'Turning a blind eye to genocide': Pro-Palestine group protests US congressman's Killarney visit
Mairead Maguire
reports from Killarney
A GROUP OF around 50 pro-Palestinian protesters held a demonstration at Muckross House in Killarney this afternoon, condemning the county council's hosting of US congressman Richard Neal.
Neal was among the members of the US House of Representatives who voted in favour of financially supporting Israel's siege of Gaza. He also supported a controversial antisemitism awareness bill, which critics say only serves to silence pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses.
Today's protest was primarily organised by the Kerry branch of the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign group, with many attendees being natives of the county.
There were six gardaí visibly present at the protest. Demonstrators were some distance from the walls of Muckross House, as they congregated in the sunken garden to the west of it. However, their chants could be heard from nearly a kilometre away.
These included: 'Richard Neal, you can't hide. You're supporting genocide.'
A sign at the protest
Saoirse, an intensive care nurse, said she was there to condemn the targeting of healthcare workers in Gaza, more than 1400 of whom have been killed by Israel's army since October 2023.
She said it isn't appropriate for Kerry County Council to welcome Neal.
'Of course, we'll have céad míle fáilte … we're the best at doing that. But we can't sit silent while Kerry County Council hosts Richard Neal today.
'You can't fathom the crimes that are happening … targeting journalists, nurses, doctors. You can't deny it.'
A conservative estimate of the death toll so far is above 53,000 people.
Advertisement
One protester held baby shoes covered in fake blood
Saoirse said Ireland is also complicit in the genocide, as it continues to to trade with Israel. She called on the government to pass the long-awaited Occupied Territories Bill, which has been 'sitting on a shelf' since the general election in November.
The Bill in its original form would have banned all trade with illegally occupied territories, including illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine. The revised bill is expected to cover goods but not services.
Neal, the 76-year-old who represents a rural area of Massachusetts, played an key role in facilitating talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement.
For this reason, one protester says his continued support of Israel amounts to 'hypocrisy'.
Maria McCarthy, a retailer in Tralee who helped organise today's demonstration, said:
'Obviously the peace process is really important to Northern Ireland, which is still under occupation.
'We're put in a really horrible position by having him here, having him hosted, and having people stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel because of his position.'
Neal has a connection to the county. His family on his mother's side came from Ventry, near Dingle.
He is among a host of high-profile politicians and businesspeople in town for the Global Economic Summit, which is taking place from Monday 26 May to Wednesday 28 May at the five-star Europe Hotel and Resort just outside Killarney town.
Attendees include Taoiseach Micheál Martin, European Commissioner Michael McGrath, and former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, as well as Irish presenters such as Miriam O'Callaghan and Ivan Yates.
This year's conference will have panel discussions on issues such as trade, artificial intelligence and renewable energy. There is no mention in the programme of the crisis in Gaza.
Muckross House is a Victorian-era country home on Muckross Lake within Killarney National Park. The house is now owned by the State and open to the public during the day.
Neal was to be hosted at an event in the house itself, before a dinner with councillors in one of the old farm cottages on the property.
