{"id":625539,"date":"2026-09-15T17:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T17:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/625539\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T17:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T17:26:09","slug":"martin-defends-margaret-connollys-right-to-protest-after-remark-about-flattening-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/625539\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin defends Margaret Connolly’s right to protest after remark about ‘flattening’ White House"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAOISEACH MICH\u00c9AL MARTIN has said President Connolly\u2019s activist sister, Dr Margaret Connolly, is entitled to her own perspective, after she told CNN the White House should be \u201cflattened\u201d.<\/p>\n

Margaret Connolly, an activist who was detained by Israeli forces earlier this year<\/a>, made the comment to CNN on Saturday while she was participating in the protest in Dublin against US President Donald Trump\u2019s visit to Ireland.<\/p>\n

Connolly told CNN<\/a> that Trump should take the rubble that was created in Gaza from Israel\u2019s bombing and take it home, \u201cput it on the White House and flatten your bloody White House\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are murdering and slaughtering and causing a genocide,\u201d she said, adding that Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin should be \u201cashamed\u201d of himself for going to the White House with a bowl of shamrock.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her comments were made the same day that her sister, Catherine Connolly, received Trump for a courtesy call at\u00a0\u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement after the meeting, President\u00a0Connolly said<\/a> that she conveyed to Trump \u201cthe strong view of the Irish people that the normalisation of war and genocide can never be accepted\u201d.<\/p>\n

Reacting to Margaret Connolly\u2019s comments today, the Taoiseach said:\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cVery basically, President Connolly\u2019s sister is an individual in her own right as a citizen of the country. We uphold the right to protest, and that\u2019s it. Very simple, straightforward, and people are entitled to protest.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, however, that he did not agree with what she said about flattening the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter all, it was designed by an Irishman, the White House, so a significant piece of architecture. So I wouldn\u2019t want that flattened in any shape or form,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that regardless of who a person\u2019s family is, the Irish State protects the right of individuals to \u201chave their own political perspective\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s fair enough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAOISEACH MICH\u00c9AL MARTIN has said President Connolly\u2019s activist sister, Dr Margaret Connolly, is entitled to her own perspective,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3656,969,61,60,185675,1843,43,3185],"class_list":["post-625539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-donald-trump","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-margaret-connolly","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-president"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625539","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=625539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}