{"id":644140,"date":"2026-10-04T02:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T02:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/644140\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T02:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T02:18:10","slug":"taoiseach-questions-sinn-fein-sincerity-over-garvaghy-road-situation-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/644140\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach questions Sinn F\u00e9in \u2018sincerity\u2019 over Garvaghy Road situation \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> has accused Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> of a \u201clack of sincerity\u201d and an \u201coverly simplistic\u201d view on resolving the Drumcree dispute.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in leader Mary Lou McDonald<\/a> previously called on Miche\u00e1l Martin to tell British prime minister Andy Burnham<\/a> and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant<\/a> that they have a responsibility to stop the march on Garvaghy Road.<\/p>\n

McDonald and Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O\u2019Neill<\/a>, the party\u2019s deputy leader, met Martin to discuss the impasse during the week.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the Taoiseach said he does not agree that the dispute could be solved by telling Burnham to stop the march. <\/p>\n

Martin had been criticised at a rally on the Garvaghy Road on Saturday which was held in support of the residents against the Orange Order march.<\/p>\n

The rally was organised by residents and featured speeches by McDonald and O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n

There were also boos and chants of \u201cshame\u201d at the mention of the Taoiseach by Aont\u00fa leader Peadar T\u00f3ib\u00edn, who accused the Fianna F\u00e1il leader of \u201cstanding idly by\u201d.<\/p>\n

T\u00f3ib\u00edn concluded his speech by saying: \u201cThey [the Irish Government] have a moral responsibility to be here with you to defend your rights and to make sure that this march never comes on this road again.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill and McDonald applauded the remarks.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Thousands attend rallies as Drumcree stand-off enters seventh dayOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Asked about being booed at the rally and the calls for action from Sinn F\u00e9in, Martin said: \u201cI met with the leader of Sinn F\u00e9in and I met with the First Minister last week, and I worry about their sincerity at times in respect of these issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I met them in good faith but the meetings seem to be more about press choreography than substance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just feel that the meeting last week lacked a degree of \u2013 at the end of the day \u2013 sincerity, because there were comments made before the meeting, there was comments made after the meeting. Every meeting can\u2019t be about a press release. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey think Drumcree could be sorted by me simply telling Andy Burnham what to do, and that\u2019s it. Now I think that\u2019s overly simplistic, and I don\u2019t agree with them on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin said the approach and language used by Sinn F\u00e9in would not help \u201cbring about a united Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach said it was the Government view the dispute would be resolved through continuing dialogue.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Two US Air Force fighter jets land at Shannon after issue over the AtlanticOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been in close contact all week with the British Government. There have been talks between the community and between the Orange Order. They do not yield a result, there are further legal actions.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone needs to be calm, and everybody needs to be very sensitive in terms of what they say right now, because we simply do not want to go back to the visions of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said both Governments were \u201cvery keen\u201d for mediation and building a foundation for reconciliation.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Taoiseach said one football match is not going to get the Israeli government to \u201cchange direction\u201d on policies towards Palestinians.<\/p>\n

He said a boycott of the Republic of Ireland men\u2019s international team\u2019s next fixture against Israel on Sunday could do harm to Ireland with \u201cno consequential gain\u201d for Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Pro-Palestinian groups have called on the FAI and players to scrap the Uefa Nations League fixture over Israel\u2019s war in Gaza and illegal settlements in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

Asked if the next game should go ahead, Martin said: \u201cThere\u2019s two things I think that we need to bear in mind. One is that if this was to have an impact \u2013 I don\u2019t believe it would \u2013 it\u2019s actually possible it would do harm to Ireland with no consequential gain in terms of the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018We are not doing questions like this\u2019: Sound and fury continues to swirl around Ireland and IsraelOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Ireland will continue to press very hard at every international forum we have to press for the rights of Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing the calls for a boycott, Martin said \u201cthere\u2019s been too much pressure put on the players\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FAI and the footballing community took a decision to play the match. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe FAI did everything to promote the expulsion of Israel from Uefa and didn\u2019t succeed and people are putting undue pressure on the players to unilaterally take a decision in respect of the match. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve no doubt every footballer playing with Ireland abhors what has happened in Gaza, abhors what\u2019s happening in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I believe that Ireland, overall diplomatically, politically, has done everything it possibly can, and continues to do everything we possibly can to put pressure on Israel and indeed others within the European Union and internationally to get Israel to change direction in respect of its policies towards Palestinians \u2013 and that\u2019s a very challenging endeavour.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne football match isn\u2019t going to sort that. We need to be clear-eyed about that. I don\u2019t believe the Israeli government or Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu cares whether Ireland plays that game or not.\u201d \u2013 PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has accused Sinn F\u00e9in of a \u201clack of sincerity\u201d and an \u201coverly simplistic\u201d view on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85530,61,60,266856,3410,3658,1843,3659,43,2443,4268,17861,1842,3415,1577],"class_list":["post-644140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-andy-burnham","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-v-israel","tag-israel","tag-mary-lou-mcdonald","tag-micheal-martin","tag-michelle-o-neill","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-palestine","tag-peadar-toibin","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-sinn-fein","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644140","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=644140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}