NEW YORK MAYOR Zohran Mamdani name-checked James Connolly, Pádraig Pearse and Roger Casement in his St Patrick’s Day message.

Mamdani also referenced the Troubles, the 1981 hunger strikes by republican prisoners in the Maze prison, the Dunnes Stores strike against apartheid South Africa, as well as Troy Parrott’s winner over Hungary in World Cup qualifying.

In a St Patrick’s Day message posted on social media yesterday, Mamdani said: “Irish solidarity is no coincidence, as it was on Irish soil that the British Empire developed their colonial project.

“So much of the exploitation later imposed elsewhere across the world was honed first in the plantations in Ireland.”

He added that the “story of Ireland is not merely one of violent oppression or of attempted domination” but that “it is one of resistance too”.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, New York. pic.twitter.com/DPCGPlFbE2

— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) March 17, 2026

Mamdani remarked that “generation after generation waged a lonely effort for independence” and “year after year, uprising after uprising, they were brutally beaten back” but that “they kept coming”.

“I think of leaders like James Connolly and Patrick Pearse, who roused hundreds of thousands with demands of political freedom and economic self-determination.

“I think of those who endured unimaginable hardship during the Troubles. The 10 prisoners who died after going on hunger strike to protest the British government’s refusal to deem them political prisoners.”

He also referenced the Irish famine and remarked how it was “exacerbated by imperial callousness” and the “discrimination Irish New Yorkers faced when they first came to these shores”.

Mamdani went on to reference Roger Casement who “helped to expose the barbarism of Belgian King Leopold II in the Congo Free State” and praised Dunnes Stores’ workers for the three-year strike against apartheid in South Africa between 1984 and 1987.

The strike started when 21-year-old Mary Manning refused to handle South African grapefruits when working in Dunnes Stores in Henry Street in 1984.

It resulted in the Irish government banning the importation and sale of South African goods, the first complete ban by a western government.

Elsewhere, speaking at the St Patrick’s Day breakfast in New York, Mamdani said that despite the “exploitation” imposed on Ireland from the British Empire, he does not think first of “oppression” when he thinks of Ireland.

“I think of resistance,” said Mamdani. “I think of unity and The Pogues’ ‘Fairytale of New York’.”

Zohran Mamdani on the British subjugation of Ireland: pic.twitter.com/OUs60KxqSS

— Timmy Facciola (@TimmyFacciola_) March 17, 2026

And speaking from yesterday’s St Patrick’s parade in New York City, Mamdani also appeared to have given more thought to the prospect of a United Ireland.

When asked about whether he supports a United Ireland at a pre-St Patrick’s Day event, Mamdani remarked: “I gotta be honest, I haven’t thought enough on that question.”

But when asked at yesterday’s parade if he “had a chance to think more about a United Ireland yet,” he replied:

“There’s always more to learn, but I can tell you, as someone who believes deeply in the principle of self-determination, that I think that should also be extended to the Irish.

“When it comes to the future of Ireland, the best people to listen to are the Irish.

Zohran Mamdani with more to say on a united Ireland: pic.twitter.com/Dr90WlbjWm

— Timmy Facciola (@TimmyFacciola_) March 17, 2026

“I’ve had the pleasure of doing so as the mayor of this city and I look forward to having that pleasure for weeks and months and years to come.”

As Mamdani walked off, a reporter shouted: “What’s 26+6?”