Debate over Stateside St. Patrick’s Day visit rages on

Planned Saint Patrick’s Day visits to the United States by Irish politicians have become a hot-button political issue in the wake of the ongoing war in the Middle East.

To some, the Irish political class have the ear of a pro-Irish president in the form of Joe Biden and Ireland should not spurn the opportunity.

To others, the idea of Irish politicians meeting with Biden in the wake of his support for Israel in the ongoing war is not tolerable.

People Before Profit’s Paul Murphy was the first to raise concerns about Sinn Féin’s planned March visit to the United States, and the issue has since snowballed.

Speaking in early January, Murphy specifically called out Sinn Féin for their planned visit.

“The vast majority of people in Ireland stand in solidarity with Palestine, for weeks we have taken to the streets to demand a ceasefire as well as justice and liberation for the Palestinians.”

“A major task of our solidarity movement is to help isolate the state of Israel by breaking all diplomatic connections with representatives of apartheid and making our island an apartheid-free zone,” he said.

“Therefore, we urge Sinn Féin and all other political parties not to prostrate themselves before the US establishment this St Patrick’s Day, and instead send a clear message of solidarity with Palestine by refusing to meet Biden.”

Since then, Labour has weighed into the debate, with European candidate Aodhán Ó Ríordáin questioning the optics of the trip.

The Dublin Bay North TD said that Sinn Féin should donate any proceeds they get from their American fundraiser towards humanitarian groups in Gaza.

In recent years, Sinn Féin has used the March trip to meet with Friends Of Sinn Féin, which serves as an advocacy and fundraising arm of the party in the United States among the Irish-American community.A November 2023 report by The Irish Times found the organisation spent $294,411 between November 2022 and April 2023, with $118,126 of that going towards advertising in American media outlets.

Ó Ríordáin stated “they (Sinn Féin) go to New York, and they take money off MAGA Republicans and Trump supporters and Netanyahu cheerleaders for their own political operation.”

He said it was “stunningly hypocritical” of Sinn Féin to “waltz into Leinster House, wearing their Palestinian scarves, while taking money off those people who will gladly cheer the Israeli war machine in Palestine.”

He said while he would support Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil ministers not going to America in March, he said that Sinn Féin also going on trips to America is hypocritical.

“The bigger hypocrisy is those who come in here with their Palestinian scarves, but take money off those who will gladly fund or support those who are dropping bombs on Palestinian people and take their money off them.”

“It’s hypocritical, it’s wrong. So my challenge to Sinn Féin is this – you want to go to America and raise money. Go for it. Give all the money to Gaza. Give all the money to those humanitarian aid organisations for helping to feed and helping to shelter families and communities in Gaza – but don’t put it in your own pocket, because you know where the money came from.”

Prominent Sinn Féin politicians, such as party leader Mary Lou McDonald, foreign affairs spokesperson Matt Carthy and Dublin West TD Paul Donnelly have looked to dampen the discontent about their planned visit.

McDonald told RTÉ “I believe there is a very important opportunity on this St Patrick’s Day, of all St Patrick’s Day, to bring a very clear message from Ireland to the United States in respect of Gaza, the West Bank, what has been happening in Palestine and to make that clear.”

The Sinn Féin leader said the United States has been “on the wrong side of this for a very long time, and that didn’t just emerge in October last”.

Carthy stated “there is no fundraising aspect to the Sinn Féin St. Patrick’s Day activities. They comprise entirely of political engagements which we will use to advance Irish interests and the cause for ceasefire & Palestinian state.”

“If Aodhán was interested in either, he’d get his facts correct!” he said in response to Ó Ríordáin’s assertations.

Responding to online criticism, Donnelly said “I have listened very carefully to the debates at party level and at our recent cúige. The Palestinian leadership are asking us to represent them. They recognise the important access they have to Ireland and in particular the access Sinn Féin has in America.”

“We must use whatever influence we have, whatever political capital we have to get a ceasefire.  It’s imperative to use our influence to put pressure on Biden to stop their murderous support for Israel.”

For Government’s part, it is business as usual.

When asked about the prospective boycott, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said “that doesn’t make sense; you have to engage.”

“The only way to increase pressure, the only way you can get a resolution on this is to get international pressure that is so overwhelming that there is a stop to the violence.”

“It is clear that the US administration is now seeking to not only get an end to violence, but also to create a political track to ensure that there is a Palestinian state, that we get a two-state solution to this,” he told reporters before a recent Cabinet meeting.