It was a proper gunfight at the OK Corral on Tuesday, when Micheál Martin, leader of the lawmen, strapped on his gun belt and laid into Mary Lou McDonald, leader of the outlaws.
Published: 5 March 2026
She was reprising yet again her impression from another great movie, Casablanca, of the corrupt cop Captain Renaud explaining to casino owner Rick why he is about to be closed down.
“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” he explained, totally unembarrassed as the croupier handed him a wad of money.
In McDonald’s case, what she did with a straight face — a week after she had praised the late sectarian mass murderer Bik McFarlane for having “dedicated his life to the pursuit of freedom, unity, peace and equality” — was attack the taoiseach as an enemy of peace.
“The US-Israeli assault on Iran is an act of aggression,” she explained in the Dail, “that threatens to set the entire Middle East ablaze.
“A sovereign state has been bombed, its leader assassinated, and 185 innocent schoolgirls killed.”
This delicately-raised convent schoolgirl was horrified that in that context Martin should have spoken of Ireland “being able to ‘stand militarily’ with states engaged in conflict”.
This undermined Ireland’s neutrality, “which matters precisely at moments like this”.
It wasn’t just that she deplored Ireland aligning itself with aggression, but Martin had offered “a defence and rationale for the indefensible and brazen breach of international law”.
While she grudgingly admitted that the Iranian government was “brutal and repressive”, Martin was enabling Israel, which was “already pursuing a genocide in Gaza”, to “widen its murderous campaign”.
Ignoring all the historical evidence to the contrary concerning Iran and its Jew-hating proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, she explained that “Israel has no interest in peace, in compromise or in negotiation.”
All was going as merry as a marriage bell on the diplomacy front until the US/Israeli strikes, which took place “while negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme were reportedly making progress, while diplomacy was under way, and while talks were described as constructive”.
Why would the Taoiseach “not name the actions of Israel and the United States as illegal, dangerous and in breach of international law?”
Martin had had enough.
He described October 7 “as a disastrous catalyst for the uncertainty and instability in the world”.
He actually criticised the sacred UN.
The multilateral order “been dysfunctional for quite some time”, he said. The UN Security Council has been “paralysed and powerless” in holding “repressive regimes to account”.
“For a long time now, Iran has been a very malign influence in the world.”
It had sponsored terrorism all over the Middle East and sent drones to the Russian military to kill innocent Ukrainians.
Sinn Fein, he pointed out, had opposed the €90 billion loan from the EU.
After such an onslaught, it must be a relief to McDonald and her proxies on the left that they weren’t going to Washington with the shamrock delivery this month.
They weren’t even invited so they couldn’t boycott.
It’s a sadness to me.
I’d have loved to see Trump tucking into McDonald and her hapless Dublin proxies, Social Democrat Holly Cairns and Labour’s Ivana Bacik.
