Taoiseach Micheál Martin references John Hume at press conference as he acknowledges Donald Trump's efforts towards ending war

Mr Martin was speaking at a joint press conference with the US President at the White House, held as part of the traditional St Patrick’s Day visit to America.

During the press conference, Mr Trump described Ireland as a ‘special place’ and Martin as a ‘special guy’, while adding: "We have tremendous relationships with Ireland and that will only get stronger.”

Mr Martin told President Trump: “I commend you for the work you are doing, particularly in terms of the pursuit of peace, and I think that is going well. You really have in the first 100 days of this government, you have done extraordinary things very quickly. And everybody is watching in that respect.”

The Taoiseach added later, after Trump said he knew nothing about certain politicians boycotting the US visit in protest at the war on Gaza: “The one thing we have learned in Ireland about the Peace Process, and I recall back in the early ‘90s, when the first tentative steps to get peace in Ireland, people criticised people like John Hume, people like Albert Reynolds, but they kept going, and when we got that ceasefire in 1993... the guns more or less largely fell silent.

"The war in Ukraine is a devastating war on young people and I think that very simple, straight forward narrative is to be commended. We all have children and are shocked at the prospect of young people losing their lives in that number, be they Ukrainian, be they Russian. Anything we can do to stop the violence I think is an extremely positive thing.”

The President added: “This war should have never happened. It would have never happened if I was President. It doesn’t affect you very much, they are not Irish, it doesn’t affect my country… and people ask why are you doing this? Because 2,000 people a week are dying, and they have fathers, they have mothers, sisters and brothers and friends, and they are dying. You have kids lying all over these fields today that are dead.”

During the press conference, the President was also asked about the ‘massive deficit’ in trade between Ireland and the US. President Trump said: “Ireland was very smart. They took our pharmaceutical companies away from Presidents who didn’t know what they were doing. It’s too bad that happened. The Irish are smart people. They made it very good for companies to move over there.”

He added however that the European Union had been “very tough” and claimed they had “not been fair” and said the US government was imposing “reciprocal tariffs” on the EU.