TAOISEACH MICHÉAL MARTIN has said President Connolly’s activist sister, Dr Margaret Connolly, is entitled to her own perspective, after she told CNN the White House should be “flattened”.

Margaret Connolly, an activist who was detained by Israeli forces earlier this year, made the comment to CNN on Saturday while she was participating in the protest in Dublin against US President Donald Trump’s visit to Ireland.

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. 

Her comments were made the same day that her sister, Catherine Connolly, received Trump for a courtesy call at Áras an Uachtaráin. 

In a statement after the meeting, President Connolly said that she conveyed to Trump “the strong view of the Irish people that the normalisation of war and genocide can never be accepted”.

Reacting to Margaret Connolly’s comments today, the Taoiseach said: 

“Very basically, President Connolly’s sister is an individual in her own right as a citizen of the country. We uphold the right to protest, and that’s it. Very simple, straightforward, and people are entitled to protest.

He added, however, that he did not agree with what she said about flattening the White House.

“After all, it was designed by an Irishman, the White House, so a significant piece of architecture. So I wouldn’t want that flattened in any shape or form,” he said.

He added that regardless of who a person’s family is, the Irish State protects the right of individuals to “have their own political perspective”.

“And that’s fair enough,” he said.