Sinn Féin will join protests against 
Donald Trump's visit to Ireland this weekend, a trip that takes him to the Irish Open golf tournament. Trump is to meet President Catherine Connolly and Taoiseach Micheál Martin before flying to his golf course at Doonbeg in County Clare to watch the Amgen Irish Open, the BBC reported. Significant numbers of people are expected to protest, with opposition politicians saying the Irish government should not be rolling out the "red carpet".
Why is Sinn Féin protesting? Speaking to media at the party's annual think-in, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said protests were "quite correct given the scale of the breaches of international law, given the genocide in Palestine, events in Gaza and on the West Bank", the BBC reported. "The United States, and I say this with deep, deep regret and some anger, facilitates that, facilitates Israel in its onslaught against the Palestinian people," she said. McDonald said she would be "deeply shocked" if there were no protests, "and, yes, Sinn Féin will be there." Most Irish parties are holding think-ins this week ahead of the new Dáil term, which begins next week.
What does McDonald want Connolly and Martin to raise? McDonald pressed Connolly, who was a strong voice in speaking out against the US before she was elected president last year, to raise Gaza during her short meeting with Trump at Áras an Uachtaráin, the BBC reported. She said she hoped the president would raise "the United States' ongoing facilitation and arming of Israel", saying she was "cognisant of the fact that it will be a short encounter". Martin, who has a bilateral meeting with Trump, must set out the views of the Irish state and people "very, very clearly and very firmly", McDonald said. Ireland is one of the most pro-Palestinian countries in the European Union.
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
