MIDDLE EAST EYE:Ireland’s New President Catherine Connolly Breaks Silence: ‘Respect Palestinian Self-Determination
December 2, 2025
Ireland’s new president-elect Catherine Connolly is breaking the silence the world has normalized.
She’s calling for real respect for Palestinian self-determination — not statements, not token sympathy, but the basic right of a people to choose their own leadership free from foreign control.
Drawing from Ireland’s own history of struggle, Connolly reminds global powers that colonised nations know oppression when they see it — and they know exactly what side of history they stand on.
A leader refusing to rewrite history.
A nation refusing to ignore genocide.
A message the world can no longer pretend not to hear.
#CatherineConnolly #Ireland #Palestine
English Script:
The Palestinians have been very clear that Hamas will not be part of that new Palestine.
At what point did Israel achieve its military objectives when 20,000 were dead? When 30,000 were dead?
You made the comment. So at what point, in your opinion, was the military objective reached?
If I can go back there, my point was, if there were, it’s horrific that it happened in the first instance.
I think we have to begin to question the military industrial complex and its connections with everything. We have no choice but to do that. And I go back to what’s happening in Gaza. We have lost count of the many people that are dead. Men, women and children. We refer to them on the RTE news. “Dozens have died”. This is the type of language we’re using with a genocide unfolding before our eyes. And we have to, we have a duty to ask questions. Who’s connected to what? Who’s backing up this? How is this happening under our watch. And we can only do that if we take off the blinkers and recognize what’s happening. And if we accept genocide as it’s unfolding in Palestine, what are the consequences, Not just for Palestine, but for humanity? Where do we go next?
I come from Ireland. A history of colonization. And I would be very wary of telling a sovereign people how to run their country. The Palestinians must decide in a democratic way who they want to lead their country.
But after what happened on October the 7th. You think Hamas can have a role?
What happened on October the 7th, I’m on record for condemning. But history did not start on October the 7th.
Of course not.
It’s important to point that out, and to look back on the history and the many, many atrocities committed by the Israeli government through their army. And so I don’t think Keir Starmer should have any say about Hamas. It’s up to the Palestinian people. What Keir Starmer and other countries should be doing is stopping the genocide. Absolutely calling out what it is genocide and using our voices to stop it.
I’m asking you this morning why you would say Hamas is part of the fabric of the Palestinian people.
I’ll try and answer that for you as best I can. They were elected by the people the last time there was an election, overwhelming support for them back in 2006 or 2007. And they are part of the civil society of Palestine. We are reliant on them for figures in relation to the deaths.
Do you regard him as a terrorist organization?
They are prescribed as a terrorist organization.
Do you accept that? Do you agree with that designation?
That’s the designation. Israel is acting as a terrorist state. Both have to sit down at some stage. I mean, let’s look at what Israel is doing and call it out for what it is. They’re absolutely out of control.
