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IN 2022, WHEN THE European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was last in Ireland, one TD called out Europe for its inconsistent foreign policy when it came to Israel.
This was in December 2022, before the 7 October attacks and the war in Palestine.
This was around the time of the Brexit fallout, when Europe, in fairness, did have Ireland’s back, so there was a lot of flattery towards von der Leyen.
That day, People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd Barrett took to his feet, and politely recognised the strong position Europe had taken when it came to Brexit.
However, the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown TD said it would be unconscionable of him to sit in the chamber before the president without taking the opportunity to criticise Europe for its approach when it came to the Israeli government.
Boyd Barrett said he welcomed von der Leyen’s calls for a tribunal into war crimes committed by Russia, but he called for a similar tribunal to take place into the war crimes committed against the Palestinian people by Israel.
Europe cannot call for an investigation into Putin’s war crimes, while “remaining silent” on the criminal actions by Israel, he told von der Leyen.
Instead of sanctions for Israel, we have given them favoured trade deals that deepen their relationship with the EU, said Boyd Barrett.
If the EU is “going to condemn war crimes of Putin, we must simultaneously condemn all war crimes”, he said, even those that are perceived allies of the EU, added Boyd Barrett.
“We have to have consistency in our foreign policy in our ethics and in our morality if we are going to be taken seriously as defenders of human rights and opponents of war,” he concluded.
Fast-forward four years, and the Irish government is now pushing for Europe to dismantle those trade deals and its close relationship with Israel.
Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee said recently that in her view, it is “more possible” to secure an agreement to ban trade with illegally occupied territories rather than secure a complete suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
Von der Leyen, along with a cohort of EU Commissioners, are in Cork for the next two days to mark Ireland taking over the EU presidency.
The meetings, held over Thursday and Friday, provide an opportunity for the government and European Commission to exchange views on key priorities and strengthen cooperation on the legislative and policy agenda for the coming months.
The visit includes a bilateral meeting between Taoiseach and von der Leyen, meetings between Irish ministers and European Commissioners, as well as a plenary session chaired by the Taoiseach and President von der Leyen.
And while Micheal Martin hoped his home turf would give a warm welcome, there were some protests in support of Palestine taking place around the city.
No one could predict Boyd Barrett’s comments would become a commonly held view by many people in Ireland just a few short years later.
Since the outbreak of war, the Irish public has railed against Europe’s failure to act when it came to genocide being committed in Gaza.
At the very outset, Ireland was an outlier.
When former taoiseach Leo Varadkar attended a European Council meeting in October 2023, where talks were taking place between European leaders on the violence in Palestine, Varadkar said Ireland’s plan was to call for more balanced language from the EU.
This was well before the term ‘genocide’ was being openly talked about by Irish political and some European leaders.
Varadkar also wanted the other leaders to call for a ceasefire in the three-week-old war, but even then, Europe was divided on the issue, with many nations being slow to act to call out what was plain to see for all on their TV screens and phones.
Just last year, Irish MEPs slammed the European Commission president for publicly supporting Israel and placing blame on Iran in the escalating Middle East conflict, accusing her of acting without the consensus or mandate of EU member states.
Following a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year, von der Leyen claimed that Iran “is the main source of regional instability” in the Middle East and implied that the nation was at fault for the ongoing conflict with Israel.
Then, ahead of her State of the Union speech last year, many Irish MEPs said von der Leyen was “losing the room”.
Fine Gael MEP Maria Walsh – part of the same centre-right political family as von der Leyen – said the Commission President’s approach to Gaza had weakened her standing with members.
Israel’s war on Palestinians is no longer a political issue but a “moral crisis” and the EU’s inaction is a “stain on the European project”, according to Walsh.
Independent MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan said if von der Leyen “had any conscience”, she’d apologise for the EU’s approach to Gaza and commit to ending the union’s trade agreement with Israel.
There has been much commentary that von der Leyen’s unwavering support of Israel has been disastrous in terms of damaging support for the European Union.
This is born out in polling.
The European Movement Ireland poll carried out this year shows that support for Ireland’s membership of the EU is at its lowest since polling began in 2013 when it was above 90%.
It does remain strong at 82%, and that is unchanged from 2025.
Less than half of respondents in Ireland think the EU is moving in the right direction 45%, while 33% feel the EU is not upholding its core values.
This has all been acknowledged by those in government with McEntee saying earlier this year that there has been a rise in Euroscepticism in Ireland.
She blamed populists for presenting the European Union as a “convenient” target of blame for the country’s problems.
“It’s still a whisper but it’s growing louder,” she said in January, adding that she wanted to foster a national conversation on Europe.
“We cannot cede the stage to these voices – we cannot allow these whispers to go unchallenged.”
“Without security, there can be no prosperity; without competitiveness, we cannot sustain our societies; and without values, none of it matters,” she said.
However, one cannot be blind to fact that slow pace of action from the EU when it comes to Israel must also be damaging the perception Irish people have of Europe and how it works.
Which is why it makes sense for the Taoiseach to raise with von der Leyen this week.
“We will also discuss international issues and I will raise Israel’s persistent and egregious breaches of human rights and international law,” said Martin in a statement on Wednesday.
Ahead of meeting with von der Leyen, The Journal asked the Taoiseach at University College Cork today if the issue is high on the agenda for this presidency and whether he would be raising the issue directly with von der Leyen.
The Taoiseach said he has consistently raised the issue at European Union Council level.
“So it’s not dependent on the presidency alone that we raise these issues, and there has been a lot of progress at the Foreign Affairs Council recently, but there are still quite a number of member states who have different views to Ireland on this,” he said.
Martin said it is his view that the issue of trade with the occupied territories “can be dealt with, and should be dealt, with at a pan-European union level”.
For much of the public, the EU presidency will not mean much to them.
But what many will be hoping for is that the government can put forward Ireland’s priorities and values, and those values include speaking truth to power, particularly when Ireland is in the driving seat for the next six months.
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