{"id":473638,"date":"2026-05-29T20:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/473638\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T20:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:18:14","slug":"taoiseach-has-his-say-on-israel-boycott-says-ireland-dont-need-to-be-self-defeating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/473638\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach has his say on Israel boycott, says Ireland don’t need to be ‘self-defeating’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, has commented on the protest that took place on Thursday night during the Republic of Ireland\u2019s 1-0 win over Qatar.<\/p>\n

Twice in the first half, the game had to be stopped<\/a> as protestors threw tennis balls with the Palestinian flag on them onto the pitch. Multiple fans were escorted from the Stadium as a result.<\/p>\n

The protest was part of the great \u2018Stop The Game\u2019 campaign, which is calling on Ireland to boycott their upcoming UEFA Nations League games against Israel later this year, in September and October.<\/p>\n

\"\"Members of security clear tennis balls from the pitch during the international friendly match between the Republic of Ireland and Qatar at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Pic: Tyler Miller\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

The FAI has said that the game is to be played, with CEO David Courell saying they have \u2018no choice\u2019 but to play the matches. Many have called on the government to intervene, but as of yet, the only action taken has been by Minister for Sport Patrick O\u2019Donovan and Charlie McConalogue, who is Minister of State for Sport has have both been saying they won\u2019t attend the match.<\/p>\n

When asked on Friday about any potential boycott after the week of protests leading up to the Qatar game, Taoiseach Micheal Martin<\/a> said: \u2018 We don\u2019t want to damage ourselves unnecessarily.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Government doesn\u2019t run FIFA. The full implications of, say, if the Irish team unilaterally decided to put out, the full implications of that in terms of Irish football need to be worked out.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"TaoiseachTaoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin. Pic: Leah Farrell\/RollingNews.ie<\/p>\n

He added: \u2018There\u2019s a presumption that if they did, some of that would impact on FIFA, it may have no impact at all on FIFA, or indeed on Israel, for that matter.\u2019<\/p>\n

He also added that Ireland\u2019s football has been doing better lately, and that they wouldn\u2019t \u2018want to be self-defeating in terms of any actions\u2019 if they boycott the Israel game.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach was then asked about the possibility of playing the home game in a neutral venue instead of the Aviva Stadium, and he said: \u2018The same principle applies that you\u2019re playing Israel. And it\u2019s a very difficult one.<\/p>\n

\"\"A supporter waves the flag of Palestine during the friendly between Republic of Ireland and Qatar. Pic: Tyler Miller\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

Martin was also keen to make the point that playing one football match doesn\u2019t negate the stance his government have made against Israel and their actions against the Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u2018There is no argument about Ireland\u2019s opposition to what Israel has been doing in Gaza, and everything shouldn\u2019t be reduced to just one match in terms of the articulation of that opposition or protesting about the Israeli government\u2019s behaviour in Gaza itself.<\/p>\n

\u2018It can\u2019t all be boiled down to one football game. I do acknowledge that people want to protest and people are very angry that it\u2019s happening.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, has commented on the protest that took place on Thursday night during the Republic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-473638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473638","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=473638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}