THE reason the Troubles horrified people here was because it brought war close up, in all its brutality. Wars far away – in Ukraine, in Lebanon, in Gaza – can elicit empathy from us all. But it’s only when it comes to your own door that you begin to understand the savagery of it all.
That’s why the testimony of the Irish people on the flotilla trying to bring aid to Palestinians is so powerful: Irish people know what ruthless dominance is. And course in this case the messenger adds weight to what was said.
Dr Margaret Connolly, the sister of the President of Ireland, spoke about what had happened to them.
"I want to tell you what I saw... people in agony, people freezing cold with hypothermia, no clothes, in drenched clothes... The activists weren’t given toilet paper and the women in the group were denied sanitary towels... They laughed at us and they thought you should have 'feffin' thought about this before you came here. We were not even allowed to look up. We stared at the ground the whole time. They kicked you if you looked up."
Even as all this was happening, the Dáil was refusing to pass sanctions on Israel. Oh, yes, Micheál Martin denounced what had happened to Irish citizens and others in the flotilla, but on May 20, 2026, Dáil Éireann voted against a private member’s bill called the 'Sanctions Against the State of Israel Bill 2025'. TDs like Dara Calleary, Michael Moynihan. Alan Dillon and Colm Burke just felt they couldn’t vote for these sanctions.
What is the matter with these people? Has the bit of their brain which distinguishes cruelty and degradation from kindness and dignity, has that bit been surgically extracted, so that they can leave the Dail, exchange greetings with fellow politicians, go home and tuck in their child and maybe give them a goodnight kiss?
If we are to have international laws so savages like those who abused are to be held responsible for their actions, isn’t it time the civilised world reacted and brought this rogue state to account? It’s not as if we didn’t know about it – the brutish, yelling figures who kidnapped and broke the bones of peaceful people for daring to bring food and medical support to Palestinians made a point of filming it. Why? Maybe just to show they could – as their mentor Donald Trump did, kidnapping the President of Venezuela and his wife and keeping them imprisoned.
The by-election votes in Galway and Dublin showed something of the enthusiasm of the electorate for Fianna Fail. That’s Fianna Fail that can’t bring itself to vote on a boycott of all Israeli goods and services. Of course, the Fianna Fail and Fine Gael candidates running for office won’t see themselves as responsible for what happened the flotilla. They’ll probably tell themselves they have nothing to do with flotillas and the IDF.
Sorry, guys. There’s no wriggling around this one. If the murderous brutality of Israel wasn’t on the ballot paper it should have been. The philosopher Immanuel Kant argued that the true morality of an action becomes clear when we answer the question "What if everyone acted like this?"
Israel used up its reservoir of global sympathy months, decades ago. The fact that we feel disgusted by their actions only when those actions are shown on TV suggests our silence makes us complicit too.
