galleries interrupted the meeting, demanding Irish politicians cancel their March 17 White House visit.

As the Lord Mayor Kieran McCarthy suspended the meeting, one of the pro-Palestinian supporters delivered a speech from the gallery pointing out aid trucks were being refused access to the Gaza strip by the Israelis, that when food aid got in last week, dozens of Palestinians were massacred by members of the Israeli Defence Forces, and that almost one million people in Rafa are in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.

“All of this is only possible because of the support of the US government and its president, Joe Biden,” she said.

You cannot support this visit to the White House and stand with the Palestinian people and against genocide — so pick a side. 

The protest was peaceful, and the group left after making their point. The meeting resumed after 10 minutes.

Later, councillors discussed a motion tabled by councillors Brian McCarthy and Lorna Bogue which said in light of the ongoing support by the Biden administration for the “genocidal actions of the Israeli state in Gaza, including arming and funding that state”, the council should ask all parties and politicians in Ireland to send a clear message by boycotting the visit to the White House on St Patrick's Day.

Cllr McCarthy said while Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will present a bowl of shamrock to US president Joe Biden next week on behalf of the Irish people, there are a lot of people here saying "no — not in our name".

“Why are the Government doing this? They don't want to do anything to upset their nice cosy relationship with western imperialism and US multinationals. Greenwashing a genocide is a price worth paying,” he said.

Ms Bogue criticised Fine Gael members for standing at the weekly pro-Palestinian rallies in Cork City, while their party leader goes to America to give “moral credence and support to a political regime that is raining fire, and hell and famine down on women and children in Gaza”.

But Fine Gael councillors Des Cahill and Shane O’Callaghan defended the White House visit.

Mr O’Callaghan said when the Palestinian ambassador to Ireland, Dr Jilan Wahba Abdelmajid, paid her most recent visit to City Hall in January, he asked her what more could the Irish Government do to help.

“Her response was that the Irish government should use its influence with the American government, with President Biden, to try to ensure that he brings about a ceasefire. This motion is the exact opposite of what she asked us to do,” he said.

This motion is the worst kind of cynical virtue signalling and grandstanding I’ve come across in a while. That, the clownish antics we saw earlier.

Mr Cahill said during the 2017 White House visit, he witnessed former taoiseach Enda Kenny tackle former President Donal Trump for his stance on immigrants.

“I was looking at Trump’s face as the taoiseach was speaking, and Trump just pursed his lips and the taoiseach kept going, and I never felt as proud to be Irish when the leader of a small country stood up publicly to the leader of what is regarded as the biggest democracy in the world,” he said.

“I have full confidence that the Taoiseach [Leo Varadkar] will make the country’s thoughts and wishes known to the president [Biden].”

Sinn Féin councillor Mick Nugent said his party’s leadership would attend a number of events on Capitol Hill next week and would carry the message of peace and the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Green Party councillor Oliver Moran said his position was informed by the Palestinian ambassador when councillors asked her in January what they could do to support the people of Palestine and Gaza.

“She was clear,” he said.

“She asked us to use our influence in America to call for a ceasefire and to call for peace. What would be hypocritical now would be for us to turn our back on that basic request from the ambassador.”

Councillors voted 18-3 against the motion.