{"id":427407,"date":"2026-05-01T18:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T18:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/427407\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T18:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T18:46:10","slug":"seven-irish-activists-on-gaza-flotilla-detained-by-israel-released-in-greece-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/427407\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven Irish activists on Gaza flotilla detained by Israel released in Greece \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The seven Irish citizens who were detained after Israeli<\/a> forces intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla have been handed over to the Greek authorities, its organisers have said.<\/p>\n

The seven were taken \u201calong with hundreds of others\u201d, said Karen Moynihan, head of the Global Sumud\u2019s Irish delegation. <\/p>\n

The Global Sumud Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza <\/a>\u200bset sail from Barcelona<\/a> in Spain on April 12th, aiming to try to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.<\/p>\n

The group said its boats were in international waters off the coast of the Greek island of Crete when Israeli authorities \u201crammed\u201d and boarded their vessels on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

The Irish citizens who were taken have been named as Catriona Graham, Fiacc O\u2019Brolchain, Robert Murphy, Colm Byrne, Martin Guilfoyle, Michael Fix and John Connellan.<\/p>\n

The organisers said two men \u2013 Saif Abukeshek and Thiago \u00c1vila \u2013 were \u201ctaken hostage\u201d by the Israelis after the others were released in Crete.<\/p>\n

Margaret Connolly, sister of President Catherine Connolly<\/a>, was among the 22 Irish people on the boats but was not detained by Israeli forces. <\/p>\n

Speaking to The Irish Times, she said she wanted to condemn the taking of the two men as hostages saying it was \u201cabsolutely outrageous\u201d and \u201cvery worrying\u201d.<\/p>\n

Connolly said she was at the front of the boat on lookout on Wednesday night when a baby bird landed on the boat and went under her blanket and up the leg of her shorts. She said it was a \u201csurreal\u201d moment. While another woman on board was taking photos of the bird, they noticed drones nearby.<\/p>\n

Light started coming towards them \u201cvery rapidly\u201d. She said \u201cwe were warned that this light, if it gets brighter, that\u2019s a ship coming our direction\u201d.<\/p>\n

Others on board \u201cknew instinctively it was the Israelis\u201d.<\/p>\n

She went downstairs in the vessel to put on longer trousers and a top and to get the medicine bag and the passports of those on board. By the time she was back up, \u201cit was all over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were 70 miles off the coast of Crete, in Mediterranean waters, international waters, we have no weapons, we\u2019re on our way to open a humanitarian pathway to Gaza, there\u2019s starvation and a siege on, we have done nothing wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said her boat took off \u201clike the hammers of hell\u201d to escape as \u201cthere was nothing we could do to help our neighbouring boat, which was only 10 metres from us,\u201d and is now safe, in a location she cannot disclose.<\/p>\n

She said they didn\u2019t know why the Israeli forces didn\u2019t come on to their boat, adding: \u201cWe were lucky because they did not come back for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connolly later told RT\u00c9\u2019s Six One news that she had joined the flotilla in her own right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am totally here in my own right; the president knows that. I am here as Dr Margaret Connolly, a mother, a human being and a GP. I am here in my own right for myself and to wake people up that this bloody genocide has to stop. We have to stop normalising violence and war as if it is a computer game. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is absolutely insane to allow the US government and the western powers to enact this genocide – ongoing for three years almost, and feel that they can get away with it, acting with impunity everywhere they go they destroy societies. They are out to destroy the people of Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Seven Irish citizens held by Israel after Gaza aid flotilla intercepted in international watersOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Rachel McNicholl, the wife of Fiacc O\u2019Brolchain, said she was \u201ccompletely shocked\u201d when she heard her husband\u2019s ship had been intercepted by Israel. <\/p>\n

McNicholl said she has not received any direct communication from her 74-year-old husband since Wednesday afternoon. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have been getting updates from the Department of Foreign Affairs. I got a phone call from them yesterday morning saying that they know that Fiacc is one of the people being detained. There were not sure yesterday evening if they were going to be taken to Israel or what.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, this morning it was confirmed that the seven detained Irish citizens were to be handed over the Greek authorities rather than taken to Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis morning I got a call from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the flotilla group that the latest was that they were going to be taken on an Israeli ship and handed over to Greek authorities.\u201d <\/p>\n

