Archive for the ‘Trump-Putin’ Category
Report of Public Meeting : Solidarity With the People of Ukraine – Bring the Stolen Children Home (Tuesday March 24 2026)
Report of Public Meeting : Solidarity With the People of Ukraine – Bring the Stolen Children Home
Irish Left With Ukraine (ILWU) held a very fruitful meeting on Tuesday 24 March 2026 in the Teachers Club. Interesting insights were shared. The discussion showed us all the hope that if you take action, you can make a difference.
We thank Alex Yurov, Aishe Kurtamet (Crimean refugee and mother of her abducted son Appaz), Catriona Crowe (Archivist and Historian), Sandra Corrigan (INTO Global Solidarity Officer) and Ruth O’ Dea (Labour Party) for their contributions.
Alex Yurov reviewed the situation in Donetsk from 2014, when Russia invaded that part of Ukraine. He gave us details of systematic removal and “re‑education” of children into Russian territory.
Aishe Kurtamet told the story of her son Appaz who was abducted in Crimea.
Aishe gave a sustained account of her son Appaz’s 2023 abduction from Kherson, alleging transfer to occupied Crimea, detention, forced collaboration offers, torture, and imprisonment in multiple Russian facilities; she also reported her son’s father was later abducted, tortured, and sentenced.
Link to information about the plight of Appaz Kurtamet :
Appaz Kurtamet, Aishe Kurtamet
Sandra Corrigan, Global Solidarity Officer of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, described international solidarity work for teachers and children, including a solidarity fund, emergency supplies, trauma support, and advocacy that helped secure teacher salary increases for 2025–2026. Ukrainian teacher union reports emphasised the prolonged conflict and an education crisis.
Catriona Crowe described the fascist and genocidal nature of the war Russia is waging in Ukraine – one proof of that description is the systematic kidnapping and disappearing of children in zones of occupation. She drew our attention to the awful history of child abuse in Ireland’s Mother and Baby homes.
She highlighted the international attention shift away from Ukraine to other conflicts, such as Iran, and the need for continued support.
She emphasized the importance of providing Ukraine with adequate weaponry to resist Russian aggression.
She discussed the broader context of the war, including the unprovoked invasion by Russia and the significant casualties on both sides. war on Ukrainian children, including the kidnapping and indoctrination by Russian authorities.
Read the rest of this entry »Alumina made in Aughinish, Limerick, is exported to smelters that sell aluminium to a trader supplying Russian arms manufacturers – Results of a Major Irish Times Investigation, March 24 2026 “Aughinish exposes a general trend in State attitude to Ukraine, Palestine, human rights …”
Evidence of Limerick-produced alumina entering Russian military supply chain ‘horrific and shocking’, says Labour party leader Ivana Bacik
Aughinish Alumina contributes to Russian war against Ukraine – Ivana Bacik, the Labour party leader, raised the issue in Dáil Éireann :
Link :
Inside the Supply Chain Funneling Irish Alumina to Russian Rockets – OCCRP
Yesterday Conor Gallagher in The Irish Times, working with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, revealed shocking details about the supply chain linked to the Aughinish Alumina plant in Limerick.
His report outlined how significant quantities of alumina from this facility are being exported to Russia, where they are being used to make aluminium, which is then sold to a trading company supplying over 100 Russian weapons manufacturers. It is deeply alarming to see that shipments of Irish alumina to Russia have increased significantly since Putin’s brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It is horrific to see this. It is unconscionable that a plant operating in Ireland could be contributing to materials used in the destruction of so many communities and so much civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and can be used to kill children in Ukraine. This is appalling to see and I do welcome the Taoiseach’s commitment to review this report, but the question is clear: what urgent action will the Taoiseach take to ensure that no Irish-based industry or business is complicit in supporting Russia’s war machine?
Ivana Bacik; Aughinish Alumina plant aids brutal Russian invasion of UkraineIvana Bacik is right to insist that the Irish government must take “urgent action” on this issue – words and good intentions are not good enough.
In the letters page of the Irish Times (Friday May 27) Conor O’Neill – Head of Policy, Christian Aid Ireland; Chair, Irish Coalition for Business & Human Rights points out :
Aughinish exposes a general trend in State attitude to Ukraine, Palestine, human rights …
Read the rest of this entry »
“The brave few documenting ordinary life in Putin’s Russia” – Catriona Crowe
This excellent article appeared in the Friday March 20 2026 issue of the Irish Times :
Concerning the differences between the Ukrainian and Russian States, Catriona Crowe hits the nail on the head :
Casualties are breaking down at a ratio of 2-2.5 to 1, with Russia suffering the largest proportion, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. While the international press can report from Ukraine, although with some difficulty and considerable danger from the front lines, the Kremlin has detained at least 27 journalists since 2022, and 355 international journalists have been branded “foreign agents”.
