M
icheál Martin is not known for grand gestures. Yet the Irish taoiseach, or prime minister, and leader of the centrist Fianna Fáil party since 2011, surprised his compatriots by standing up to Donald Trump during their meeting in the Oval Office on March 17. On Saint Patrick's Day, the Irish national holiday, he bravely defended British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whom the American president had taken a dislike to ever since he dared to refuse to join his war with Israel against Iran.
"Keir Starmer has done a lot to reset the British-Irish relationship; I just want to put that on the record," Martin stated, just after Trump had sarcastically remarked that his British counterpart was "not Winston Churchill." "I do believe that he's a very earnest, sound person that you have a capacity to get on with, you've got on with him before – and you've got on with other European leaders as well," the Irish leader insisted.
"Churchill was a great wartime leader, although in Ireland, it was kind of a different perspective," Martin added, alluding to the Irish resentment toward the former British prime minister who had reproached Ireland for remaining neutral during the Second World War. Did Trump pick up on this historical nuance? Probably not. Nor did he seem surprised at the highly improbable sight of an Irishman siding with an Englishman in Washington.