McNicholl said her husband did not originally intend to travel as far as Gaza, and did not expect to be detained by Israel.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Israelis view Gaza flotilla as a publicity stunt rather than reliefOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very tough but he is 74. He felt it would be enough of a contribution if he helped with getting the boats ready and upskilling the crew and then he would come home,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Jamie Goldrick said he was about to start cutting onions on board the Shireen, an independent observer boat accompanying the Global Sumud Flotilla, when he realised something was wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got an alert and the group chat that we are all in just started going off. There\u2019s probably 700 different people in that group chat from all the different boats and flotillas,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

The alert referred to Israel\u2019s<\/a> interception of aid \u200cships bound for Gaza<\/a> in international waters near Greece, more than 1,000 nautical miles from Gaza, which flotilla organisers on Thursday described as an \u201cescalation of Israel\u2019s impunity\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"JamieJamie Goldrick said he could see flotilla boats were being boarded on the CCTV <\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, people thought it was the coast guard, and then we noticed a war ship in the distance. Our radio signal jammed and it went really static and then we started hearing pop songs coming through the signal like Blue (Da Ba Dee) by Eiffel 65. So I was down below trying to frantically upload stuff to the cloud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goldrick said: \u201cWe heard someone who was purporting to be Israeli say that we were breaking international law. It became clear that boats were going out of communication; you could see boats were being boarded on the CCTV on the starlink.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was almost like a game of Pac-Man. The Israelis were picking off the boats one by one and arresting them,\u201d said the documentary film-maker. <\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s detention of vessels involved in the Global Sumad Flotilla on Wednesday evening was 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

\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t take Irish citizens being kidnapped in Europe to realise how rogue and lawless Israel is,\u201d said Mikey Cullen, a poet and secondary school teacher from Beaumont. <\/p>\n

He is travelling on the Giro Lama, one of the 58 vessels on the Global Sumud Flotilla, of which 22 boats have been detained. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had more or less ran through certain procedures involving drone attacks and interception early yesterday evening. Within about an hour or two into us doing the drills, word came on the radio that certain boats had been attacked, that there was a naval ship and these little ribs going around,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"RobRob Murphy, who is being held by Israeli forces, and Mikey Cullen <\/p>\n

\u201cYou could kind of see the lasers in the distance; the spotlight on their guns. Initially, I think they were intimidating the boats, so they were going up pointing weapons at them ordering them to turn around and then eventually they did start abducting people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis should outrage everyone in the world whether you\u2019re fanatically pro-Palestine or not. Israel\u2019s rogue barbarity and lawlessness on the international stage is putting every single person in the world in danger. It\u2019s set a horrific precedent where huge military powers can do whatever they like.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cormac O\u2019Daly, who is a web developer from Ireland based in Vienna, believes that members of the flotilla are still at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now in Greek territorial waters which should give us some kind of safety but it doesn\u2019t when you are dealing with Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n

Sailing on the Blue Toys boat with six others including the President Catherine Connolly\u2019s sister Dr Margaret Connolly and PhD student Louise McCormack, O\u2019Daly\u2019s cabin is laden with aid. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the boxes in my room right now, we have rice, pasta, flour, sugar, beans, fish … jam, tomato paste, energy biscuits which are high-calorie energy biscuits. Then the medical aid boxes and prosthetics for children that have lost limbs,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He is a veteran of the flotilla, having taken part in the Viva Palestina convoy to Gaza in 2009. <\/p>\n

He describes Israel\u2019s actions on Wednesday night as \u201cabsolutely unprecedented\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"CormacCormac O’Daly on the the Blue Toys <\/p>\n

He said that usually the Israeli authorities intercept about 150 nautical miles from Gaza as opposed to 1,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a crime and European governments need to do something about this. Israel has no jurisdiction in international waters. For them to attack us off the coast of Crete within international waters, it\u2019s an act of piracy.\u201d <\/p>\n

O\u2019Daly said: \u201cDelivering humanitarian aid to Gaza should not be dangerous. At this point, we are scared. They weren\u2019t held accountable last time. Israel has total impunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The seven Irish citizens who were detained after Israeli forces intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla have been handed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3656,1844,3409,18425,42,3410,43,32238,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-427407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-department-of-foreign-affairs","tag-gaza-strip","tag-giorgia-meloni","tag-headlines","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-pedro-sanchez","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427407","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=427407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}