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
Learn More
Support The Journal
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
2 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Ireland is Israel's second biggest trading partner - we need to look at why
Last weekend, Al Jazeera reported a list of Israel's largest trading partners. Most members of the top 10 were not surprising. In 2024, the USA was by far the most significant, alongside prominent allies the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands. China features in third place. However, Israel's second most significant trading partner shocked many observers: its most 'vocal' European critic, Ireland. From the perspective of those of us who have been advocating for a comprehensive boycott of Israel against its apartheid, occupation, and genocide of Palestinians, this is a bewildering and disappointing statistic. What are we trading with Israel? Israel's exports to Ireland have exploded since 2021. In 2020, exports to Ireland totalled just €198 million. In 2021, this figure skyrocketed to €1.44 billion, growing year on year to €3.26 billion in 2024. What's behind these numbers, and how do they help explain the Government's inaction on the genocide in Gaza - from their unwillingness to fully enact the Occupied Territories Bill (OTB), to stop the sale of Israeli war bonds through the Central Bank, or to close Shannon Airport to the US army? Since the Celtic Tiger, Ireland's economic growth is explained through our tax-friendly facilitation of multinational companies, particularly finance, tech, and pharmaceutical sectors. What has been less interrogated is the extent to which Ireland's dependence on a handful of these US-based companies (with close ties to Israel) influences Ireland's internal and external policy, including on Gaza. The recent figures on exports to Ireland from Israel represent an astonishing growth in trade. In a country so well-known for creative finance and tax arrangements, it might seem reasonable to assume the jump is due to services. But according to financial reporting, the €3.26bn is in goods - not services. The question, though, shouldn't be what are 'we' buying, but which companies are buying? Of the €3.26bn in exported goods, €3.02bn is 'electronic integrated circuits and microassemblies,' mostly used in tech and pharmaceutical manufacturing. All other goods total around €230m, similar to 2020. Who is buying these Israeli goods, and why? One answer may lie in Leixlip, and multinational computer chip manufacturer Intel's Ireland plant. The HSN code for electronic integrated circuits is 8542. When you search that on economic databases, by far the largest exporter of these products from Israel is Intel. Like other multinationals, transfers between national subsidiaries is extremely common, as components are transferred between facilities for fabrication. Leixlip's sister factory is located in Kiryat Gat, Israel, only a few kilometres north of Gaza, with well-reported projects and personnel collaboration between facilities. The Intel plant in Leixlip, Co Kildare. Leixlip's sister factory is located in Kiryat Gat, Israel, only a few kilometres north of Gaza. Whether the plant in Leixlip is relying on components from its Israeli counterpart, or using Ireland to transfer goods internally to take advantage of Irish tax benefits - or maybe both - there is little doubt that a huge chunk of this statistic is coming from the activities of Intel and similar companies. The point is that this trade is about an economic relationship more so than about specific goods or services consumed or performed in Ireland. Intel's global headquarters remain in California, where most of these profits continue to accumulate, even if its global finances and fabrication supply chains are filtered through Ireland as one stopping point between Israel and the US. Dependency Intel has been a boycott target, but its entrenchment in the Irish political economy goes much deeper than anything we can meaningfully stop buying. Beyond specific numbers, this is worth historicising: Intel is remembered as the 'whale' that the IDA finally landed in 1989, after 30 years of foreign direct investment (FDI)-led industrialisation policy. By the end of the century, Ireland was the world's second largest exporter of software behind the US, with software products accounting for 12% of the country's exports. Seán Lemass and TK Whitaker's late-1950s economic pivot is usually heralded as the origin of Irish modernisation and prosperity, but Intel bore the fruit of its success. Sociologist Denis O'Hearn has shown, however, that this founding myth of modern Ireland often elides the decisive role of the US in shaping post-War Government policy. The US wanted Ireland to end protectionism and open itself to free trade, particularly with more economically-protected Europe. This meant favourable conditions for US companies, including grants for factories, machinery, low-cost electricity, and tax relief on profits. Why did the US have such a say in Irish economic policy? As elsewhere, it was through economic instruments such as trade and debt, as well as more overt forms of political and military intervention. This was what dependency theorists in Latin America and Africa were coming to understand throughout the 1960s. While countries across the Third World gained formal independence, they found themselves subject to new forms of economic dependence at the hands of the US and former European colonial powers. As Brazilian economist Theotonio Dos Santos explained in 1970: "[b]y dependence we mean a situation in which the economy of certain countries is conditioned by the