{"id":425666,"date":"2026-04-30T19:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T19:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/425666\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T19:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T19:03:08","slug":"seven-irish-citizens-held-by-israel-after-interception-of-gaza-aid-flotilla-in-international-waters-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/425666\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven Irish citizens held by Israel after interception of Gaza aid flotilla in international waters \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ronan McGreevy<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s detention of vessels involved in the Global Sumad Flotilla has been widely condemned by European countries. <\/p>\n

Both Spanish prime minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez and the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni described the seizure of the vessels as \u201cunlawful\u201d and called for all their nationals to be released by the Israelis. <\/p>\n

Seven Irish citizens are being held by Israel<\/a> after boats from the flotilla were intercepted in international waters off of Crete, Greece<\/a>, on Wednesday, the flotilla\u2019s organisers said.<\/p>\n

Margaret Connolly, the sister of President Catherine Connolly<\/a>, was among the 22 Irish people on the boats. She is not among the seven whose identity has so far been revealed.<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez said Israel was violating international law by \u201cassaulting a civilian flotilla in waters that do not belong to it. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur Government is doing everything necessary to protect and assist the detained Spaniards.\u201d <\/p>\n

Italy condemns Israel\u2019s seizure of aid ships bound for Gaza and demands the immediate \u200brelease of all Italians who have been \u201cunlawfully detained,\u201d \u200cPrime Minister Giorgia Meloni\u2019s office said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Germany and Italy\u2019s \u2060foreign ministries issued a joint statement saying they were following \u200cdevelopments \u200cwith \u201cdeep \u200bconcern\u201d.<\/p>\n

The statement, which did not mention Israel by name, called for \u201cfull respect of international law\u201d \u2060and avoidance of \u201cirresponsible \u200bactions,\u201d adding that the two \u200bcountries were committed to guaranteeing the safety of their citizens.<\/p>\n

Israel intercepted the vessels<\/a> in international waters near Greece late on Wednesday, a move the organisers — Global \u200bSumud Flotilla — called an act of piracy against \u200bboats carrying humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s foreign minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar said in a statement that Israel had \u201csuccessfully blocked attempts to breach the lawful naval blockade on Gaza and the arrival of vessels from the provocative flotilla, including last night.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll participants in the provocative flotilla who were taken off the vessels were taken off unharmed. In coordination with the Greek government, the individuals transferred from the flotilla vessels to the Israeli vessel will be disembarked on a Greek beach in the coming hours.\u201d <\/p>\n

Sa\u2019ar said the Greek government will receive the flotilla participants and he recommended that those \u201cnot interested in provocations but rather in humanitarian aid to Gaza\u201d to do so through President Trump\u2019s Board of Peace. <\/p>\n

The current flotilla departed Barcelona on April 12th. Organisers said it was intercepted in international waters. Crete is more than 800km from Israel.<\/p>\n

In late 2025, a previous iteration of the flotilla, which aims to circumvent Israeli controls on goods entering Gaza by providing aid by sea, was intercepted. Those on-board, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and several Irish citizens, were detained by Israeli forces<\/a> and ultimately deported from Israel.<\/p>\n

An Irish spokeswoman for the Global Sumud Flotilla, has said that seven Irish citizens have been \u201ckidnapped by the Israeli forces in international waters\u201d.<\/p>\n

The seven activists identified have been named as Fiacc \u00d3 Brolch\u00e1in, Martin Guilfoyle, Colm Byrne, Robert Murphy, Caitriona Graham, John Connellan and Michael Fix. <\/p>\n

\u00d3 Brolch\u00e1in, from south Dublin, is a sailor with more than \u206050 years of experience at sea<\/a>. Martin Guillfoyle, originally from Clare but now based in the UK, is the uncle of the Co Clare Sinn F\u00e9in Cllr Tommy Guilfoyle. <\/p>\n

Michael Fix is an American and Irish citizen with family from Galway and Mayo. He was previously detained by Israel on the 2025 Freedom Flotilla with Greta Thunberg and released on October 7th. Caitriona Graham, an activist from Dublin, was also on the 2025 fleet. <\/p>\n

Colm Byrne is from north Kildare, while Robert Murphy is from Finglas. <\/p>\n

Five of the group had pre-recorded videos to be released in the event of the capture of their boats by Israeli forces. These were shared on the Instagram of the Irish delegation of the Global Sumud Flotilla on Thursday morning. <\/p>\n

The seven detainees are among the 22 Irish people, aged between their 20s and their 70s, according to the organisers, on the flotilla. <\/p>\n

The remaining boats are anchored near Crete at present due to stormy conditions and are expected to resume their journey next week.<\/p>\n

Catherine Connolly said she was \u201cvery conscious of arrests that have been made of Irish citizens (among other citizens) on the flotilla\u201d.<\/p>\n

The President was speaking to members of the diaspora the Global Irish Civic Forum taking place in Croke Park on Thursday.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday night, the President said criticism of links between the University of Galway and Israel institutions could not be ignored. <\/p>\n

In a speech delivered to the alumni organisation of her alma mater in Dublin, she called for reflection on the nature of ties between Irish institutions and those of States and organisations carrying out violations of human rights.<\/p>\n

The text of her speech, published on the Aras an Uachtairain website, reads: \u201cIn this regard I know that staff and students of the University of Galway have raised serious concerns over ties between the university and educational institutions in Israel\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese concerns cannot be ignored, given our obligations under national and international law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The University of Galway has said it will not participate in any new institutional research agreements involving direct Israeli partners in the future in response to the conflict in Gaza.<\/p>\n

However, the university told staff and students last September that it would continue its involvement as a co-ordinating partner in an existing \u20ac3.9 million research project also involving an academic institution in Israel.<\/p>\n

\"MargaretMargaret Connolly at Dublin Castle for the presidential inauguration of Catherine Connolly last year. Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien <\/p>\n

Margaret Connolly, a GP from Sligo, is one of the President\u2019s 13 siblings. In an interview with The Sligo Champion before her departure, Connolly said: \u201cI have joined the flotilla because we cannot stand by while millions are subjected to forced starvation and an illegal siege.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel, \u2060which controls all access to the Gaza Strip, denies withholding supplies for its two million residents.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s United Nations envoy, Danny Danon, said \u2060the flotilla \u201cwas stopped before reaching our \u2060area\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a \u200bposting on X, he added, \u201cOur brave [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers are acting with professionalism and determination dealing with a group of delusional attention-seeking agitators.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ronan McGreevy Israel\u2019s detention of vessels involved in the Global Sumad Flotilla has been widely condemned by European…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3656,3409,2917,42,3410,4267,3411,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-425666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-gaza-strip","tag-greece","tag-headlines","tag-israel","tag-israel-defence-forces","tag-israel-hamas-conflict","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425666","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=425666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}