Catherine Connolly says Trump asked if she believed Ireland would be united during her lifetime

LAST UPDATE | 3 hrs ago

PRESIDENT CATHERINE CONNOLLY has said US president Donald Trump asked her if she believed Ireland would be united during her lifetime. 

The two presidents met at Áras an Uachtaráin on Saturday afternoon during Trump’s two-day visit to Ireland.

Trump told reporters several times during his visit that he would “love to see” a unified Ireland, describing it as “one of the naturals of all time”.

The unexpected remarks caused raised eyebrows north and south of the border in Ireland, and in Britain, as well as backlash from conservatives and unionists.

Speaking to reporters in Scotland, where she is currently on a four-day visit, Connolly said she had had a “polite” meeting with Trump.

“It was a long meeting. Actually, it was 20 minutes plus. It was a very polite meeting, and the president listened,” she said. 

“He did some talk, the initial talk was on golf, and then I referred to my role under the constitution, which I had with me, and it’s a very interesting little book on our constitution.

“And my role is set out there, and I discussed that with him, and the obligation on us under Article 29 in particular in relation to resolving disputes peacefully. We had an interesting discussion on that.”

She continued: “He asked me my thoughts on the north (Northern Ireland), and I referred back to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 and consensus.

“And again, it was handy to have the constitution because that’s set out in our constitution that that issue will be resolved through consent.

He asked me specifically, would it be resolved during my lifetime and I said I hoped it would.

“He made a joke about age, but a complimentary joke I might add, but we went back to the issue in relation to that, I would like to see it in my lifetime. But I went back a number of times to the constitution.”

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Sister’s comments

Connolly was also asked about comments made by her sister Margaret in protest at the visit of the US president.

Dr Margaret Connolly told CNN that Trump should take the rubble that was created in Gaza from Israel’s bombing and take it home, “put it on the White House and flatten your bloody White House”.

“You are murdering and slaughtering and causing a genocide,” she said, adding that Taoiseach Micheál Martin should be “ashamed” of himself for going to the White House with a bowl of shamrock. 

The Taoiseach defended her right to protest last week, saying she is a private citizen in her own right.

Asked about it today, the President said “everybody is entitled to their opinion” and that she agrees with Micheál Martin “when he said everybody has a right to protest”. 

“I think perhaps on a general level, it’s the feeling it’s been reflected by people when they protest of their horror at what’s happening, and I think that’s fair to say for all of us.”

Asked if she had spoken to her sister since, Connolly said: “I understand her horror at what’s happening, absolutely understand her horror.

“I might choose different words, but the horror, the message of what’s happening is important to hear, and we have the duty to call out what’s happening, no matter where, and to deal with that.”

Asked if she had used the word “genocide” during the Trump meeting, Connolly said: “We discussed genocide. We discussed that we can never accept genocide, and we can never accept the normalisation of war.

“Absolutely, we discussed that.”

Micheál Martin said last week that he believed there had been an “overreaction” from unionists to Trump’s comments on a united Ireland. 

“Anytime I spoke to President Trump about Northern Ireland, he asks the question, ‘Do you think there will be a merger anytime soon?,” he told RTÉ’s Today with David McCullagh. 

During their meeting, Martin said he explained to Trump the peace process that led to the Good Friday Agreement and that working in lockstep with the British government, “which was the underpinning of that agreement, is necessary in terms of the next stages”.

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He said they had a “very good discussion” about it, adding: “[Trump] recalled the murder of Lord Mountbatten during our conversation at lunch. His view and recollection is of a very vicious and terrible conflict in Northern Ireland.”

In the North, DUP leader Gavin Robinson earlier this week rejected suggestions his party had hitched its wagon to the US president and had now been left red-faced after his pro-unity remarks. 

He was asked by reporters whether he had any regrets that senior party figures had previously voiced enthusiastic support for Trump, some of them posing for selfies with the president and others holding up a Trump flag.

“Our party doesn’t hitch our wagon to anyone,” the East Belfast MP said.

“You’ve heard me say many times before, despite all of your (the media’s) persistent efforts, that we love many and we trust few, and we paddle our own canoe. That’s it.”

Robinson downplayed Trump’s comments as a “dead cat strategy” to divert attention from other issues that had dominated the build up to his Ireland trip, such as the conflict in the Middle East.

“No matter how many times we ask you to see the nature of engagement for what it is, there’s always this political drive to push a different agenda. That’s not accurate.”

Northern Ireland first minister Michelle O’Neill said that Trump’s comments highlighted “the fact that there is a growing conversation around constitutional change at home in Ireland”.

“Without dwelling too much on his own commentary, I think it’s important to reflect the fact that there is a huge conversation underway in terms of Irish reunification,” she said.

“The fact that so many people, including in an international way, are now engaged in that conversation tells you exactly where it’s at. This is something that’s happening.”

With reporting from Press Association