{"id":387944,"date":"2025-08-31T22:55:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T22:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/387944\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T22:55:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T22:55:14","slug":"catherine-connollys-remarks-on-not-trusting-us-uk-france-were-in-context-of-gaza-genocide-she-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/387944\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherine Connolly\u2019s remarks on not trusting \u2018US, UK, France\u2019 were in \u2018context of Gaza genocide\u2019, she says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Presidential candidate Catherine Connolly<\/a> said on Sunday that comments made previously<\/a> by her about not trusting the US, the UK and France were \u201cvery much in the context of the genocide in Gaza<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

During a D\u00e1il speech in 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. <\/p>\n

She agreed with another contributor that there were countries \u201cwe certainly cannot trust\u201d, adding: \u201cAmerica is one of those and England and France are others.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

In an interview on RT\u00c9\u2019s This Week programme on Sunday, Ms Connolly said: \u201cHave I a trust problem with America? I think everyone in the country has a trust problem with America. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a president Trump who\u2019s volatile, unpredictable, acting like a bully, bringing in tariffs when it suits them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe keep talking about the consequences of tariffs, but we never talk about the consequences of genocide … Famine has been created in Gaza like it was in Ireland in 1845, a man-made famine.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Inside Catherine Connolly\u2019s presidential election campaignOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Later in the interview Ms Connolly defended her decision to nominate journalist Gemma O\u2019Doherty<\/a> for the presidency in 2018. She said she did not remember if she knew that Ms O\u2019Doherty had expressed opposition to the HPV vaccine prior to nominating her. <\/p>\n

She said nominating someone for the presidency was not the same as endorsing them.<\/p>\n

Asked if she could have shown better judgment at the time, she said: \u201cOn everything I\u2019ve done all over my life, while I reflect, I could always have done better, and I will just really try to do better in the future. That\u2019s been my motto on everything I\u2019ve ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Does Jim Gavin have what it takes for a presidential campaign?<\/p>\n

During the interview, Ms Connolly, an Independent TD from Galway who served as leas-cheann comhairle in the last D\u00e1il, repeatedly complained about the \u201cframing\u201d of questions put to her.<\/p>\n

She said her experience on the campaign trail suggested to her there was a \u201cdisconnect between the official conversation and commentary and what people are feeling on the ground, of all ages, in all parts of Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly defended her visit to what was then civil war-torn Syria in 2018 and her political alliance with the former MEPs and TDs Mick Wallace<\/a> and Clare Daly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Presidential election: What Catherine Connolly says on Ukraine, the EU and SyriaOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She said she agreed with Mr Wallace and Ms Daly on some issues, but not all. <\/p>\n

Ms Connolly said she would \u201ccertainly not\u201d consider appointing them to the Council of State if elected president.<\/p>\n

She said she had never hesitated to condemn the regime of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad<\/a> and said the trip there was a \u201cfact-finding mission\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked if she had known about the background of people she was meeting, including one person who was a supporter of the Assad regime, she said she could not remember what she knew about them at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, at this point, I couldn\u2019t, at six years … All I can tell you is that we went with a specific purpose of fact-finding on the ground,\u201d Ms Connolly said.<\/p>\n

She said she supported sanctions on Russia<\/a>, but would like to see a \u201cdiscussion on sanctions generally and whether they\u2019re effective or not effective\u201d.<\/p>\n

But she complained that \u201cwe\u2019re not sanctioning Israel<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

People Before Profit to support Catherine Connolly\u2019s bid <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, People Before Profit voted unanimously on Sunday to support Ms Connolly\u2019s bid for the presidency.<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s Dublin South-West TD Paul Murphy said she presented \u201ca big opportunity to deal a blow to the political establishment\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the party would launch a grassroots campaign to counter what he said were mainstream parties\u2019 efforts to \u201cundermine what is left of neutrality, to get rid of the triple lock and to turn a blind eye in terms of actions to the genocide in Gaza\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Murphy suggested that the left would be united behind Ms Connolly and dismissed criticism of her candidacy from Labour\u2019s Alan Kelly<\/a>, saying it was \u201cthe best possible endorsement that a candidate of the left could get\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also expressed optimism that Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> would move to support Ms Connolly\u2019s campaign as well. <\/p>\n

He said Ms Connolly would \u201cshine in the debate, in the national stage\u201d while the grassroots campaign would also be \u201cunique in this election\u201d. <\/p>\n

Asked about the potential candidacy of former Dublin GAA manager Jim Gavin, who has confirmed he will seek the Fianna F\u00e1il nomination, Mr Murphy said it was clear that party\u2019s leadership \u201cdidn\u2019t have a whole lot of respect for their own membership and a democratic process\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the decision by MEP Billy Kelleher to seek the party\u2019s support, too, \u201chas kind of made some problems for them. I don\u2019t know Jim\u2019s personal politics. I\u2019m sure he\u2019s a very decent man, but … I think many people across the country will look at someone who\u2019s endorsed by Fianna F\u00e1il, who\u2019s nominated by Fianna F\u00e1il, if that\u2019s how it turns out, and say that\u2019s not the sort of country I want to see\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Presidential candidate Catherine Connolly said on Sunday that comments made previously by her about not trusting the US,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[134506,26214,134508,123360,134504,2000,299,21383,36,134502,134507,528,134503,114050,134505,48471,6500],"class_list":{"0":"post-387944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-alan-kelly","9":"tag-bashar-al-assad","10":"tag-billy-kelleher","11":"tag-catherine-connolly","12":"tag-clare-daly","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-fianna-fail","16":"tag-france","17":"tag-gemma-odoherty","18":"tag-jim-gavin","19":"tag-labour-party","20":"tag-mick-wallace","21":"tag-paul-murphy","22":"tag-people-before-profit-solidarity-pbps","23":"tag-presidential-election","24":"tag-syria"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115125847516120043","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387944","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=387944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}