Sinn Féin’s push to pressurise the British government into an early referendum on Irish unity has been dismissed as “ráiméis” (nonsense) by Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who also said the move could set unity back.
Attending the National Ploughing Championships in Screggan, Co Offaly, Martin responded to the agreement signed on Monday by the first ministers of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales aimed at putting pressure on Downing Street to hold referendums on independence.
“I’m not clear that Sinn Féin is on the right track at all, and may even set back unity by that move that they’ve made,” said the Taoiseach.
Later, speaking in Irish, he said its proposal was ráiméis (nonsense) and claimed Sinn Féin had not done much work on the matter. He said the question should be asked as to its final blueprint for a united Ireland.
Martin said he fundamentally disagreed with the agreement signed on Monday.
“Strategically we have never embroiled Northern Ireland in British politics. We’ve always identified the North as exceptional, as being an issue in terms of the partition of Ireland,” he said.
Martin said he would engage directly with new UK prime minister Andy Burnham on the matter, as Irish governments have done with his predecessors for the past 30 years.
“That’s how the Good Friday Agreement came about. The two governments anchored that with all of the political parties in Northern Ireland, developing principles such as parity of esteem, respect for each other’s traditions, and endeavouring to move in a reconciled way towards the future.”
Asked about comments made by President Connolly’s sister, Margaret Connolly, while attending a protest against US president Donald Trump’s visit to Ireland, Martin said that as an Irish citizen the Government upheld her right to protest.
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Speaking to a reporter from CNN, Connolly said Trump should take home the rubble from bombing in Gaza and “flatten your bloody White House.”
She continued: “You have no right to do what you do, you are murdering and slaughtering and causing a genocide.”
Martin said she was entitled to protest but did not agree with what she said.
“People are entitled [to protest] as individuals just because your sister or brother or family member is in office [should make no difference].”
Labour leader Ivana Bacik told The Irish Times that President Connolly’s sister is “an individual in her own right” and her actions do not jeopardise the President’s diplomatic efforts.
Asked about Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan’s comments that he had failed to raise genocide and Gaza with Trump during his visit, Martin responded that Ireland has been “very strong on the Palestinian question”.
However, he said when engaging with other leaders it was not “about lecturing them or getting something off your chest and feeling good about it”.
Martin argued he had used the opportunity to see if he could do good for others.
“My focus was on getting aid more effectively to Gaza in particular. President Trump did develop a peace plan, a 20-point peace plan. It has stalled,” he said.
“One key aspect is shelter and humanitarian aid. We just need to keep the pressure on to try to get that in. Israel has attempted to negate that peace plan, not co-operate with it.”
He said he also raised with Trump the issue of settlers on the West Bank and the need to rein them in.
“They were taking land from Palestinians,” he said. “They’re basically rooting Palestinians out of their homeland in a violent way, and secondly, by (establishing) more and more settlement. It is making a two-state solution very difficult to attain.”
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