{"id":298459,"date":"2026-02-14T22:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T22:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/298459\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T22:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T22:55:08","slug":"minister-disagrees-with-taoiseach-over-football-matches-against-israel-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/298459\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister disagrees with Taoiseach over football matches against Israel \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister of State Marian Harkin<\/a> has said she believes the forthcoming football fixtures between Ireland and Israel<\/a> should not go ahead, a position in contrast with Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s recent draw in the Uefa<\/a> Nations League has sparked controversy<\/a> given the recent Gaza<\/a> conflict. <\/p>\n

On Saturday, Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> leader Mary Lou McDonald<\/a> also called on the Football Association of Ireland<\/a> (FAI) not to play the matches, saying: \u201cIsrael should be given the red card.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Taoiseach has come out in favour of the games<\/a>, saying the FAI was correct to say they would go ahead. Speaking on Friday, Martin said: \u201cIt should go ahead, and I think the FAI has taken the correct decision to fulfil the fixture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin said Ireland had not declared an official boycott of Israel and efforts were now concentrated on peace in the Middle East. <\/p>\n

However, speaking on RT\u00c9 Radio 1\u2019s Saturday with Cormac \u00d3 hEadhra programme, Harkin, an Independent member of Government<\/a>, acknowledged that she was \u201cat odds on a personal view\u201d with the Taoiseach. <\/p>\n

She initially told \u00d3 hEadhra it was \u201cvery challenging when sport overlaps with politics\u201d, and her view was \u201cthat it\u2019s up to the FAI to decide about the fixture\u201d. <\/p>\n

However, when pressed she said: \u201cI think that, personally, I wouldn\u2019t go to it, and personally, if I were deciding \u2013 I\u2019m not the FAI, I\u2019m not Uefa, I\u2019m not the Taoiseach, this is my personal view \u2013 yes \u2013 I wouldn\u2019t agree that it should go ahead. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just my personal view and some people agree with that and others don\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n

On the same programme Richard Boyd Barrett<\/a> of People Before Profit<\/a> said the matches \u201cshouldn\u2019t be played\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to stop normalising a state that has committed genocide and is guilty of decades of ethnic cleansing and apartheid,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Boyd Barrett commended \u201cIrish football\u201d for its stance on not wanting to play Israel and said the FAI agreed to play only because of the \u201cdouble standards of Uefa, which expelled Russia<\/a> after the invasion of Ukraine<\/a>, but not Israel after its campaign in Gaza. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister of State Marian Harkin has said she believes the forthcoming football fixtures between Ireland and Israel should…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[13446,3409,1523,42,3410,29336,3658,1843,43,43923,68900,3589,3415,40,38,41,39,30918,9688],"class_list":{"0":"post-298459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-football-association-of-ireland-fai","9":"tag-gaza-strip","10":"tag-government","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-marian-harkin","14":"tag-mary-lou-mcdonald","15":"tag-micheal-martin","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-people-before-profit-solidarity-pbps","18":"tag-richard-boyd-barrett","19":"tag-russia","20":"tag-sinn-fein","21":"tag-top-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topnews","24":"tag-topstories","25":"tag-uefa","26":"tag-ukraine-crisis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298459","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=298459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}