development and expansion of another economy to which the former is subjected." As the US took on a greater role in shaping Ireland's economic policy, it also influenced our foreign policy. In 1957, Frank Aiken, Minister for Foreign Affairs, came under criticism for positions he took up on behalf at the UN General Assembly. Embodying an active policy of neutrality, Aiken sought to stand above imperialist blocs and alliances. But this was in stark contrast with a new economic policy to woo US industry and investment. "Does this entice anybody or make them more amenable to come to us and help us here if we take up that attitude, when we act in an independent and, I may say, irresponsible fashion?" questioned one Fine Gael TD in the Dáil. The resonances with today are undeniable. So what? A few things in the past week highlight how Ireland's ongoing dependency is shaping the State's inaction on Gaza. First, the OTB was finally tabled by the Government, excluding services. Second, an action to the Dáil to stop Israeli war bonds being sold through the Central Bank was blocked by a majority 87 Government and independent TDs. Third, the Taoiseach publicly referred to Israel's actions in Gaza as a 'genocide,' placing the blame on the shoulders of Netanyahu's right-wing Government. These three events solidify the gap between rhetoric and action that protects Ireland's economic complicity. For all the performative statements by Government officials and TDs, meaningful sanctions on the Israeli economy would jeopardise Ireland's economic position. Palestinians inspect the damage at a UN school used as a shelter by displaced residents that was hit by Israeli military strikes, killing more than 15 people, in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip, last month. Photo: AP/Jehad Alshrafi This is a result of dependency. Ireland's complicity in these systems is about facilitating economic relationships between companies and financial institutions rather than anything the majority of Irish people actually buy or materially benefit from. As the Financial Times reports, the exclusion of services from the OTB by the Government is not to protect trade necessarily. Ireland's trade with the Occupied Territories is negligible, with goods amounting to only a few hundred thousand euro in the past five years. By excluding services, though, the Government has shielded companies with EMEA headquarters in Ireland from being subject to Irish law for their operations in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights - like Airbnb, or insurance brokers, who advertise lets and services in these illegal settlements. Thus, it is revealing that the Government has refused to leverage its strongest position: its role as a platform for multinationals between the US and Europe. The removal of services isn't about specific trade flows or company profits, but it surfaces contradictions about Ireland's role in the capitalist world system. It also highlights the increasing misalignment between Government action and popular sentiment: 61% of Irish people support full sanctions on the Occupied Territories. 'Consequences' Even worse, it illustrates the State's embedded complicity in imperialist war economies. In November 2024, a report from The Ditch revealed that the US ambassador to Ireland, Claire Cronin, had written directly to the Tánaiste warning of "consequences" if Ireland enacted the OTB. In her email, the Ambassador cited more than 1,000 US companies located in Ireland that would be adversely affected by the passing of the OTB. This is a clear example of the US using its economic dominance over Ireland to advance its own foreign policy goals, and raises the questions: who makes decisions, and who determines Ireland's foreign and trade policy? We have to acknowledge that the lack of action by this Government is about the State's longer-term foreign and trade policy. Remember, top civil servants informed ministers that the OTB would be an act of 'economic terrorism.' Of course we need to hold Government politicians to account and advocate boycotts and sanctions where we can. But if a different Government was in power tomorrow, without changing the model of economic development, would they be able to do anything materially different? The Government's words of solidarity and condemnation, let alone paltry action, mean less than nothing when it is entrenched State policy to allow multinational companies to launder profits reaped from genocide and apartheid. Without confronting this core facet of Irish State development policy, the treadmill of Government inaction will continue apace. What is to be done? Justifiably, people might feel bewildered and disempowered. It's about the entire Irish economic model, and not specifically boycottable targets; and at the same time, the Government acts at the behest of economic powers, rather than the people of Ireland. What can we do? Dependency theory offers a starting point, and one that has been marginalised in mainstream Irish politics and economic thinking. If we are serious about taking more action on Gaza, we have to understand that the genocide has brought to the surface the contradictions of Ireland's position in the world and amongst sabre rattling empires. Given Ireland's deep involvement in US-Israeli trade, industry, and finance, we are strategically placed to make a difference. The most tactical pressure points remain US warplanes going through Shannon, the sale of Israeli war bonds, the OTB, and the EU's economic relationships with Israel. Each of these surface Ireland's long-standing dependency on the US and positioning between the EU. Shifting this dynamic will require enormous, concerted and focussed pressure. Understanding Ireland's dependency as a defining feature of Irish economic development also allows us to see how the State's undemocratic actions to support global extractive industries, erode our neutrality, and fail on Palestine are part of the same political economic matrix. These three fronts will converge at the national demo for peace and neutrality taking place in Dublin on June 14. This is an opportunity to show the Government that we want serious, meaningful action to untangle Ireland from its complicity in imperialist economic rivalries, wars, and genocides. Read More Aid is being utterly weaponised, and the result is chaos
