Carney calls for stronger Canada-Ireland partnership amid global uncertainty

Taoiseach Micheal Martin TD (left) greets Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney as he arrives for a visit to Government Buildings in Dublin, as part of his visit to Ireland. Picture date: Saturday June 13, 2026.

The relationship between Ireland and the US is one which is well chronicled.

From songs and stories to a guaranteed hooley in the White House every March, few doubt the depth of the cultural, economic and political links across the Atlantic.

The depth of that feeling makes it strange, then, that the relationship with America's near neighbour to the north is not valued in the same way. Around 4.8 million Canadians claim Irish heritage, including the country's Prime Minister Mark Carney who is the grandson of Mayo emigrants and who landed in Dublin on Saturday.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin in April cancelled a trip to the Great White North because of fuel protests here in Ireland, but having met Mr Carney in Ottawa in September was on hand to play host this weekend as the two countries agreed to "advance the Canadian-Irish partnership".

A joint communique from both sides spoke in lofty terms of the two sides' links and commitments to trade, life sciences, food security, climate, security, defence and EU-Canadian relations, and trumpeted official Canadian figures showing that Ireland now ranks as the 8th largest investor in Canada and Canada as the 14th largest investor in Ireland.

Taoiseach and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin with the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney speaking at a press conference as he visits Government Buildings on the first day of his visit to Ireland. Photo: Sasko Lazarov/© RollingNews.ie

They underscored the "mutual benefit of these economic ties with Canadian companies employing 26,000 people in Ireland and Irish companies employing over 30,000 people in Canada" and welcomed Ireland’s progress towards ratification of the Canada–European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and "emphasized its role in supporting jobs, small and medium sized enterprises, stronger trade ties and economic growth".

The statement goes on to commit to "growing and diversifying" the trading relationship between the two countries and speaks of the launch of Ireland-Canada 180, a "major cultural and commemorative initiative supported by both governments".

At a press conference in Government Buildings, the two leaders spoke up those links and of navigating choppy international waters, but it was around the corner in the Trinity College Examination Hall where the full intent of Mr Carney's foreign ambition was laid out. After the college's provost Linda Doyle had made reference to his speech in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Carney reiterated much of the Principled and Pragmatic: Canada's Path idea which aimed to set out a new course for middle- and small-sized countries in a bid to break from the American hegemony. That Mr Carney's unexpected path to the Prime Minister's office was forged in part as a reaction to US President Donald Trump's stated aspirations to annex Canada and his economic aggression towards the country makes the content unsurprising.

Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney as he visits Trinity College on the first day of his visit to Ireland. Photo: Sasko Lazarov/© RollingNews.ie

But Mr Carney has found an audience broadly receptive among many world leaders, their own economic boats tossed in the sea of American-made economic tumult. In Dublin, delivering the inaugural General John de Chastelain Public Lecture, Mr Carney recalled St Brendan The Navigator, building a currach and heading west, Tadgh O'Brennan who landed in Quebec in 1661, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, who became a Canadian Father of Confederation and Louise McKinney, whose family emigrated from County Cavan to Alberta and who became the first woman elected to a legislature in the British Empire.

But he also spoke of the current relationship, one which has seen trade grow 150% in a decade, one of partnerships and 500,000 yearly journeys back and forth. But, most crucially, one which is more necessary now than ever.

"This is an urgent task, because the world is changing rapidly. Ireland and Canada are navigating a global rupture, not a quiet transition," he said as General de Chastelain, who despite reports here recently is very much alive, watched on.

"The post-Cold War rules-based order is breaking down. Multilateral institutions have weakened. Economic integration is being weaponised. The international trading system we have relied upon for decades is disappearing.

"At the same time, new technologies – from artificial intelligence  to cyber and quantum – are changing the nature of war, the structure of economics, and the possibilities of human advancement.

"Canada, Ireland, and Europe are increasingly and immediately vulnerable to once-distant threats. Amidst this disruption, Canada, Ireland, and Europe can be pivotal, powerful, and purposeful – a force for good."

Mr Carney's visit to Mayo on Sunday is likely to provide that most sought-after currency in political visits by writers - colour. But Saturday delivered the substance and it was a message to Ireland and Europe on a wider scale that if the old order is done, a new one must be built.

In Ireland's case, that new order will feel pretty familiar.