why does Ireland keep turning its back on the Palestinian people?
lip service isn't solidarity, and Ireland needs to be reminded of that.
Good day, spectators,
And first off, I want to apologise for the silence over the past couple of weeks. I’ve been dealing with a flare up of Crohn’s disease, which has kept me away from the desk more than I’d like, it’s a nasty disease but nothing new for me. In any case, I’m back now, and there’s a topic that’s been stuck in my throat for a while, one that was recently agitated after being reminded of it in the worst possible way.
There is a comfortable story that many of us in Ireland like to tell ourselves and it goes like this: Ireland is ‘the most pro-Palestinian country in Europe’. We march in our thousands. We boo the Israeli football team. We fly the Palestinian flag from our balconies. We are different, if not better than the rest. We remember what it was like to be colonised, and we will never turn our backs on those who suffer the same fate.
It is a nice story. It does genuine credit to the Irish people, who do feel this solidarity deeply. But as a nation, as a government, we have a problem. Our actions on the world stage do not match our rhetoric even in the slightest.
Our government in Dublin has repeatedly claimed to be doing ‘all it can’ for Palestine. But when you look beyond the speeches, beyond the flag waving in the Dáil, beyond the carefully crafted press releases, what you find is a government that is consistently, almost pathologically, unwilling to take meaningful action.
And then there is the latest example, the one that reminded me why I needed to write this.
the students we turn away.
Over 20 Palestinian students from Gaza, awarded fully funded scholarships to Irish third level institutions, have had their study visas refused. They had done everything right. They had earned their places through academic excellence. Irish universities had welcomed them, even made preparations to support them in their studies. And then the state stepped in and said no.
The reasons given for the refusals are a masterpiece of bureaucratic cruelty and noting less. Students were rejected for ‘not supplying original bank statements’, ‘failure to account for gaps in their education’, and ‘failure to supply strong evidence that they will return home once their course of study is completed’.
These are requirements designed for a world that no longer exists for them because they come from a country that has been systematically destroyed by years of genocidal war and decades of apartheid. Many of these students have lost their families, their homes, their entire lives. So the idea that they can produce bloody ‘original bank statements’ from a country whose financial infrastructure has been obliterated is ludicrous. The idea that they can guarantee they will return to a country that may not exist when they graduate is shockingly insulting.
As UL Student Life put it plainly:
‘In reality, these students are coming from a country torn apart by genocide, where most of these documents have likely been destroyed.’
When the Green Party’s Patrick Costello raised this with the government, he put it perfectly:
‘This government claims it is doing all it can to support Palestine. Here are Palestinians who want to learn the skills they need to rebuild their country, something the government claims to want, and yet we have a minister standing in the way.’
The minister has significant discretion in relation to these cases. He could bend the rules. He could make an exception. He could do the decent thing. Instead, he is doing nothing.
the bills that barely bite.
The worst thing is that this is not an isolated incident. It is part of a pattern.
Consider the Occupied Territories Bill which you may have heard of. It was supposed to be Ireland’s definitive statement of principle. It was supposed to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. It was supposed to be the Irish equivalent of the campaign against apartheid South Africa. For eight years, campaigners pushed for it. For eight years, the government delayed.
In 2026, they finally passed it. And what did they deliver? A Bill that bans goods from the ‘illegal’ settlements in the West Bank, but excludes services. This is somewhat akin to banning the sale of apples from a stolen orchard whilst allowing the thief to continue selling apple juice, cider, and the orchard’s land management software.
The Department of Foreign Affairs’ own regulatory analysis acknowledged that international law supports a complete ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements. The International Court of Justice had issued an advisory opinion making this clear. The government ignored it.
The ban on goods, whilst welcome, is largely symbolic. As Minister Richmond noted, trade between Ireland and the settlements has been ‘less than one million euros’ over the past four years. The exclusion of ‘services’ is the real story, because services account for approximately 70% of the trade between Ireland and the occupied territories. Think websites and tech and all the wonderful digital infrastructure that props up the occupation.
Frances Black, the Independent Senator who first proposed the bill eight years ago, called it a tragedy and she was right. The government is knowingly passing legislation that leaves it in breach of international legal obligations, and it’s intended to stay that way until a full ban is agreed at EU level, which, as we all know, may never arrive.
The opposition attempted to include services. They were voted down. The government’s excuse was legal complexity, concerns about EU law, and fears of legal challenge. But as Senator Black pointed out, the real reason is that the government is ‘consciously letting large companies providing tech, IT, and other services based trade off the hook’.
the disconnect.
Here is the fundamental contradiction.: the Irish people are are overwhelmingly supportive of Palestine. They have marched, they have donated, they have spoken out…
…yet the government. by contrast, has done the absolute minimum. They have offered lip service. They have recognised the State of Palestine which costs nothing and have provided some aid but they have not imposed meaningful sanctions. They have not expelled the Israeli ambassador nor taken any action that would genuinely inconvenience the Israeli state. The one concrete piece of legislation they have passed is the tiniest, most pathetic fig leaf.
I genuinely cannot think of one tangible thing the Irish government has done for Palestine. Not one action that has cost them anything, that has applied real pressure or has matched the scale of what’s happening in Gaza. The government is consistently, pitifully, unwilling to take meaningful action and that is our problem. The government is our responsibility. They are the ones representing us on the world stage. They are failing us, and failing the Palestinian people, by refusing to turn our empathy into actual leverage.
This is not a particularly comfortable article to write. I am Irish. I do feel the pride of our people’s solidarity with Palestine but I also feel the shame of our government’s cowardice. The Palestinians who were refused visas are not statistics, these are young people who fought through genocide to get an education, who earned scholarships, who were ready to come here and learn, to strengthen our bonds. Yes they are turned away by a government that claims to be their friend.
It does not matter how much we love Palestine if we cannot get our government to do the same. They will not change their course out of the kindness of their hearts or because we’re praying for Palestine. We are the ones who need to keep pushing back and applying pressure and right now, we are failing, miserably.
And on that thought, I’ll let you go,
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Get well soon deaglan, and I hope the Irish people oust their cowardly Zionist government
Hi Deaglan
Very glad to hear that your flare has calmed somewhat; question that you certainly don’t need to reply to if it’s too personal but: do you receive any anti-autoimmune infusions?
Back to your column. I’ve always held the good people of Ireland in highest esteem due to their support of the Palestinian (my) people. My first encounter with my Irish friend was way back in the era of chat rooms; she told me she hated American support of Israel. That led to two visits and a deep friendship.
But back to the real world Deaglan: there’s big money to be had in politics/big business and who are the big donors? (Of course you know the answer.) It makes not a hill of beans worth of difference what the populace wants, as long as the shekels keep flowing.