Northern Ireland’s first minister will not attend the White House for St Patrick’s Day in protest at the “injustice” of Donald Trump’s recent comments on Gaza.
Michelle O’Neill, who is also the vice president of Sinn Fein, will be joined by the party’s leader Mary Lou McDonald in boycotting the annual ceremony to mark the national holiday on 17 March.
Ms McDonald said she will not attend the event at the White House over “a principled stance against the threat of mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza” – a reference to recent comments by US President Donald Trump.
Speaking at a press conference in Dublin, Ms O’Neill said she “cannot ignore” Mr Trump’s comments and her decision not to travel to the White House meant she was standing “on the side of humanity”.
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“The decision to not travel to the White House has not been taken lightly, but it is taken very conscious of the responsibility that each of us have as individuals to call out injustice when we see it,” she said.
“We are all heartbroken whenever we witness the suffering of the Palestinian people, and the recent comments by the US president around the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza is just simply something that I cannot ignore.”
She added: “At times like this, people look towards political leaders to stand against injustice. So in the future whenever our children and grandchildren ask us what did we do when the Palestinian people endured unimaginable suffering, I can say firmly that I stood on the side of humanity.”
The Sinn Fein leaders were challenged at the press conference on why they believed it was right for Micheal Martin, the Taoiseach and Ireland’s head of government, to go to the White House, but not Ms O’Neill, who is joint leader of Northern Ireland’s devolved government.
They said the Taoiseach’s engagement with Mr Trump was “distinct” and “unique”, as he would have a bilateral political meeting with the president – something Ms O’Neill would not have – where he could “make his views known”.
Mr Trump sparked international alarm earlier this month when he laid out his plans for the Middle East in a news conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
The US president called Gaza a “demolition site” and said the two million Palestinians who currently live there could go to “various domains” – and that his “takeover” plans would not include a right of return for those who left.
Mr Trump did also not rule out sending US troops to the region, and said his plan would “develop” Gaza and create “thousands and thousands of jobs”.
“Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs,” Mr Trump said, adding that Gaza could become “the Riviera of the Middle East” where “the world’s people” could live.
America traditionally enjoys a close relationship with Ireland owing to ancestral ties and history, but the war in Gaza and US support for Israel in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 has put that under strain.
Ireland has been one of the world’s most vocal supporters of the Palestinian cause and in 2024, along with Norway and Spain, it officially recognised Palestine as a separate state – prompting Israel to recall its ambassadors from two of the European states.
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Palestinians react to Trump’s Gaza comments
Last year Ms McDonald rejected calls for a boycott of the White House over the US position on Gaza under Joe Biden’s presidency, arguing that she had used the “unparalleled” influence Ireland ha sin Washington to raise concerns about the Middle East.
President Trump’s proposal to transfer the Palestinian population out of Gaza and redevelop it under US ownership has been criticised by Palestinians, human rights groups, regional powers and US allies, but last week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was “the only viable plan to enable a different future”.
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The decision of Sinn Fein to boycott the White House comes after Israel accused Hamas of a “serious violation” of the ceasefire deal after it failed to hand over the body of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas, instead returning the remains of an “anonymous body without identification”.
Hamas has since said it will investigate the claims.
Ms Bibas was kidnapped with her sons – four-year-old Ariel, and nine-month-old Kfir – from the Niz Or kibbutz during the Palestinian militant group’s incursion into Israel in October 2023, which killed 1,195 people, according to Israeli authorities, including 815 civilians.
Israel‘s subsequent invasion of the Gaza Strip has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza, and 405 Israeli soldiers, according to the Israeli military.
