The Sinn Féin leadership hasn’t ruled out joining US President Donald Trump for this year’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations at the White House.
Mary Lou McDonald told The Irish News she didn’t want to be “pre-emptive” about her attendance, as the president was yet to be inaugurated and the party hadn’t yet been invited.
The annual White House St Patrick’s Day celebrations are a significant event for politicians on both sides of the Irish border, providing almost unrivalled access to the president.
However, the Trump presidency and the ongoing US-backed Israeli onslaught in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of some 46,000 people, has raised questions around the attendance of Irish politicians, many of who have been criticial of both the incoming president and Washington’s support for Israel.
Sinn Féin faced criticism from pro-Palestinian groups last year for accepting President Joe Biden’s invitation to the White House St Patrick’s Day celebrations.
SDLP leader Claire Hanna said this week that she “certainly won’t be” alongside President Trump on March 17 this year.
Ms Hanna’s predecessor Colum Eastwood previously snubbed President Trump’s invitation in 2016, saying the US administration was “founded on bigotry”, while last year he declined an invitation issued on behalf of President Biden, saying he could not “in good conscience” attend the White House’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations because of the US response to the Israel-Gaza war.
Ms McDonald and First Minister Michelle O’Neill were asked on Monday at Stormont whether they would accept an invitation to attend the Washington DC celebrations.
“We have to await the incoming president’s inauguration first,” the Sinn Féin leader said.
“I think first things first, and then see what transpires in and around St Patrick’s Day, so I don’t want to be pre-emptive on this.”
Ms McDonald said the “current slaughter of Palestinians, the actions of {Benjamin} Netanyahu’s regime need to be called out”.
“They need to stop and the United States needs to change tack, and needs to stop arming the Israeli regime,” she said.
“That’s the most important thing is we need a ceasefire now, not to mind St Patrick’s Day.
“We’re only in January, and the horror that has been experienced, not just in Gaza but also on the West Bank, continues and that needs to come to a halt.”
The Sinn Féin leader said the new administrations in Washington and Dublin needed to “be part of a wider international step change” in relation to Gaza.
