Sinn Fein have been forced to deny that Michelle O’Neill is going to run for President of Ireland.
The DUP leader has stated that Sinn Féin’s boycott of the White House is a “manoeuvre” to position First Minister Michelle O’Neill for an Irish presidential candidacy, reports Breaking News.
As part of an annual St. Patrick’s Day tradition, Sinn Féin declared on Friday that its president, Mary Lou McDonald, and vice president, Ms. O’Neill, would not be attending activities in Washington, DC.
In response to US President Donald Trump’s “threat of mass expulsion” of Palestinians from Gaza, the party declared that it was adopting a “principled stance,” reports Breaking News.
It followed Mr. Trump’s suggestion that Israel hand up Gaza to the United States for reconstruction into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” which would require the mass exodus of Palestinians from the region.
Gavin Robinson, the leader of the DUP, described the new Sinn Féin stance as “a bit odd” and stated that his party will have representation in Washington, DC.
Mr. Robinson, who attended meetings in Washington last year when the crisis was raging, asked Sinn Féin why it was continuing the boycott amid a truce in Gaza in a letter to DUP members seen by the PA news agency.
“Go figure that principled position,” he remarked, reports Breaking News.
Ahead of Ireland’s presidential election at the end of this year, Mr. Robinson also said that Sinn Féin was “on manoeuvres to shore up their left wing.”
According to him, this is the reason Dublin hosted the news conference with Ms. O’Neill, reports Breaking News.
Ms. O’Neill denied on Friday that her repeated commitment to be a “First Minister for all” is in conflict with her choice to shun events in the US capital. I think the party has made the right choice,” she told the PA news agency. I am a First Minister for everybody, and I’ve borne that out every day in my role in the last year since I took up that post,” Ms O’Neill said, reports Breaking News.
“But there are times when political leaders are tasked to make a decision, and I had to make a decision, and I believe that the right decision at this time is to come down on the side of humanity. I couldn’t in good conscience travel to the United States, be part of a Shamrock reception in the White House, at a time where the new US administration is actually actively threatening to remove Palestinian people from their land, to seize their land, and they’ve very much moved away from a two-state solution,” reports Breaking News.
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