LAST UPDATE | 13 Jan

TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN today hit out at Sinn Féin in the Dáil over the party’s attendance of ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s inauguration in 2019 – as he said the party is the “most self-righteous bunch” and were “pontificating over human rights”.

Earlier today, Sinn Féin’s justice spokesperson Matt Carthy defended his party’s attendance of the controversial inauguration.

The party has come under renewed fire in recent weeks for doing so, after Maduro was captured by the United States and brought to New York to face trial on narcoterrorism offences.

In 2019, Member of the Legislative Assembly in Northern Ireland Conor Murphy (who is now a senator in the Seanad Éireann) and Dawn Doyle, then the party’s general secretary, travelled to Venezuela after being invited to see Maduro be sworn in – despite the EU and US declaring his election was a fraud.

Party leader Mary Lou McDonald defended the decision at the time, saying, “We believe the Venezuelan election was open and democratic.”

In the Dáil today, the Taoiseach referenced a question made by Sinn Féin TD Ruairí Ó Murchú, in which he had said despite the many international conflicts, the Irish State was not proving to have as strong a stance against them as he believed it should have.

Referencing international conflicts in reply, Martin said: “Sinn Féin has had a checkered record in this respect. It attended the inauguration of Maduro. It endorsed his election.”

In response, Ó Murchú said, “We are not talking about that.”

The Taoiseach continued, stating that he had gotten “a few lectures from the Sinn Féin benches this afternoon” and suggested the party have some “consistency” in respect of human rights.

People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger weighed in, saying, “You just got back from China” – a point made by Matt Carthy earlier today as he defended Sinn Féin’s position on Venezuela in 2019.

Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy defends his party’s decision to attend the inauguration of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in 2019. He says the “circumstances were very different” back then and that his party won’t take lectures from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on the matter.

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— Jane Matthews (@janematthews1.bsky.social) 13 January 2026 at 12:41

Carthy said of the decision: “It was in 2019, so obviously, circumstances were very different.

“I listened to government representatives talk about Sinn Féin attending the inauguration of somebody who they claim wasn’t elected, and they were making those comments on the same day the Taoiseach was actually in China – so we won’t take any lectures from Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael in that regard.”

President of China Xi Jingping has been a source of controversy, with his tenure seeing a deterioration in human rights practices and an increase in censorship. 

The Taoiseach maintained his position on Sinn Féin’s defence of Venezuela, despite TD Conor D McGuinness interjecting with, “You were out in Israel pointing at ceilings”. 

“Sinn Féin has a really dodgy track record in supporting very dodgy leaders over the years. You had very dodgy relationships,” Martin said.

“You had many dodgy relationships with governments across that hemisphere where you shared your expertise in given matters with such authorities down through the years.

“Maybe a small bit of humility on your side now in terms of lecturing other people about geopolitics might not go amiss. You are the most self-righteous bunch I have ever come across at times in your pontificating about human rights and whole lot of other things.”

Prior to Taoiseach’s questions, Carthy said his party wants to “see democracy” and is a supporter of “democracies and proponents of democracies all over the world”.

“We absolutely condemn what is [a] very dangerous, in terms of international law, precedent that has been set by the actions of the United States over the past number of weeks.”

Matt Carthy said of the decision: It was in 2019, so obviously, circumstances were very different. Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

In 2019, Maduro was already a controversial figure whom faced accusations of violating human rights and oversaw a period of economic downturn that led to violence, food shortages, and mass inflation.

Questioned further, Carthy told reporters at Leinster House that he wasn’t going “to have a historical debate in terms of the validity of one election or another”.

He refused to say whether he agreed with Tánaiste Simon Harris’s assertion that Maduro’s toppling was beneficial to Venezuela.

“We should be defending international law, and we should be standing against breaches of international law, regardless of who the perpetrators of those breaches are,” Carthy said.

Additional reporting by Jane Matthews