AT LONG LAST, we’re beginning to see some movement ahead of November’s presidential election. As for just what kind of movement we’re seeing, well, we’ll get to that soon enough. 

Former Leas-Cheann Comhairle Catherine Connolly officially announced her bid for the Áras this week, and has already been backed by the Social Democrats, People Before Profit, and various other independent parliamentarians. She’s also set to meet with Labour over a potential endorsement. Over in the blue corner, Mairead McGuinness has been nominated as Fine Gael’s candidate after a 20-year stint holding various positions within the European Union. 

With Fianna Fáil yet to settle on their own candidate (all that Bertie talk really died a death, eh?), that leaves Sinn Féin, who are presumably raging that Connolly’s launch has positioned her as an eminently plausible left unity candidate, meaning that any candidate Sinn Féin propose now runs the risk of splitting the anti-establishment vote.

And what is this? Why, it appears to be a new political manifesto, bearing the likeness of presidential hopeful Conor McGregor. Honey, come quick! There’s a new image of Conor McGregor on the internet, perhaps pertaining to his presidential ambitions! Oh… Oh, no. 

While Connolly and McGuinness flexed their presidential musculature this week, US rapper Azealia Banks was posting photos to Twitter, allegedly sent to her by Conor McGregor, of what appeared to be the former MMA-fighter turned whatever you want what call whatever he has become, flexing a muscle of his own. That’s my tasteful way of telling you that the photo appears to show a dumbbell attached to the exposed penis… And there was a freeweight hanging off it, too! The joke, in this case, being that McGregor himself is the dumbbell. Thank you very much. 

While local authorities will undoubtedly spend much time poring over these photos and deciding whether their contents are worthy of a presidential nomination (you need to be nominated by four local authorities to get on the ballot), there are certainly plenty of reactionary voices in US politics who would love nothing more to see McGregor Americanise our politics and our society. 

The US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee this week, for example, rounded on Ireland over the Occupied Territories Bill, and the prospect that Ireland could partially curtail trade with Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory, settlements which are widely regarded as illegal by the international community. 

He tweeted: “Did the Irish fall into a vat of Guinness & propose something so stupid that it would be attributed to act of diplomatic intoxication? It will harm Arabs as much as Israelis. Sober up Ireland!” He got lucky that it’s us and not the Italians or the Swiss who are proposing a similar bill. It wouldn’t have worked so well if he’d had to say ‘vat of spaghetti’ or ‘vat of beautifully crafted timepieces and discreet bank accounts’. 

Did the Irish fall into a vat of Guinness & propose something so stupid that it would be attributed to act of diplomatic intoxication? It will harm Arabs as much as Israelis. Sober up Ireland! Call @IsraelMFA & say you’re sorry! https://t.co/aiOcmCQWZ8

— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) July 16, 2025

Before we go any further, it’s worth stipulating that Irish people are not among the leading victims of global discrimination. If anything, we’ve swanned through the last century, luxuriating in the belief that the world at large loves us. The US has spent the last several decades giving us sweetheart visa deals, turning a comparatively blind eye to our undocumented, always cementing the idea that there is something uniquely special about the relationship between Ireland and the US.

We make a grievous error, however, if we convince ourselves that this love was somehow unconditional, predicated on our twinkling eyes and our apparently charming self-obsession. Yes, the world likes us on a personal level. They like our accents, they like our music, they like our sinewy, high-cheekboned actors who can cry on command. The trouble with being so well-liked is that you end up with a lot to lose when the time comes to finally stand up for something you believe in.

Rather than condemn his discriminatory and ridiculous outburst, other senior Republicans such as senators Rick Scott and Lindsey Graham more or less echoed the sentiment, joining a growing chorus of condemnation from across the Atlantic. It was audacious of us to try to halt trade with illegal settlements, I suppose.

This attitudinal shift is eye-opening. It unambiguously confirms how the US state apparatus truly sees Ireland: a small country, expected to do the bidding of a much bigger, much more powerful country. If the will of the Irish people should deviate from the whims of the United States, then we are no longer a welcome courtier, but a drunken fool to be harangued, mocked and humiliated on the world stage.

The great irony here is that the OTB has been around for over seven years, and in that time, the government has offered all sorts of contrivances as to why it cannot be passed. It’s been watered down so it doesn’t include services, it’s been delayed over Attorney General advice. Hell, the Dáil is in recess for summer and the thing still hasn’t been passed. 

The Taoiseach strongly rejected Huckabee’s comments, saying: “The slaughter of children must stop. The slaughter of innocent civilians queuing for food must stop. What is going on is beyond any moral compass.” 

Scepticism persists on home soil, however, perhaps as the public recalls Martin’s diplomatic willingness to chuckle along as Donald Trump made light of Ireland’s housing crisis in the Oval Office back in March. With the US set to introduce new rules around the J1 visa and threatening enormous tariffs on pharmaceuticals, there is perhaps worry over the extent to which Ireland is willing to stand up for its own interests.

Indeed, we now see Ibec coming out to warn us that passing it might harm our international reputation. There are polls in the offing which suggest the public’s feet grow cold over the bill, despite our supposed solidarity with the Palestinian cause. Read a certain way, what’s happened here is that the US has called us all a bunch of drunken morons, berated us into falling in line, and it’s working.

This is especially sad when you take into account the ways in which Ireland has failed in its humanitarian duty to the children of Gaza in recent weeks. A planned trip of 33 Palestinian children (and 14 mentors) to play GAA at clubs around the country was scuppered by Ireland’s Department of Justice, which refused to issue visas for the Palestinian party, citing insufficient documentation.

GAA Palestine refuted this account and engaged the appeal process, as advised by Harris and Martin, who had more or less given it the ol’ Pontius Pilate routine, saying they hoped the situation would be resolved but that, no, they would not be the ones to resolve it. In a statement confirming the cancellation of the trip, GAA Palestine stated their intention to “explore other destinations where our children will be welcomed and celebrated”. 

Watching Ireland waver when it comes to these opportunities for meaningful solidarity is revealing. It makes us consider how committed our government, and our society at large, is to solidarity with a people suffering cruelty beyond imagination. It’s sobering. Just not in the way Mike Huckabee means.