![\"Taoiseach](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4807050_26_articleinlinemobile_NO_20FEE_2010_20Construction_20Industry_20Federation_20conference_1_..jpeg\" "\\"Taoiseach")
Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said the comments ‘would be very serious in terms of relationships with a very important European partner’. Picture: Mark Stedman<\/p>\nComments likening German re-armament to the 1930s could damage international relations if Catherine Connolly were President, the Taoiseach has said.<\/p>\n
Miche\u00e1l Martin told the Irish Examiner that they could cause \u201cserious\u201d damage and impact on the Irish economy, trade and development aid work. <\/p>\n
Ms Connolly, who is contesting the election as an independent candidate, on Friday once again stood by the comments. <\/p>\n
At a meeting of the European Political Community in Copenhagen Mr Martin suggested there was a \u201cdegree of naivety\u201d in Ireland about the threats facing Europe.<\/p>\n
When asked to expand on this, he started to talk about Ms Connolly, branding her recent comments “shocking”.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Catherine Connolly said about Germany being like the Nazis, I mean, that’s either extreme naivety or just a political partisan position,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\n [Sinn F\u00e9in leader] Mary Lou McDonald said the same in the D\u00e1il the last time I had an EU council meeting. Mary Lou was calling Europe warmongers.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cRussia has violated the airspace of Poland, of Romania, of Estonia, there’s been a drone violation in Denmark just in advance of the EPC meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s terrible that Sinn F\u00e9in and the far left, Catherine and [People Before Profit] Paul Murphy and others have been at this for a long, long time. They spend all their time attacking the EU and America.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don’t give anywhere near as much time condemning the Russian aggression. They have condemned it. But there’s a naivety.”<\/p>\n
When asked if he believes Ms Connolly\u2019s comments would damage international relations if she made them as president, Mr Martin said there was \u201cno question\u201d. <\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cIf a comment like that was made, it would be very serious in terms of relationships with a very important European partner for Ireland, in terms of trade and economics, and in terms of our work in Africa and the development aid programmes that we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked about Mr Martin\u2019s comments during a visit to Millstreet, Ms Connolly stuck by her initial remarks, saying \u201cas a woman who is deeply concerned about the normalisation of war\u201d, she is worried about re-armament.<\/p>\n
Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said the comments ‘would be very serious in terms of relationships with a very important European partner’. Picture: Mark Stedman<\/p>\n
Ms Connolly said: \u201cI made my comments about the \u201830s because of the similarities in the fear \u2013 the fear that is being felt on the ground. <\/p>\n
“I am meeting young people all of the time in different forums. You can feel the sense of hopelessness coming from young people because of the way the world is going.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I think we have an extra obligation \u2013 I have an extra obligation \u2013 as president of Ireland and for the people of Ireland, given our history, our specific history of colonisation, of famine, and the successful resolution to the conflict in the North.\u201d <\/p>\n
She said she would \u201cleave Miche\u00e1l Martin to comment on himself and his own comments\u201d.<\/p>\n
Responding to her hiring of Ursula N\u00ed Shionnain in 2018, shortly after her released from prison for a firearm conviction, Ms Connolly said Ms N\u00ed Shionnain\u2019s name should not be part of public discourse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are serious questions to be asked here as to how this became a public story. Where do privacy rights come into it? How was this released? Who released this? For what benefit?” Ms Connolly said. <\/p>\n
“If somebody, or an entity, wants to get me into trouble, surely an innocent person shouldn\u2019t be used, whatever about trying to damage me, which is another question.\u201d <\/p>\n
She added: \u201cWhat are the consequences for releasing that information, what are the consequences for other people going through a vetting process, knowing that at any stage in their life that vetting process is going to be made public?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Comments likening German re-armament to the 1930s could damage international relations if Catherine Connolly were President, the Taoiseach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[781,27860,9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,59,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-102588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-cork-news","9":"tag-israel-palestine","10":"tag-breaking-news","11":"tag-breakingnews","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-main-news","18":"tag-mainnews","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-presidential-election","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-world","24":"tag-world-news","25":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}