Irish Times March 20 2026
Catriona Crowe: The brave few risking everything to unmask Putin’s Russia
The Oscar-winning documentary Mr Nobody against Putin is a record of something totally unseen in the world outside Russia
Ukraine is now in the fifth year of its war with Russia, an unprovoked invasion of a sovereign state based on Vladimir Putin’s desire to reconstitute the Russian Empire. It is estimated that casualties for both sides (killed, wounded and missing) will amount to two million sometime this year.
Read the rest of this entry »USA ICE Deportation Flights Passing Through Shannon Airport in Ireland – Dublin Government’s Gardaí Refuse to Intervene
Ukraine, Palestine, Occupation Is A Crime
ICE is an enemy of Palestine, Ukraine and opponents of the barbaric Trump-Friendly régime of Vladimir Putin
The aircraft, a Gulfstream V operated by ICE charter Journey Aviation, left the ICE hub of Mesa, AZ, at 2:28 a.m. local time Wednesday, and landed at Shannon Airport eight and a half hours later. The plane continued on to Cairo International Airport, which ICE has previously used to transfer Russian dissidents and asylum-seekers to Egyptian authorities, who then force them onto planes to Moscow.
Three and a half days after the ICE flight through Shannon Airport. Multiple phone calls and emails to the Gardai, and we’ve heard nothing from them on what action they took to investigate. I’ve been told by one officer that there is nothing on the PULSE record except my initial report.
Here is Gillian Brockell’s excellent report (thanks to Joe Noonan for circulating the information).
Read the rest of this entry »Patrick’s Day 2026 in the Washington DC White House – Social Democrats Leader Holly Cairns TD Makes a Terrible Mistake – She should join the boycott
Boycotting the Trump White House’s Patrick’s Day Event in 2026 is a no-brainer for everybody on the left – but Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns TD thinks differently.
Her justification :
Speaking to reporters in Cork this morning ahead of the second day of the Social Democrat’s National Conference, Cairns said “given the height of contentious things coming from the White House at the moment it is perhaps more important than ever to use this unique platform that Ireland has”.
She said Ireland is a small country, but it can be a very influential one.
“We can be a really strong voice for peace. We think Micheál Martin should use this opportunity to use that strong voice to express the will of the Irish people,” said the SocDems leader.
Source – Journal.ie
Most political parties on the Irish left support a boycott of this nauseating event, with good reason.
In 2025, Donald Trump brutally humiliated Dublin government ministers by accepting his bowl of shamrock a few days before March 17 – which was reserved for the far-right racist, the kick-boxer Conor McGregor. See full reports here, and an excellent Dáil statement by Ruth Coppinger TD.
For many years Sinn Féin mistakenly attended White House Patrick’s Day events, but joined the boycott in 2025.
The SDLP leader Colum Eastwood issued this message in 2024
Labour Party Leader Ivana Bacik TD states :
Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik has said that if US president Donald Trump continues to threaten Europe, then it would not be appropriate for the Taoiseach to visit the White House for St Patrick’s Day.
“If diplomacy this week in Davos, if diplomacy over the coming weeks doesn’t succeed in addressing the appalling threats being made by Trump, then of course Ireland must take its place in solidarity with European leaders who are now calling Trump a bully,” she told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
“And we cannot go to Washington with shamrocks certainly in that context, and we cannot allow US planes to use Shannon and, indeed, other European countries which have US bases I am sure are having this very same conversation.
“Because it is unthinkable that a US which is militarily threatening a sovereign state in Europe could be allowed to use European countries as military bases for that.”
Bacik said the US president has “succeeded in normalising the utterly unacceptable”.
“What we’ve seen in the just a year since he took office, we’ve seen a sort of really creeping fascism taking over in the US.”
The Social Democrats need to change tack, and boycott the 2026 Patrick’s Day Trump event in the Washington DC White House.
John Meehan February 8 2026
Petition Link :
Petition – No Shamrocks for Trump – Boycott White House Patrick’s Day 2026
To: All politicians & political parties on the Island of Ireland
No Shamrocks for Trump – Boycott the White House 2026
We are asking politicians & political parties on the Island of Ireland – to boycott The White House on St. Patrick’s Day.
