{"id":82233,"date":"2025-09-24T02:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T02:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/82233\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T02:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T02:09:07","slug":"catherine-connolly-responds-to-question-on-ira-campaign-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/82233\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherine Connolly responds to question on IRA campaign \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Presidential<\/a> election candidate Catherine Connolly<\/a> said violence was \u201cnever justified\u201d, in response to a question about the IRA\u2019s<\/a> campaign in Northern Ireland<\/a> during the Troubles.<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly is running for the presidency with the backing of Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a>, which believes the IRA\u2019s armed campaign was justified to take on the British state.<\/p>\n

Asked at a press conference in Dublin on Tuesday if she believed it was justified, Ms Connolly said: \u201cI think violence was never justified and I say that from a position as a mother and a pacifist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether she made her view on the matter clear to Sinn F\u00e9in, she replied: \u201cI am delighted that Sinn F\u00e9in have come behind me as I am delighted the Social Democrats, People Before Profit [have also done].\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly said Sinn F\u00e9in was supporting her \u201cbecause of the characteristics that they see in me as the future president of Ireland\u201d and that \u201cthere have been no deals, no agreements\u201d with the party.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have absolutely nothing to gain and everything to lose by not using our voice for peace, for championing neutrality in the most proactive, positive way by being a voice that articulates the threat, the existential threat posed by climate change, a voice that recognises the invaluable work being done by communities on the ground in all range of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier, Ms Connolly denied ever being \u201cequivocal\u201d on Hamas<\/a>, a day after saying the proscribed terrorist group was \u201cpart of the fabric\u201d of the Palestinian people. <\/p>\n

She had told the BBC she disagreed with the suggestion that Hamas can have no role in a future Palestinian<\/a> state, saying this was a matter for Palestinians to decide themselves. <\/p>\n

Her comments about Hamas were condemned by Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a>, who said the group cannot be part of Gaza<\/a>\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

Speaking on RT\u00c9 Radio on Tuesday, Ms Connolly condemned Israel and Hamas for committing war crimes and that she hoped both sides would be held to account.<\/p>\n

She said she \u201cutterly condemned\u201d the actions of Hamas on October 7th, adding that Israel was \u201cout of control\u201d at this point and \u201cthere is a genocide going on in Palestine\u201d. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Presidential election: Meet the three hopefuls who will be on the ballot paper next monthOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

When asked if she accepted Hamas was a terrorist organisation, Ms Connolly said Israel had also been designated a terrorist state, that history did not start on October 7th, 2023, and she hoped the conflict would be resolved. <\/p>\n

T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris on Tuesday said Hamas offers the people of Palestine \u201cno future\u201d. Speaking to reporters at the United Nations in New York, the Minister for Foreign Affairs said the Irish position in relation to Hamas \u201cis absolutely crystal clear\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cHamas is a despicable, illegal terrorist organisation that has brought nothing but pain to the people of Israel and the people of Palestine,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in TD Matt Carthy said Hamas is \u201cpart of the situation in Palestine\u201d and \u201cthere\u2019s no doubt about that\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said he believes what Ms Connolly said is \u201cconsistent\u201d with what has been said by all parties in the Oireachtas. He said the actions of Hamas were \u201cwar crimes\u201d and \u201cindefensible\u201d but so too were those of the Israeli government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether we like it or not,\u201d he said, there will be \u201cno meaningful negotiations without those two entities\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Social Democrats said although they \u201cwould not have used the same language as Catherine\u201d, the party believes \u201cit is up to the Palestinian people to decide who their political representatives should be, following free and fair elections\u201d.<\/p>\n

Green Party leader Roderic O\u2019Gorman, who has also backed Ms Connolly, said he views Hamas as a terrorist organisation. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see them as part of democratic governance of Palestine but I think we have to keep the door open.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Presidential election candidate Catherine Connolly said violence was \u201cnever justified\u201d, in response to a question about the IRA\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,1921,18,13,14,3761,69,6,19,17,6439,11,12,15,16,5,954,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-82233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-catherine-connolly","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-gaza-strip","15":"tag-hamas","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-irish-republican-army","20":"tag-latest-news","21":"tag-latestnews","22":"tag-main-news","23":"tag-mainnews","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-northern-ireland","26":"tag-presidential-election","27":"tag-top-stories","28":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82233","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=82233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}