Irish PM boxes clever as Trump doubles down on Starmer 'disappointment'

Ireland's Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin prides himself on his boxing skills from the years he spent as an amateur in the ring and those skills came in handy in Washington on Tuesday.

His opponent? President Donald Trump. The venue? The Oval Office, home territory for the US leader. And the subject for sparring? Sir Keir Starmer, among other things.

In the end, Martin came out intact having defended the man who had helped restore Anglo-Irish relations, without triggering a backlash from his US host.

In the process his performance earned some plaudits, and some criticisms, back home.

What happened between Trump and Micheál Martin?

Every year the taoiseach makes a trip to the US for St Patrick's Day and has an audience with the president at the White House.

On Tuesday, it soon became clear he would have to be fast on his feet, as the meeting was dominated with talk about Iran and fighting in the Middle East.

He repeated his comment that Starmer was "no Winston Churchill", referencing the UK's most famous war leader.

Trump also said he was "disappointed" in the prime minister, adding he had not "been supportive" of the US in the Middle East and accusing him of making a "big mistake" on Iran.

Martin, who just last Friday hosted Starmer in his home town of Cork for a UK-Ireland summit, was quick to defend his colleague across the Irish Sea.

"Keir Starmer has done a lot to reset the Irish-British relationship, I just want to put that on the record," he said.

"I do believe that he's a very earnest, sound person (who) you have a capacity to get on with, you've got on with him before.

Martin also responded to Trump's negative comparison of Starmer to Churchill.

"Churchill was a great wartime leader, although in Ireland, it was kind of a different perspective in terms of the War of Independence," he said.

"He created his own bit of difficulties for us."

What did Martin say in the Oval Office about immigration?

There was another potential flashpoint when Martin responded to comments from the president that the UK and other European countries had allowed "millions and millions of people to come into your country that shouldn't be there".

The taoiseach said "Europe is still a very good place to live", adding that Europe was sometimes "characterised wrongly in terms of it being overrun".

He said no-one was in favour of illegal immigration and that Ireland's population was growing "but in a very positive way" due to the economy attracting people to work legally.

At other times Martin didn't respond directly, seemingly knowing when to step in and when to step back.

He used all his delicate footwork when dodging presidential jabs including digs about Ireland's crafty negotiating skills poaching US big business to the cowardice of fellow EU countries who have refused to joins Trump's war effort.

The taoiseach is also a master at the diplomatic side step as he was challenged by journalists to mention the school children killed in the first wave of attacks in the Middle East.

He also did not get drawn into whether he believed the war was illegal when encouraged to do so by journalists in the room.

Martin even avoided correcting Trump when he referred to Irish President Catherine Connolly as "he" when responding to recent criticisms she made about the US attack on Iran being "a brutal assault on international law".

What was the reaction in Ireland?

After 40 minutes of intense questioning alongside the most unpredictable of presidents, Martin was relieved to escape unscathed.

It was a bout he did not win but also did not lose - and his performance received a mixed response among some in the UK and Ireland.

In a post on X, former cabinet minister Rory Stewart praised Martin for speaking "fluently and diplomatically - while also standing up for values, peace and European allies".

Former Irish Ambassador to the US Dan Mulhall told Irish national broadcaster RTÉ that the taoiseach fared "well" in not damaging the economic ties between Ireland and the US in the meeting.

"I think overall you could say, we got through a difficult day on a difficult course and the taoiseach came home fairly well, without any bruises on his body," he said on RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme.

Social Democrat leader Holly Cairns said the meeting between the Martin and Trump was a "missed opportunity", saying the Irish leader was "almost entirely mute".

Cairns said the only person Martin strongly defended was the UK's prime minister as he "made a point of attempting to firmly rebuff some of Trump's attacks on him".

"However, when Trump mistakenly thought our own president was a man, Micheál Martin failed to correct the record," she added.

She said inviting Trump to Ireland would be "outrageous" and that the Irish people "do not want a red carpet to be rolled out for an American president who is dismantling international law and institutions".

Sinn Féin, who boycotted events in the White House last year and again this year, said Martin "wasted a unique opportunity" to defend international law.

"Instead, he stayed silent on the need to respect international law, failed to mention the ongoing genocide in Gaza or the United States' and Israel's attacks on Iranian civilians," said Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire.