- Protests challenge Biden’s stance
- Irish-American solidarity for Palestine
- Irish identity fuels activism
John Francis Mulligan, an Irish national born in the United States, was in the West Bank one evening in 2004 when a stranger requested his company as she attended a memorial.
In Nablus, it was after curfew, and Palestinians were prohibited from entering the city. Mulligan recollects that earlier that day, a young man had been murdered, and his family was obligated to bury him within twenty-four hours due to religious tenets. However, the Israeli armed forces “would open fire on them for violating curfew” if they ventured outside.
“The mother asked Mulligan of the deceased, ‘Can you march with us?'” Are you able to stand in front of our family? You’re white because they’re not going to murder you… “All I need is someone to stand with me, literally.”
Mulligan, 54, was personally affected by this moment – the struggle to bury the deceased in peace – because he attended elementary school in Northern Ireland throughout the Troubles of the late 1970s.
“In that particular instance, attending political memorials in Northern Ireland while helicopters circled overhead – namely the British Army – was precisely how I felt at the time. He states, “And here it was the Israeli army.” “It resonated deeply.”
Mulligan cites these parallels as justification for his solidarity with other Irish Americans in the United States in support of Gaza.
Biden will meet with leaders from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland this weekend. During their Friday meeting, First Minister Michelle O’Neill conveyed to Vice President Joe Biden that “the world is agog at the Palestinian people’s genocide” and urged him to work towards an immediate truce and a sovereign Palestinian state.
However, according to decades-old tradition, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar will be the sole participant in the St Patrick’s Day White House ceremony on March 17. At that event, he will bestow upon President Biden a basin filled with shamrocks as a token of friendship. However, this year’s annual ceremony and meeting between the Taoiseach and Biden is expected to be notably tense due to an increasing number of Irish and Irish American voters expressing outrage over Biden’s support for the Gaza conflict.
Mulligan states, “My upbringing in Ireland has exposed me to the brutality and oppression of the colonial state.” Presently, individuals are being dehumanised in Palestine. “They are criminalising resistance, the entire population,” and employing “starvation as a tactic,” similar to how the British implemented this strategy in Ireland throughout the Great Famine.
“The same playbook is being implemented in Palestine.”
Formation of a “jaw-dropping” network
Irish stick combat coach Cuán McCann, whose family emigrated via Ellis Island, New York, generations ago, is astounded by the speed with which a network of Irish Americans has coalesced in support of Palestine.
“While others are conversing with friends and siblings, others are communicating with organisers in Ireland,” explains McCann, who has nearly two decades of experience coordinating protests and advocacy initiatives. He describes the astonishing’s rapid nature, ” and further states, “Every time I have a conversation, it leads to three more with three other individuals.”
Since October 7, Irish legislators were among the first in the West to call for a ceasefire. Ireland was the first E.U. member to recognise the existence of a Palestinian state. As such, the country has long been one of Palestine’s most prominent Western supporters. The support of the Irish people is even more committed than that of their politicians: A considerable number of Irish citizens—approximately 80%—assured that Israel was engaging in atrocities in Gaza have also called for a boycott of the White House meeting. Recent statements from an Israeli minister advised Palestinians to “go to Ireland or the desert” in response to this ferocious opposition.
In light of Biden’s ongoing endorsement of Israel’s military campaign, the Irish populace has predominantly abandoned him. A mural of Biden in the birthplace of his ancestor was defaced with red paint and the inscription “Genocide Joe” in November. In a fiery tirade, Irish Member of European Parliament (MEP) Clare Daly directly confronted “Butcher Biden” with the following: “The progenitors of Ireland from which you claim to originate disown you—Abstain from discussing our nation.
The principal organiser of Irish Americans for Palestine, Alison O’Connell, asserts that her organisation has a chance at success “because Biden speaks so frequently about his Irish heritage.” Last week, O’Connell delivered a letter to the Irish embassy requesting that Biden be met less regularly. “People are aware that the energy surrounding St. Patrick’s Day signifies that this is our opportunity to make a statement of some kind,” O’Connell continues.
Protests against the White House meeting will occur this week in multiple cities and at least seven states, including New York, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, and Albuquerque.
