Protest outside Leinster House as Varadkar meets Trump in US
Protesters carrying coffins draped with the flags of Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan have gathered outside Leinster House to urge Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to tell US president Donald Trump to stop invading other countries amid talk of a Venezuelan intervention.
The small protest, which was organised by the Workers Party, took place at lunchtime on Thursday at the same time as Mr Varadkar was in the Oval Office in the White House.
A small protest is taking place outside Leinster House to highlight the number of people killed by US invasions, complete with grim reaper and coffins with the flags of affected nations. The protest is occurring at the same time as @campaignforleo meets @realDonaldTrump #iestaff pic.twitter.com/bH3CnWLqBo
— Fiachra Ó Cionnaith 😊 (@Ocionnaith) March 14, 2019
In a statement outlining the reasoning for the protest, Workers Party councillor and European elections candidate Eilis Ryan said:
"As Leo Varadkar today meets US president Donald Trump in Washington DC, we wish to remind the Irish people and the Taoiseach of the murder and death caused by United States military aggression in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
"If Trump's plans to topple [Venezuelan] president Nicolas Maduro succeed, we can be sure the same fate will fall to Venezuela - civil war, chaos and an enormous civilian death toll.
"Leo Varadkar should use today's meeting with Donald Trump not to go through the same old platitudes, but to unequivocally distance himself from the US government's de-stabilising, interventionist foreign policies, whether in Palestine, Iraq or Venezuela."