RTÉ News
3 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Extensions for older relatives could be exempt from planning
Attic conversions and extensions for the purpose of housing elderly relatives could be exempt from planning before the end of the year, Minister for Housing James Browne will tell Cabinet later. Habitable modular cabins in homeowners' gardens, along with the subdivision of dwellings, could also be permitted without planning permission under proposals that are currently being considered. Work on the planning exemptions is now well advanced after 11 Government departments, local authorities and planning bodies have given their views on the initiative. Before the regulations are finalised, there will be a public consultation this month. Mr Browne will inform the Government that adapting dwellings to meet people's needs is a key priority. The changes could also see some design restrictions for home extensions abolished, such as the requirement for a pitched roof. Storage structures at the front of homes for bikes and bins could also be allowed. The proposals have been described by Minister for State John Cummins as a practical measure that will provide housing options for people. The changes will be contained in the Planning and Development Act, which is set to be implemented in full before the end of the year. If this does not happen, it is possible the planning exemptions will be progressed separately. Defective Concrete Blocks Bill Minister for Housing James Browne will also seek Cabinet approval today to draft the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks (Amendment) Bill. The Bill will include technical amendments to make the scheme fairer. The increased scheme cap and rates will now apply to all applicants who incurred costs since 29 March 2024. The construction of a new dwelling adjacent to a defective home will be permitted in very limited circumstances for vulnerable families. The period allowed to complete the remediation works will increase from 65 weeks to 130 weeks. Cabinet to hear plans to increase prison spaces Separately, Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan will update Cabinet on plans to accelerate the construction of 960 prison spaces by the end of the decade. He will inform the Government that the prison system is currently operating at 115% over capacity with a new record high of 5,394 individuals detained in mid-April. This is an 11% rise in 12 months and over 1,100 more people are in prison compared to January 2023. Mr O'Callaghan intends to introduce an electronic tagging pilot programme in the coming months. Meanwhile, Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke is setting up a new group aiming to reduce the cost of running a business. The Cost of Business Advisory Forum will hold its first meeting on 11 June. The forum will meet at least six times and deliver its recommendations to the Government in early 2026.
The Irish Sun
4 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Family of terrorist who hurled Molotov cocktails at pro-Israel demonstrators detained by US immigration cops
The family of a terrorist suspect who threw Molotov cocktails at pro-Israel activists were detained by immigration cops. Mohamed Sabry Soliman's wife and five kids were yesterday seized by the Department of Homeland Security after it emerged he illegally outstayed his US visa. Advertisement 2 Mohamed Sabry Soliman is alleged to have yelled 'you all deserve to die' and 'Free Palestine' in Boulder, Colorado, at American Jews Credit: AP 2 Soliman was seen bandaged in his mugshot after the horror attack Credit: Alamy Egyptian national Soliman, 45, reportedly injured 12 people, including an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor , on Sunday. The suspect yelled 'you all deserve to die' and 'Free Palestine' in Boulder, Colorado, at American Jews calling for the return of Israeli hostages. The shirtless fiend used an improvised flamethrower and petrol bombs, leaving several victims with severe burns, in the attack at a busy shopping centre in Boulder, Colorado. Kristi Noem of the DHS said: 'This terrorist will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law . Advertisement 'We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this attack. 'I am continuing to pray for the victims of this attack and their families.' Soliman will be charged tomorrow, including with 16 counts of attempted murder. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has blamed his predecessor, Joe Biden, for allowing Soliman to illegally overstay a tourist visa. Advertisement Most read in The Sun Breaking Exclusive Prosecutors believe he had planned the attack for a year and was only put off by waiting for one of his daughters to graduate from high school. Soliman was born in Egypt and lived in Kuwait for 17 years before moving to Colorado, where he worked as an Uber driver, in August 2022. Eight burned after man shouting 'free Palestine' targets crowd with Molotov cocktails in 'terror attack' in Colorado
