{"id":289260,"date":"2026-02-09T19:55:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T19:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/289260\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T19:55:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T19:55:50","slug":"irishman-detained-by-ice-appeals-to-taoiseach-to-raise-case-with-trump-amid-torture-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/289260\/","title":{"rendered":"Irishman detained by Ice appeals to Taoiseach to raise case with Trump amid \u2018torture\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Irishman living in the United States<\/a> for more than 20 years who has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a> (Ice) since last September has described the experience as \u201ca torture\u201d in a new interview. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how much more I can take,\u201d Seamus Culleton said, calling for Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> to raise his case with US president Donald Trump<\/a> during his forthcoming visit.<\/p>\n

Originally from Glenmore, Co Kilkenny<\/a>, he is married to a US citizen and owns a plastering business in the Boston area. He was arrested on September 9th, 2025, and has been in an Ice detention facility in Texas for nearly five months, despite having no criminal record, \u201cnot even a parking ticket\u201d. <\/p>\n

His case was reported by The Irish Times on Monday morning<\/a>. He spoke again about his situation on RT\u00c9 Radio 1\u2019s Liveline programme. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Absolute hell\u2019: Irishman with valid US work permit held by Ice since SeptemberOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a horrible, horrible, horrible place,\u201d he said of his detention camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not in fear of the other inmates. I\u2019m afraid of the staff. They\u2019re capable of anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

People had been advising him to stay positive but it was \u201cvery tough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try my best. I talk to my wife every day, she\u2019s my rock. I talk to my mother and sister most days. They\u2019re all rooting for me, I know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what his message to Irish politicians would be, he said: \u201cJust try to get me out of here and do all you can please. It\u2019s an absolute torture, psychological and physical torture. I just want to get back to my wife. We\u2019re so desperate to start a family\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be so grateful if we could just end this. I\u2019ve been detained now for five months. It\u2019s just a torture, I don\u2019t know how much more I can take,\u201d he said, as his voice broke on the line.<\/p>\n

He would like the Taoiseach to bring up his release on his upcoming St Patrick\u2019s Day visit to meet Trump in Washington, he said.<\/p>\n

The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that it was aware of the case and had been providing \u201cconsular assistance\u201d through the Irish consulate in Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Embassy in Washington DC is also engaging directly with the Department of Homeland Security at a senior level in relation to this case,\u201d a spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n

A Government spokesman said that the Taoiseach had been briefed today about the case and reiterated the Department of Foreign Affairs\u2019 statement about the efforts being made at a national level on the case.<\/p>\n

However, officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the Government would not be able to influence the legal processes in the US, but would continue to offer whatever assistance they could<\/p>\n

The Kilkenny TD John McGuinness said that he had asked the Taoiseach to intervene in the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be asking for an immediate response in terms of contacting the White House,\u201d he said. He said that the consulate in Austin was doing all they can, \u201cbut it\u2019s really at a higher level that we need an intervention now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAction is required now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Culleton\u2019s sister Caroline said she wants \u201caction now\u201d on her brother\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had got to the point where we had to go public on it,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m really hoping that I can get him to walk out those gates and get on with his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said on Monday evening that she had had no contact from Irish Government officials as yet.<\/p>\n

She hopes that media coverage and public support is going to give her brother \u201ca bit of a boost\u201d and \u201ca little bit of reassurance\u201d that his family is doing all they can. It has been an overwhelming period for the family. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been devastating,\u201d Caroline says. \u201cAt the start, you get that initial shock and you think to yourself, \u2018What in the name of God?\u2019. Then it becomes more real and it becomes harder. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo hear what he\u2019s going through in there. To be so useless here. You can\u2019t go over there because you\u2019re not guaranteed visitation rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seamus has had access to a phone in the detention facility, and he has been calling his mother, who is home in Ireland, every day. He and Caroline have also been in regular contact.<\/p>\n

Last night, for the first time since the beginning of the ordeal, Seamus\u2019 wife Tiffany was able to video call her husband. \u201cHe\u2019d lost a lot of weight,\u201d Caroline said. \u201cHis physical demeanour. He looks totally different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just hope he\u2019s okay and that this doesn\u2019t scar him for the rest of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Irishman living in the United States for more than 20 years who has been detained by Immigration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[969,42,66408,12969,1843,43,9904,40,38,41,39,115],"class_list":{"0":"post-289260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-ice-us-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","11":"tag-kilkenny","12":"tag-micheal-martin","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-top-news","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-topnews","18":"tag-topstories","19":"tag-united-states"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}