{"id":348453,"date":"2025-08-16T06:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T06:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/348453\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T06:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T06:21:10","slug":"catherine-connolly-says-we-cannot-trust-the-us-england-and-france-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/348453\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherine Connolly says we \u2018cannot trust\u2019 the US, England and France \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Presidential election<\/a> candidate Catherine Connolly<\/a> has said the European Union<\/a> has \u201clost its moral compass\u201d and that we \u201ccannot trust\u201d the United States<\/a>, England<\/a> and France<\/a>. She said Irish people should resist a \u201ctrend towards imperialism\u201d in the EU, as the bloc is becoming \u201cincreasingly militarised\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly, the only confirmed candidate for the upcoming election, has also renewed her criticism of Russia, Nato and countries such as the US,, the UK and France, when asked about her stance on certain international issues. <\/p>\n

Setting out her position in response to questions posed by The Irish Times, Ms Connolly said: \u201cThe US, England and France are deeply entrenched in an arms industry which causes bloodshed across the world \u2013 as a staunch advocate for neutrality, this behaviour must be condemned.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0What Catherine Connolly says on Ukraine, the EU and SyriaOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

During a D\u00e1il speech last February Ms Connolly referred to Government plans to scrap the \u201ctriple lock\u201d on the deployment of Irish troops abroad \u2013 a proposal she opposes, arguing it threatens Ireland\u2019s neutrality. She agreed with another contributor that there are countries \u201cwe certainly cannot trust\u201d adding: \u201cAmerica is one of those and England and France are others. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is behind their motivation is simply an arms industry, more war\u201d and \u201cmaking huge profits\u201d. She said: \u201cThat needs to be called out over and over.\u201d<\/p>\n

The left-wing Independent TD is the only confirmed candidate in the race for \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in after Fine Gael politician Mairead McGuinness dropped out for health reasons. <\/p>\n

Ms Connolly, who has the backing of the Social Democrats, Labour and People Before Profit to enter the election, has long been a campaigner for Irish neutrality and has been vocal on the horror of the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Her stance on global issues <\/b>such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine <\/b>are coming under scrutiny now that she is running for president.<\/p>\n

The Galway West TD has condemned Russia and branded its president Vladimir Putin a \u201cdictator\u201d during D\u00e1il statements on the conflict and has spoken of the need to \u201cshow solidarity with the people of Ukraine\u201d. <\/p>\n

She has also strongly criticised the Nato military alliance, accusing it of engaging in \u201cwarmongering\u201d on the eve of the conflict. <\/p>\n

In response to questions on this, Ms Connolly said: \u201cRussia is conducting an illegal invasion of Ukraine \u2013 it must immediately end its horrific assault.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also said: \u201cI have criticised Nato as its warmongering and escalation towards conflict over the years is at odds with achieving peace in regions across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

She accused US president Donald Trump<\/a> of \u201csupporting Israel trampling on international law and reducing Gaza to nothing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked if she would meet Mr Trump should he visit Ireland, Ms Connolly replied: \u201cIf elected, I would meet all heads of state as mandated by the Constitution and the office of president.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also said<\/p>\n

she supports the EU but argued that it has \u201clost sight of its foundations: a project developed to promote and preserve peace\u201d.<\/p>\n

She contended that: \u201cThe EU has become increasingly militarised under the leadership of Ursula von der Leyen and the European People\u2019s Party \u2013 this direction can only bring pain. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs Irish people, we must resist this trend towards imperialism and show support for Palestine and Ukraine as Europeans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EU has lost its moral compass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Ms Connolly has also been joined by former Independent TD Maureen O\u2019Sullivan in defending a 2018 trip they took to Syria with then-fellow TDs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace at a time when brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad was still in power and a civil war was raging.<\/p>\n

Ms O\u2019Sullivan said the trip was \u201chumanitarian visit\u201d insisting: \u201cWe weren\u2019t going there to support Assad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Presidential election candidate Catherine Connolly has said the European Union has \u201clost its moral compass\u201d and that we…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[123360,32,2000,299,1699,36,48471,15,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-348453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-catherine-connolly","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european-union","13":"tag-france","14":"tag-presidential-election","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-united-states"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115037004297157691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}