Taoiseach Enda Kenny won many international fans when he went viral for a speech in front of Donald Trump that seemed to slap down the President’s anti-immigration rhetoric and policies.
Kenny had reminded Mr. Trump that St. Patrick himself was an immigrant, and referring to past Irish immigrants as “the wretched refuse on the teeming shore.”
Footage of the speech went super-viral, and many praised Enda Kenny for his courage in apparently standing up to Donald Trump.
One man who was unconvinced by the Taoiseach’s performance is Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, who slammed the Irish government’s domestic treatment of refugees through direct provision.
“If we are going to go as saints and scholars to 50 million people on YouTube, we cannot be the chancers of the world,” he told the party’s national conference in Waterford.
“How we ourselves in Ireland manage migrants, we have to make sure that what we are doing matches what we are saying on the international stage,” said Ryan, according to the Irish Times.
“St Patrick would not be too happy with our current direct provision system. It has to go.”
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