Derry & Strabane Council meeting disrupted as vote on boycotting U.S. on St Patrick’s Day fails

Mayor Councillor Patricia Logue, who chaired Wednesday’s Full Council Meeting, halted proceedings when protesters in the Council chambers’ public gallery began shouting loudly.

It followed an unsuccessful motion, which called for all political parties to boycott St Patrick’s Day celebrations at the White House due to the Gaza conflict.

The motion, by People Before Profit Councillor Shaun Harkin, proposed that the Council write to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and all political parties in Ireland, calling on them not to attend the celebrations or “meet with President Joe Biden or any representative of his administration as part of the St Patrick’s Day events”.

It also proposed that the Council agreed that the Biden administration had “immorally opposed calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, systematically repeated Israeli war propaganda” and that President Biden had “personally bypassed Congress to transfer arms to Israel”.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Colr. Harkin claimed the Irish Government was “disgraceful” for their refusal to expel the Israeli ambassador in Ireland.

Colr. Harkin said: “The scale of killing remains at 200 people or more per day, and that’s why people will continue to demand action.”

“When Biden was brought here on the 25th anniversary of the Peace Process, he made a speech about fighting for peace across the World.

“But it is clear that he is the main sponsor of what’s happening in Gaza. He isn’t just an assistant, his administration is directly involved through intelligence, propaganda, funding and arming and rearming of the Israeli regime.

“He’s not a bit player. He has refused to support even a basic ceasefire at the United Nations.

“No politician should be visiting the White House. The US needs to be isolated, and this is the best and most effective way for us to send a message that they’re complicit in genocide.

“I urge all parties in the chamber to do the right thing, stand with the Palestine solidarity movement, and don’t allow Joe Biden to attract the vote of Irish Americans.”

Independent Councillor Raymond Barr said it would be “totally wrong” for representatives to attend the celebrations, and dismissed the idea that the visit would be a chance to “advocate for Palestine”.

Colr. Barr claimed: “If these representatives go, they will be enjoying the best food and drink money can buy, engaging in mutual back-slapping exercises.”

Sinn Féin Councillor Christopher Jackson said his party stood “unequivocally with the Palestinian people”, and and argued that Sinn Féin would “continue to raise the obscenity of the genocide at Gaza” during all of their international engagements.

“We have to use all of our influence to press for a ceasefire,” Colr. Jackson said. “So Sinn Féin representatives will travel to the US on St Patrick’s Day.

“The US has played long, important, positive and deeply involved role in the peace process here, and we will work with US representatives to make it clear our views on the situation in Gaza.

“We have a platform that Palestinian people don’t, so we will state the case that Israel must be held accountable for its actions and urge the US to join calls for a ceasefire. We have a duty to go to Washington and be a voice for Palestine and peace.”

SDLP Councillor Brian Tierney said the Council should be doing “anything we can do” to call for a ceasefire, but his party would not attend the annual White House visit as it was “nothing more than a party”.

“There is very little face time with the President, so anyone suggesting that it’s going to be an opportunity to raise issues, I don’t believe it is.

“The SDLP will travel to Washington and engage with Irish and Palestinian Americans, doing everything we can to try and demand an immediate ceasefire.”

DUP Alderman Niree McMorris said Hamas were equally guilty of genocide during their attack on October 7, and that her party was opposed to the motion.

Independent Councillor Gary Donnelly supported the motion and said representatives should not “allow themselves to be used by the Biden Administration under the guise of St Patrick’s celebrations”, as it would be a “slap in the face to the people of Palestine”.

Sinn Féin Councillor Sandra Duffy said her party needed to take “every opportunity to engage in dialogue and speak up for peace”, and the visit was a “very clear opportunity” to do so.

She concluded: “We don’t go to drink Guinness. We go to engage with political leaders.”

Councillors voted 30 to 14 against the motion, with 3 abstentions.

When the protesters refused to sit down and continued to interrupt proceedings, Mayor Patricia Logue reconvened the meeting until Thursday.

Earlier this week, the leader of the SDLP Colum Eastwood said that he will not attend White House events in the US this St Patrick’s Day as Gaza is being razed to the ground while the American administration ‘turns its face the other way’.

Derry’s MP however said the SDLP will however send a delegation to Washington DC “to engage with senior lawmakers, Irish Americans and Palestinian Americans to make the case for an end to violence”.

Mr Eastwood said that the scale and intensity of violence cannot be justified and that the US should become an advocate for a ceasefire to preserve the dignity and humanity of the civilian population in Gaza and southern Israel.

Andrew Balfour,

Local Democracy Reporter