{"id":528637,"date":"2026-07-02T02:58:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T02:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/528637\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T02:58:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T02:58:27","slug":"volodymyr-zelenskiy-thanks-ireland-for-support-during-dublin-castle-address-homepage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/528637\/","title":{"rendered":"Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanks Ireland for support during Dublin Castle address – Homepage"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bairbre Holmes, Press Association<\/p>\n

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked Ireland for its support as he addressed the opening ceremony of the State\u2019s EU presidency at Dublin Castle on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian president said Ireland had stood by his country and its people from the \u201cvery beginning\u201d of Russia\u2019s invasion.<\/p>\n

He thanked Ireland for its assistance during the war and congratulated the country on its EU Council presidency.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/x.com\/EUCouncil\/status\/2072214274533978531?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/p>\n

Ireland will hold the presidency for six months, during which time the nation will host hundreds of EU meetings as well as visits by leaders across the bloc, starting from next week.<\/p>\n

The Government has said its three priorities will be around competitiveness, values and security.<\/p>\n

During his speech, Zelenskiy took aim at \u201ccompanies in European countries whose only purpose is to work for Russia\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cUnfortunately, there are companies in Europe that are owned or effectively controlled by Russia and its sanctioned oligarchs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey keep supplying the aggressor with essential materials, even now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Miche\u00e1lMiche\u00e1l Martin welcomed Volodymyr Zelenskiy to Dublin Castle (Niall Carson\/PA)<\/p>\n

He also directly addressed the president of the European Council Antonio Costa with a plea to accelerate Ukraine\u2019s EU accession process.<\/p>\n

Negotiations are structured in clusters and chapters and, during his speech, Zelenskiy quipped: \u201cWe can open five more clusters, Antonio. What do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n

Costa could be heard replying \u201cmaybe\u201d from the crowd.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Wednesday, Zelenskiy landed at Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel, where he was greeted by T\u00e1naiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris.<\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin is due to meet him after he attends the formal opening ceremony.<\/p>\n

\"EuropeanZelenskiy also addressed European Council president Antonio Costa, pictured, on the subject of accession (Niall Carson\/PA)<\/p>\n

It is exactly seven months since the Ukrainian president\u2019s state visit to Ireland, when he met President Catherine Connolly at \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in and delivered a historic address to a joint sitting of the Oireachtas.Following the trip, garda\u00ed investigated reports of drones over the Irish Sea around the time Zelenskiy\u2019s plane landed at Dublin Airport.<\/p>\n

Defence Minister Helen McEntee later said counter-drone technology would be in place during Ireland\u2019s EU presidency.<\/p>\n

It is the eighth time Ireland has held the presidency, having last held the role in 2013.<\/p>\n

An Garda S\u00edochana has warned a policing and security operation is in place at Dublin Castle and will remain in place for the next six months of Ireland\u2019s term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Bairbre Holmes, Press Association Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked Ireland for its support as he addressed the opening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-528637","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\/528637","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=528637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}