Martin still hopes to be invited to the White House for annual events including the ceremonial handover of a bowl of shamrock, a decades-old tradition maintained throughout Trump’s first term.
Ireland’s government normally treats the Irish national holiday on March 17 as its best chance to promote Irish interests in dozens of countries, most crucially the United States. It’s been at least as important for Sinn Féin, as it is usually a focal point for talks in the White House and on Capitol Hill.
But the joint announcement by Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and the party’s first minister atop the Northern Ireland government, Michelle O’Neill, highlights how the usual diplomatic rule book could be torn up this time — and invites retaliation from hair-trigger Trump.
“I, like many other Irish people, have listened in horror to calls from the president of the United States for the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from their homes and the permanent seizure of Palestinian land,” said McDonald, whose party is closely allied to the Palestinian cause from the days when Sinn Féin represented the public face of the outlawed Irish Republican Army.
She and O’Neill said they intended to meet other American leaders, particularly Irish-Americans who have offered strong backing to Sinn Féin since the 1990s, when then-President Bill Clinton’s efforts to bring it in from the diplomatic cold encouraged IRA cease-fires.
Sinn Féin leaders have since attended every St. Patrick’s Day White House celebration — except in 2005, when the Republican administration of George W. Bush banned the party in punishment for IRA cease-fire violations.
