The Government has been accused of appeasing US president Donald Trump with his high-profile visit this weekend by a group organising a Dublin protest against his presence.
The Irish Neutrality League is hoping for thousands of people to turn out at its No Welcome for Trump protest.
The demonstration will start at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin city at 1pm, with protesters set to march down O’Connell Street and towards the Dáil.
“The political establishment are trying to turn the Trump visit into a security issue. However, the vast majority of the Irish people abhor his policies and this needs to be expressed,” the group’s convener Sara O’Rourke said at a press conference on Wednesday.
O’Rourke was joined by a number of TDs including Sinn Féin’s Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire; Richard Boyd Barrett of People Before Profit; and Ciarán Ahern of Labour. Social Democrats Senator Patricia Stephenson and Helen O’Mahony from the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign also attended.
The group sat behind posters labelling Trump the world’s “number one warmonger” at Buswells Hotel in Dublin.
Boyd Barrett called on people to “send a clear message to Donald Trump that he is not welcome”.
“The people of this country oppose his toxic and dangerous agenda. He is up to his neck in the genocidal crimes Israel has committed against the Palestinian people.
“He has set the entire Middle East on fire with a criminal war against Iran. He has driven up the cost of living for every single person in the world.”
Stephenson highlighted cuts to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) under Trump which, she said, “have contributed to poverty and seen people dying”.
Donald Trump breaks the law so fast that the law is left in his orange dust
“He has brought the fuel crisis down upon every single household in this country. Himself and [Binyamin] Netanyahu are solely responsible for the fuel crisis that is impacting every ordinary worker throughout this country.”
Ahern said the Government could have stopped this weekend’s visit. “This is nothing more than a moneymaking photo opportunity to normalise the US president, to appease him and that is absolutely disgusting,” he said.
Ó Laoghaire, who is Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on foreign affairs and defence, said Trump’s policies had directly impacted on Irish people.
“Donald Trump has facilitated genocide, promoted hateful and destructive policies, and launched illegal and profoundly harmful wars, which every Irish consumer is paying for,” he said.
“It is absolutely right that the Irish people make it clear that we reject his policies and his destructive agenda.
“Ultimately he is in Ireland to market his golf course, and further his commercial interests. He has little interest in engaging on matters of substance.”
Regarding President Catherine Connolly’s previous criticism of Trump, the panel said the focus should be on the issues Taoiseach Micheál Martin raises. However, O’Rourke pointed out that Connolly was a prominent member of the group before her presidency.
“She’s one of the co-founding members of the Irish Neutrality League, so her position on all of the issues is clear. Were she not President, she’d be sitting here at this table. I think it is more important for us to ask, what is Micheál Martin going to say to president Trump?”