TÁNAISTE SIMON HARRIS has said he believes it was “important” that President Michael D. Higgins spoke at a Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration in Dublin yesterday, despite some attendees protesting against his speech.

Harris also said that President Higgins had “rightly” mentioned the situation in the Middle East, despite some Jewish campaigners saying he should not have done so. 

A small number of people were removed from yesterday’s Holocaust commemoration event and others walked out yesterday afternoon after standing in protest during a speech by President Michael D. Higgins.

The President delivered the opening speech at the commemoration, speaking about the importance of remembering the victims of the Holocaust, educating new generations about its atrocities and the need to strive for peace in the world today, including in Palestine and Israel.

He addressed the current situation in Gaza, outlining his hope that the ceasefire recently agreed can lead to lasting peace.

Some members of the Jewish community in Ireland had criticised the decision to invite the President to speak due to previous comments he has made regarding Gaza and Israel, but the organisers of the event stood over their decision to invite him.

In a statement after yesterday’s event, attendee Oliver Sears of a separate group called Holocaust Awareness Ireland said he was “deeply disheartened and disappointed” by the President’s speech.

Sears, who has previously been critical of President Higgins, said he should not have “politicised” his speech and that the commemoration “belongs to the sanctity of the victims and their families”.

Reaction

Speaking today in Brussels ahead of a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, Tánaiste Simon Harris said: “I want to acknowledge and recognise that today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and it is so important and so vital that we pause and that we remember the absolute horror of how many people were murdered during this time, six million Jewish people.

“Today, I will be announcing additional funding from Ireland for the Auschwitz-Birkenau foundation to continue to support the preservation of that site. We must never forget, and we must all say, never again. Ireland is very determined to continue to work to stamp out antisemitism in every way we can, both domestically and indeed at a European level,” Harris said.

Asked about President Higgins’ participation in yesterday’s evening in Dublin, Harris said: “I think it was important that the President of Ireland attended the event yesterday.

“I think it’s the seventh time he has attended the event. This is always an event carried out with great solemnity and sensitivity. I believe yesterday’s event was a very moving occasion for survivors and their families most particularly. Minister Paschal Donohoe was there on behalf of the government,” he said.

“I understand there were a small number of people who protested and of course people have a right to protest. But I think the President was very clear, as is the government, as are the people of Ireland, in calling out the horrors of the Holocaust and making sure we remember that we record that, that we acknowledge that each year, and of course, people have a right to protest.

Asked specifically, whether President Higgins was right to link Gaza to the Holocaust in his speech, Harris said: 

The President was very clear in relation to the Holocaust and his absolute condemnation of the horror of the murder of the Jewish people. But also, I think rightly mentioning the situation in the Middle East as well, but also calling very much for hostages to be released.

“I am conscious, though, that this is a very, very sensitive time, and I don’t want to say anything to distract from that. Today is the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Today is International Holocaust Memorial Day, and I think it’s really important that we keep the focus on that.”

‘Absolutely wrong’

Northern Ireland deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said today that President Higgins was “absolutely wrong” to raise the current situation in Gaza, accusing him of “politicising” the event.

“President Higgins has many opportunities to talk about these issues, and indeed, he has taken up those opportunities,” she said. 

“But Holocaust Memorial Day, which it is today, is a time for a sombre reflection upon the loss of six million Jewish people in the Holocaust. I understand that the request was made of him not to politicise that event. No one should be politicising those events or causing any further hurt or discomfort.”

Little-Pengelly said she believes it was “the wrong place and the wrong thing to say”.

“There were plenty of other opportunities that he had, and he ought not to have done that at that event.”

But First Minister Michelle O’Neill defended President Higgins, saying it was “regrettable” that there is “so much negativity” around his remarks.

“I think the President has used his office to raise his own personal view in terms of how strongly he feels about genocide across the world,” O’Neill said.

“I think particularly at this time, when we reflect on all the suffering of the Holocaust and all those people that lost lives through what was the genocide then, and we reflect on the current situation facing, particularly in the Middle East, right now, a genocide in Gaza.

“I think that the president has taken the opportunity to express his views, and that’s his business.”

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is marked each year on 27 January to remember the victims of the Holocaust who were murdered by Nazi Germany.

Today also marks 80 years since the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated on 27 January 1945.