DUP to meet Trump again at Patrick's Day event in Washington again this year
The DUP’s Deputy First Minister Emma Little Pengelly and Minister Gordon Lyons will go to Washington to join Donald Trump again on St Patrick's Day this year, the party has said.
When asked, Sinn Fein declined to say if it would repeat its boycott of last year, when First Minister Michelle O'Neill stayed away.
Last year, Ms O'Neill travelled to Carolina for a business event, but returned home rather than go to Washington. Ms Little-Pengelly did travel to Washington, and spoke to Mr Trump during a lunch at Capitol Hill
On Friday Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin confirmed he would visit the White House on St Patrick's Day.
Irish Tanaiste Simon Harris expressed his support for Mr Martin's decision, saying "it's more important than ever" to engage.
The Tanaiste also said political leaders should "call out racism in all its forms" when asked about a video produced by the White House depicting former president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama as apes.
Mr Martin said Mr Trump believes the annual engagement is a chance "to celebrate the special relationship between our two countries".
DUP East Belfast MLA David Brooks said his party would travel once again to Washington to meet Mr Trump this year.
He said: “Last year whilst Sinn Fein, the SDLP, and Alliance chose to grandstand and boycott the events in Washington to mark St Patrick’s Day, our party colleagues Emma Little-Pengelly and Gordon Lyons took the opportunity to build relationships, strengthen economic ties, and advocate for our people.
"It was revealing that the self-imposed exile of Michelle O’Neill, Claire Hanna and Naomi Long wasn’t even on the President’s radar, yet he warmly welcomed his “new friends from Northern Ireland” to the White House. That tells you everything you need to know about just how ineffective and irrelevant their boycott has been.
"We will be represented this year again. Our visit has a clear purpose for the DUP to foster political relationships, develop economic opportunities, and enhance cultural links between Northern Ireland and the United States.
"Engaging with the most powerful leaders in the world is about making the case for Northern Ireland.
"You don’t have to agree with everything someone says or does to advocate for your people.
"If our own political arrangements have taught us anything, it’s that political relationships are often necessary, even when they’re not with whom we would choose.”
Calls were made last year for the Taoiseach to drop the trip as Mr Trump began his second term as president.
The leaders of the main opposition party, Sinn Fein, did not attend the White House, citing the US administration's approach to Gaza.
Those calls have been amplified in the wake of the US's rescinded threat to take over Greenland, and Mr Trump's anti-immigration crackdown in the city of Minneapolis and elsewhere in the US.
Asked at a Fine Gael Conference in Galway if he would meet Mr Trump, Mr Harris said he would, adding: "It's really important that you're engaged."
"It's really easy to turn up when everyone's getting along great and everyone agrees on absolutely everything. It's harder to turn up when there are legitimate areas of policy difference, but it's actually more important than ever to do that," he said.
The US-Irish relationship is "much deeper” than who holds the offices of taoiseach or US president, he added.