“IS THIS AN anti-Trump summit?”

It was a question put to President Catherine Connolly as she arrived at a gathering of left-leaning world leaders in Barcelona.

She didn’t answer it directly. Inside the building, the answer felt fairly clear.

The summit had been described as an “anti-MAGA moment” by another attendee just minutes beforehand.

This was a summit convened by Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, two of the most prominent international critics of US foreign policy under Donald Trump.

Around them was a cast of leaders with broadly similar views, including Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum, Colombia’s Gustavo Petro and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa.

And, for the first time on the international stage as President, Catherine Connolly.

President Connolly pictured between Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. TONY MAXWELL TONY MAXWELL

First overseas trips tend to set a tone. They offer an early signal of how a presidency intends to engage with the world.

Mary Robinson travelled to famine-stricken Somalia in 1992, placing human rights at the centre of her term and putting her at odds with then-Taoiseach Charles Haughey. Mary McAleese’s early visit to Irish troops in Lebanon reflected the “building bridges” approach she took to her two terms as President. Michael D Higgins’ first trip to London in 2012 signalled a focus on strengthening relations with the UK.

This weekend, President Connolly’s decision to travel to the ‘Defence of Democracy’ summit was not a routine diplomatic visit, but a gathering explicitly framed around responding to threats to democracy, multilateralism and the rise of the far right.

Her speech reflected that setting.

Connolly warned that the world is drifting towards a “might is right” approach, arguing that international law is being steadily eroded by powerful states acting without accountability.

She spoke of a system where UN institutions are being undermined, where international courts are under pressure, and where violations are increasingly tolerated.

“We played our part by valuing stability over accountability,” she said, in one of the sharper lines of the address.

The themes closely echoed those raised by other leaders at the summit.

Lula, speaking off the cuff, delivered a sweeping critique of global power, questioning unilateral military interventions from US military interventions in Iraq, Venezuela and Iran, to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and warning that the United Nations no longer carries the authority it once did.

He also described the five permanent members of the UN Security Council as “Lords of War”, calling on them to stop acting like “emperors” and waging war on poorer countries.

Sánchez, for his part, told delegates that “democracy cannot be taken for granted” before closing with a blunt message he’s had to repeat several times in the last few weeks: no to war.

Lula da Silva and Sánchez pictured together on Friday. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

He also had some strong words about the summit on social media later in the day. 

“There are moments when history asks us which side we’re on. We, from Barcelona, respond: on the side of those who know that democracy is not inherited, it is conquered every day,” Sánchez wrote.

“On the side of those who know that without international law there is no peace and without peace there is no progress.

That is our side. That is our fight. And we are going to win it.

None of this is entirely out of step with Ireland’s traditional support for international law and multilateralism. But the tone is more direct than that typically adopted by the government.

In recent weeks, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has faced criticism from opposition parties for what they described as a reluctance to explicitly condemn US-Israeli strikes in the Middle East.

While he reiterated Ireland’s support for a “rules-based international order”, he stopped short of labelling the actions a breach of international law.

The approach was framed by opposition parties as an effort to avoid straining relations with Washington, particularly ahead of his St Patrick’s Day engagement with Trump last month.

Connolly has taken a different tack, similar to the tone set by Higgins during his second Presidential term.

Her warnings about the “normalisation of war” and “deliberate assaults on international law”, now reinforced in Barcelona, place her rhetorically closer to the leaders she stood alongside at the summit.

It was a packed one-day itinerary for Connolly in Spain.

After arriving at the Fira de Barcelona, Connolly spoke briefly with reporters before delivering her address.

She later greeted Sánchez and held bilateral meetings with Sheinbaum, Petro and Ramaphosa, all figures associated with a more outspoken critique of Western foreign policy.

President Connolly pictured with South African Preisdent Cyril Ramaphosa. Presidential Press Office Presidential Press Office

By evening, the tone shifted.

At a rooftop reception hosted by Ireland’s ambassador to Spain, several dozen Irish expats gathered in the Barcelona sunshine to meet the President, a pleasant reminder that alongside the politics, this was still a ceremonial visit.

Connolly has still not directly criticised the Irish government, and she avoided naming specific countries in her speech, but the direction of travel is becoming clearer.

Her presidency, like her predecessor Higgins, appears willing to engage more openly in global political debates, particularly on questions of war, international law and the role of the United Nations.

Her choice of Barcelona, and the company she kept there, suggests she is comfortable doing so alongside a bloc of leaders who have taken a more outspoken line on those issues.