Why is this important?
The genocide in Gaza continues despite a supposed “ceasefire”. International journalists are still not allowed into Gaza or the West Bank because Israel does not want the world to know what it is doing as it tries to exterminate Palestinians.
While the genocide has been livestreamed to the world since October 7 2023, we still do not know how many people have died as a result. We know that at least 70,000 people have been killed by the Israeli army but have no figures for the number who have died because of lack of medicine for chronic conditions like diabetes, epilepsy, heart conditions etc. Nor do we know how many have died of cancer or other curable conditions. Every step of this genocide has been funded and supported by the United States.
Now Trump has launched his Gaza “Board of Peace” and his son-in-law Jared Kushner shared slides at the launch of the “Board of Peace” showing high rise buildings and fancy hotels built on the bones of those killed in the genocide. Netanyahu, who is on this “Board of Peace” was unable to attend the launch as it was in Switzerland where he would be arrested under the International Arrest Warrant issued because of the genocide.
The reasons why Irish politicians and political parties should not pay homage to Trump have multiplied since the start of this year – the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Maduro is just one example.
We call on all political parties on the island of Ireland to listen to the people and not go to Washington on St. Patrick’s Day to shake hands soaked with the blood of Palestinians.
“Puppets on a Kremlin String” – The Marsh Family
The Marsh Family have released many left-wing songs – this one expresses solidarity with Ukraine.
Link :
Marsh Family
On 1 March 2025, the family uploaded “Puppets on a Kremlin String,” about the betrayal of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy by Donald Trump and JD Vance to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, to the tune of Coldplay’s song “Viva La Vida“. The Marshes write, “Our version takes the sense of history, the pain, the trauma, and the notion of world rule, and applies it to the most disgusting media spectacle to date – with already several to choose from – of the new US administration. Like many around the world, as well as disheartened friends in the US, we watched the undignified ambush of Zelensky’s trip to the White House with dismay and pity. It was a very unbecoming sight – just at a human level – even without all the higher stakes, deals, implications, and nightmares unfolding as another win is handed to Putin, and more pressure placed on Ukraine. Like many we are hoping for a miraculous path forward that can somehow turn Trump’s intensity into an outcome that can transform into a lasting peace – but given how misdirected the fury and energy and narrative is at the moment, it’s quite hard to see it turning out other than a quickfire US withdrawal of support. If that happens, we’re in a cowardly new world.”
“Progressive parties and civil society groups should jointly campaign to force the Government to drop the annual St. Patrick Day’s visit to the White House” – No Irish grovelling in Washington DC on March 17 2026 – Michael Taft’s Call is Spot On
Michael Taft, a researcher employed by the SIPTU trade union makes a very good proposal.
The President of the USA is backing reactionary genocidal actors in many parts of the globe – Ukraine, Palestine – and threatening the people of Iran, Venezuela, and Greenland – the list is growing.
Notes on the Front
Commentary on Irish Political Economy by Michael Taft, researcher for SIPTU
Abandon Paddy’s Day
January 12, 2026
Progressive parties and civil society groups should jointly campaign to force the Government to drop the annual St. Patrick Day’s visit to the White House. There is almost nothing to gain from such a visit and it can only perpetuate what Eoin Burke-Kennedy describes as the ‘Fawning, sycophantic, obsequious [and] “strategic self-emasculation’ approach to the US Administration pursued by Europe and Ireland.
How do you deal with a Head of State who says:
“I don’t need international law . . . [the only limit to my power] is my morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.’
In the last year the US bombed Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Venezuela, Syria and Nigeria. It has threatened to invade or annex Panama, Canada, Mexico, Columbia, Cuba and Greenland. It armed the Israeli government’s genocidal attacks on Gaza.
It has withdrawn from 66 international organisations (a full list is here), including vital climate change bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The Trump Administration’s ‘2025 National Security Strategy’ made clear the current US government’s intention to interfere in European democracies. As the Brookings Institute put it:
‘The document points to the “patriotic European parties”—a reference to the hard right as represented by France’s National Rally, the United Kingdom’s Reform party, and the Alternative for Germany—as America’s real allies in Europe. Its stated goal of “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations” amounts to a policy of constitutional regime change . . . it is the language of tyranny.’
Indeed, Trump’s document directly references Ireland, stating:
‘America is, understandably, sentimentally attached to . . . Britain and Ireland. The character of these countries is also strategically important . . . we want to work with aligned countries that want to restore their former greatness.’
