In two pivotal St Patrick's Day messages, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has praised the Irish spirit of resistance and solidarity - and blasted the British for honing its colonial ambitions in Ireland. 

And one day after kicking the idea of Irish unity into touch at a press conference, the Mayor seemed to reverse course, saying at the New York parade (where he sported a Tricolour sash and a sprig of shamrock) that he thought the Irish too were entitled to self-determination. 

At the annual St Patrick's Day breakfast in Gracie Mansion, Mayor Mamdani praised St Patrick for weeping with the oppressed and said that tradition was evident in guest of honor former Irish President Mary Robinson's record of solidarity with oppressed peoples. 

"But Irish Irish solidarity is no coincidence," he added. "Who can better understand those who weep than those who have been made to weep for so long? The story of the Irish, both in Ireland and in New York City, is at one time a story of oppression, of subjugation and of discrimination as we know. 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 first honed in the plantations of Ireland."

GRACIE MANSION: Mayor Mamdani addressing the St Patrick's Day breakfast gathering
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GRACIE MANSION: Mayor Mamdani addressing the St Patrick's Day breakfast gathering

The Mayor - who did not eat at breakfast as he is observing Ramadan - said the Irish who arrived in New York had organised to counter the discrimination they faced. "When Irish immigrants arrived in New York City, they were so often barred from employment and from housing, signs plastered across storefronts read, 'Help Wanted. No Irish Need Apply'. And yet, while Irish New Yorkers were in the poetry of Evan Boland 'long suffering in the bruise coloured dusk of the New World', they did not grow discouraged. They banded together. They organised. They formed labour movements that endure to this day. It was Irish hands that helped to build so much of the city that we recognise today, the skyscrapers that pierce clouds, the tunnels carved through bedrock, and we can see an example of that legacy in the incredible labour leaders that we have with us today,"

The Mayor praised former President Robinson's solidarity with the people of Palestine and for trailblazing a path for Irish women as the first female President. 

Responding, former President Robinson called for a reigniting of a spirit of community.

"What is called for now is community, not the division and domination we are seeing far too often," she said. "What is needed instead is the deeper moral courage to stand on the side of peace, defend human dignity and resolutely refuse despair. That courage lives in ordinary people. It lived in those in Ireland who, through long years of conflict, refused hatred and held fast to the belief that peace was still possible, and it lives now in those who keep faith that a better, more just world is still possible. And perhaps that's the truest Spirit of St Patrick's Day, that even in troubled times, people still gather together, still lift their voices, still choose hope."

In a video posted on social media channels to mark St Patrick's Day, Mayor Mamdani referenced Ireland's long struggle for freedom. "And yet the story of Ireland is not merely one of violent oppression, of subjugation, of attempted domination," he said.  "It is one of resistance too. For centuries, generation after generation waged a lonely effort for independence, year after year, uprising after uprising, they were brutally beaten back, and still they kept coming."

He added: "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."

Addressing the press during the parade, the Mayor acknowledged that he had reflected further on the issue of Irish unity, saying that he believed in the principle of self-determination for all people "and that should be extended to the Irish too". He added: "When it comes to the future of Ireland, the best people to the listen are the Irish."