Difficulties at the elections
Mike Doyle, a fourth-generation Irish educator residing in Brooklyn, participated in the “St Pat’s for All Parade” held in Queens, New York, on March 3. This parade has been held for several decades as an alternative to the official New York City parade and is the largest and oldest St Patrick’s Day celebration in history. Doyle recalls that as they walked through the historically Irish Sunnyside neighbourhood while carrying ceasefire banners and signs in Gaza, “virtually the entire street was cheering for us and shouting ‘Ceasefire’!”
Irish Americans who oppose Biden’s support for Israel have stated that they intend to be heard not only at protests but also at the polls as the election approaches.
McCann, who supported Biden in the 2020 Maryland primary, has declared that he will cast an “uncommitted” ballot in May to determine the Democratic presidential candidate of the state.
Formerly a Republican, her father voted for Biden in 2020 but is now indecisive, according to O’Connell.
On Friday, Biden told attendees at the “Irish Americans for Biden-Harris 2024 Campaign Kick-off” gathering that he required Irish Americans’ support to win in November. The “most Irish” ranks for the battleground states of New Hampshire, Maine, and Pennsylvania are the highest, fifth, and sixth among Americans of Irish descent in the country.
A loss to Trump in 2016 has been attributed, at least in part, by some to “insufficient attention to Irish-American communities” by Clinton.
Mulligan states, “I simply cannot fathom how he can defend the bombing of universities and hospitals, as well as the internal displacement of 900,000 children.” undoubtedly forfeited my vote for him. Mulligan further states, “He would have had it earlier, but this crossed the line.”
Others continue to support Biden strongly.
Vice-president of the Irish-American Democrats Political Action Committee (PAC) and the Irish for Biden campaign, Brian O’Dwyer, echoed these sentiments, stating that the Irish vote is “without a doubt” one of the few remaining swing ballots in the United States.
O’Dwyer asserts that “the Irish vote in Pennsylvania and Michigan, which both supported Trump in 2016, was a significant factor in Biden’s 2020 presidential victory.” He further states that these states “will almost certainly be targeted in the upcoming election.”
Irish-American Democrats, according to O’Dwyer, continue to be “extremely supportive of how President Biden has handled his support for Israel.” When queried about the protests and objections of Irish Americans, O’Dwyer partially retracts his statement: “Undoubtedly, there has been a change in recent years, weeks, and days. “That has become abundantly clear.”
O’Dwyer states that “at this time of year, we meet frequently with members of the community,” both virtually and in person, to obtain feedback from Irish-American electors. He elaborated that the PAC has yet to be conducted on the matter.
He further stated that although “certainly a few individuals” have expressed apprehensions regarding Gaza, “based on what I’ve gathered from the greater community, they believe the president’s stance is entirely accurate.” O’Dwyer concurred with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s demand to end Netanyahu’s rule, describing him as “the principal impediment to peace” just hours after Schumer issued his call. All universally agree upon his departure.
“Palestine sets everyone free”
O’Dwyer was deemed “willfully out of touch with the actual sentiment of our communities nationwide” by McCann, a registered Democrat who claims to work with Irish Americans in over 30 states. He approximates that over ninety per cent of Irish Americans with whom he converses support Palestine’s independence.
Matt Carthy, a spokesman for foreign affairs at Sinn Fein, the principal opposition party in Ireland, responded to an email regarding the current U.S. policy in Gaza by stating, “Put simply, the United States is on the wrong side of history. Israel must cease receiving arms and financial support so long as it continues to violate international law egregiously.
Sinn Fein Party President Mary Lou McDonald is in the United States this week. She told a Georgetown University audience that Biden was doing everything “terribly, severely wrong.” McDonald is meeting with U.S. leaders, including Rashida Tlaib, a representative from Michigan, and Schumer.
Carthy further observes that “public sentiment has changed significantly there, particularly among Irish-Americans, who have discernibly recognised parallels between the current plight of the Palestinian people and that of their ancestors.”
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Doyle concurs that the Democratic Party establishment is “certainly underestimating the younger generation” regarding their opposition to the Israeli occupation.
“That is not the appearance of modern-day Ireland,” he asserts. “It has anticolonial tendencies. Increasingly, it is secular. It promotes the cause of liberation and human rights. A significant number of Irish Americans would readily identify with that. Indeed, the considerable attention garnered this month as individuals of all ages began to assemble under the banner of Irish Americans for a Free Palestine exemplifies precisely that – it allows us allows us to draw strength from our Irish heritage and principles as conscientious citizens. In doing so, it genuinely embodies the slogan “Palestine will set us all free.”
