The Labour Leader says she expects President Connolly to have a “robust” meeting with President Trump after her comments on the “normalisation of war.”

The Labour Party are still pursuing a left alliance despite Social Democrats rebuffing the advance earlier this year.

Party leader Ivana Bacik has said that she expects parties of the left will come back around to the idea of an alliance ahead of the next election.

The Dublin Bay South TD also said she expects President Catherine Connolly will have a “robust” meeting with US President Donald Trump when he comes to Ireland next weekend.

This comes as the leader of the Social Democrats Holly Cairns ruled out a left alliance ahead of the proposed 2029 general election in a Sunday Independent Interview.

It’s now one year since Sinn Féin, Labour, Social Democrats, Green Party, People Before Profit and other left-wing Independents came together to back Catherine Connolly in her bid for the Presidency rather than running their own party candidates.

Speaking in Galway at the Labour party’s annual think-in, Ms Bacik said, “I believe that in the next election, there will be really clear evidence of that strong appetite for change.”

“What we need to see is an alternative vision put forward, the best way to do that, in my view, is to bring together those parties that share vision and values.

“But that, I think, will happen as we’ve seen people come together and give more support to that alternative message,” she said.

Despite no further alliance between left wing parties in a national level after the election of President Connolly, Ms Bacik said the collaboration has continued and pointed to the Tonn na Clé left wing activist movement in Galway.

“The success, if you like, of bringing people together behind Catherine has continued on,” she said.

Ms Bacik said the Labour party have already been “actively engaged in planning for protests” during the visit of President Donald Trump to Ireland next weekend.

The Labour leader said she expected President Catherine Connolly, to meet Mr Trump and express her views on the “normalisation of war.”

Shortly after the first US Strikes on Iran in Mr Trump’s war, President Connolly said the “normalisation of war, including the invasion at will of sovereign states, is a path that only leads to destruction and loss of life.”

Ms Bacik said she has “no doubt” that the President will “express her views in robust terms.”

“She spoke very robustly against the normalization of war back in March. And I think she’ll express those views, and I would hope she does in a private visit with Trump,” Ms Bacik said.

Ms Bacik said the under Mr Trump’s Presidency “we’ve seen a sort of creeping fascism” in the US.

Labour pulled out of Government formations talks in 2024 after the Social Democrats rejected the idea of entering negotiations on a common platform.

Ms Bacik reiterated her call for the Social Democrats, Labour and the Green party to come together at her party’s conference.

“I’ve always been clear. I see the Labor Party as a key part, a key driver of the next government, a left-led government.

“We need to negotiate a program for government from that position of collective strength, from a critical mass that that is hugely significant if we want to deliver the change,” she said.

Speaking at the party’s “away day” in the four-star Galway Bay Hotel where Ms Bacik said they would “strategise for the autumn term ahead” the party said they wanted to see a €100 grocery credit for those claiming child benefit.

Labour Finance Spokesman Ged Nash said it was the “quickest way of getting money to families that need it.”

When asked about her leadership of the party, four years after she took over from Alan Kelly, Ms Bacik said: “certainly since I became leader, what we’ve seen is Labor performing really well in elections.”

She said that the polls have “consistently underestimate Labour’s performance” after the party’s by election candidate Helen Ogbu came third in Galway West with nearly 13,000 votes.

Asked about the Labour party’s polling figures where the party is at 3pc in the latest Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll, while the Social Democrats are on 10pc, Ms Bacik said, “I’ve been around politics long enough to know that we’re in it for the long haul.”

“We are a party that’s building membership, we’re seeing new members joining all the time, and we are seeing a real momentum and a real appetite for our message of an alternative form of government,” she said.

Ms Bacik said that her party’s willingness to go into government distinguished her party from other parties of the left.

“I think our elbows are sufficiently sharp, we’ve always been about constructive politics.

“We don’t believe in simply criticising for the sake of us, simply trying to score political points,” she said.