People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy has said “there should be no red carpet” for US President Donald Trump during his visit to Ireland later this month.
He is likely to arrive in Dublin early on the morning of Saturday 12 September, before travelling to the Phoenix Park for meetings with Ms Connolly and Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
Mr Trump will spend Saturday night at his golf resort in Doonbeg for the Irish Open golf tournament.
However, Mr Murphy said there should be a “massive show of opposition” to Mr Trump and said a protest has been called in Dublin on the day he arrives in the capital.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Drivetime, Mr Murphy said “There should be no boot licking of Trump, which I suspect the Government is going to be engaged in and what there should be is a massive show of opposition to Trump on the streets.
“I’m very confident that it will be very large because when people go to put petrol or diesel in their cars or pay for heating of their houses, they pay the price every single day for Trump’s decisions in terms of his war in Iran.”
Mr Murphy said he had “every confidence” that President Connolly will put the position of the Irish people, which is “to oppose his warmongering, to support peace rather than war, to defend Ireland’s neutrality, to oppose his agenda of tearing up any climate and environmental regulations to the detriment of all of us and our children, to drive a rise of misogyny”.
“We need to break from our position of subservience to US empire. We need to stop them using our airports and we shouldn’t be rolling out the red carpet for them,” Mr Murphy added.
Speaking on the same programme, Minister of State Timmy Dooley said there is a standard protocol associated with visiting heads of state, which is followed regardless of the domestic issues in a particular country or the foreign policy of the individual concerned.
Mr Dooley said: “There has been a very strong bond of friendship between Ireland and the United States. President Trump, whether we like it or not, is the democratically elected president of the United States, and he’s visiting here in that role.
“There is a requirement in the government to follow the normal protocols in relation to that. When the Taoiseach was in the White House, last March, he did push back against some of the assertions made by President Trump, particularly in relation to Europe being a failed project, that Europe was overrun by migration.
“The Taoiseach in a very firm and respectful way challenged that and I think that’s how you manage situations with other world leaders where they have a difference of opinion to you, that you’re firm and fair but respectful at all times and I think the Taoiseach has shown the capacity to do that.”
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Earlier, Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik said the fact President Connolly is meeting Mr Trump should not be constituted as a broad welcome from the people of Ireland.
“I think that there will be protests on the streets, and I think that people are really, really distressed to see what Trump is doing,” she told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
“He’s brought a creeping fascism across the US and indeed has brought about devastation across the world.
“I’ve no doubt that Catherine (Connolly) will convey the views of the Irish people in her usual eloquent manner to Donald Trump during what was described as a courtesy call.
“But let’s be clear, Donald Trump has unleashed havoc upon the world. He has unwound the international rules-based order, and he absolutely is opposed by the majority of Irish people.
“I think that’s really clear,” Ms Bacik said.