And it just so happens that Steven Bannon, an important Trump ally and MAGA organiser, is already in Ireland:
‘I’m spending a ton of time behind the scenes on the Irish situation to help form an Irish national party , , , [Ireland is] going to have an Irish Maga, and we’re going to have an Irish Trump. That’s all going to come together. That country is right on the edge thanks to mass migration.’
And it so happens that the US Ambassador attended a recent far-right conference in Meath.
Trashing international law, bombing countries and threatening others, pursuing ‘constitutional regime change’ throughout Europe and Ireland: does this deserve a bowl of shamrock?
Humiliation Redux
It’s not as if the Irish Government is ignorant of what could be in store for them on St. Patrick’s Day. Remember the humiliation it received last year. The Taoiseach received an invitation to the White House late in the day (only 12 days’ notice) and it wasn’t even for St. Patrick’s Day. Of course, the President might have been too busy to meet with the Taoiseach. But Trump and Elon Musk had time to meet Conor McGregor on the day, despite the fact that McGregor had been found guilty of rape by a High Court civil jury.
So why would Trump meet McGregor on St Patrick’s Day rather than the elected representative of the Irish people? According to The Times:
‘The Trump family have deepened their business connections with Conor McGregor with the promise of a $23 million investment in one of the form MMA fighter’s business ventures . . . MMA Inc., an American listed martial arts training company . . . Last September Donald Trump Jr. was announced as a “strategic advisor” to the company.’
The Irish Government will have to come up with something special to compete for the US President’s attention.
What’s the Point?
It is difficult to understand what can be achieved with a visit to the White House on St. Patrick’s Day – that’s if the Irish Government even gets an invitation. There is little political influence Ireland can exert given that Trump has scant regard for international opinion (especially European opinion), never mind international law. If anything, a shamrock-as-usual approach is likely to feed Trump’s belief he can act with little blowback. And it is highly unlikely the Taoiseach would sit down in the Oval Office with the US President and, in front of the cameras, lecture him about a rules-based world order.
There is the foreign investment angle; namely, that Ireland needs to maintain inward US investment and, therefore, refusing to meet the US President could stem the flow of US investment. This doesn’t stand up. Over the St. Patrick’s day holiday, Irish Ministers and representatives can continue to meet with American CEOs, as they have done in the past, based on the work of Irish civil servants in US consulates around the country.
Indeed, Ireland might even get some quiet kudos from American CEOs. Trump has made it his business to humiliate CEOs who are reduced to bringing gifts of gold to the White House. The IDA reports that US companies are so cowed by the Trump administration that they don’t release information on investments and job creation here for fear of retribution from Washington. Ireland provides something that Trump derides – consistency and stability. A bowl of shamrock will not impact this dynamic.
A Coalition to Stop the Visit
According to the Minister for Foreign Affairs:
“Where we see challenging behaviour, we have to call it out, and unfortunately there’s been a lot of that from the US . . . So we will always use our voice, however small it might seem”.
What’s the best way to call out ‘challenging behaviour’? Refusing to visit the White House over the St. Patrick’s Day period. This would be a clear statement that Ireland opposes Trump’s arbitrary, chaotic foreign policy; a clear statement of support for a rules-based international order; a rejection of Trump’s ethno-nationalist portrayal of Europe (‘civilisational erasure’); and a determination to stop American nativist ideologues interfering in Irish and European democracy.
The parties that made up the ‘Connolly coalition’ should come together, with civil society organisations, to campaign against a St. Patrick’s Day visit to the White House – putting forward the arguments, mobilising public opinion and showing the power of progressive cooperation on a key foreign affairs event.
However, it is unlikely the Irish Government will concede. So the opposition parties should plan out an alternative St. Patrick’s Day visit with the participation of opposition party leaders and representatives along with civil society activists. This could include solidarity visits to cities that are under siege: Minneapolis, Chicago and Portland. The party representatives could meet with social constituencies that are struggling under Trump’s rule – in particular, the US trade union movement.
Indeed, there could be an alternative ceremony complete with a bowl of shamrocks Why not hold it in New York City and give the bowl to the newly elected Mayor, Zohran Mamdami? The symbolism would be profound, popular and progressive.
And, without interfering in US electoral politics, if the opposition to a White House visit provokes those sections of Irish America who previously supported Trump to re-think their political support – then we will have done the world a service.
That is how you make even a small voice speak loudly.
Link :
Some Extra Context :
Tomás Ó Flatharta 