Hello and welcome to the Friday Inside Politics digest, your recap of the week in politics.
Life in Leinster House trundled on but there was no question that politics everywhere revolved around what was happening in Davos.
It was the lead story in the print edition every single day this week.
The assorted chief executives, prime ministers, plutocrats and hangers-on arrived in the Swiss Alps early in the week with one question uppermost in their minds: would Donald Trump pursue his efforts to acquire Greenland as far as the destruction of the western alliance and its Nato military arm?
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If that occurred, it wouldn’t just have been the biggest story of the year. It would have been the biggest story since the fall of the Iron Curtain.
Meanwhile, Derek Scally reported from Nuuk in Greenland where some locals were stockpiling food and petrol.
In Copenhagen, we reported that Danes feel “betrayed and bewildered” by the US approach.
A tale of two speeches
Back in the Alps, as the Davos elite nervously waited for Trump to arrive, the Canadian prime minister Mark Carney seized the agenda with a speech immediately hailed as an historic milestone.
The Trump presidency has utterly changed the world, Carney warned. The rules have been torn up. The rest of the world needs to adapt, and adapt quickly. For Canada and other “middle countries”, he said, this means forming new alliances and arrangements which serve our collective interests – without, he implied, or even in the face of hostility from, the United States. Here’s our report
The next day Trump delivered an extraordinary speech – boastful, menacing, hostile, rambling. But he also – to the unquantifiable relief of those present and watching in their home capitals – ruled out the use of force to acquire Greenland. Here’s Eoin Burke-Kennedy’s report.
A few hours later, after talks with Nato chief Mark Rutte – whose management of Trump is toe-curling but effective – he said he had a “deal” that would give the US enough of what it wanted. The details remain unclear and Denmark certainly seems wary, but the threat of an imminent collapse of Nato and an irreparable breach between the EU and the US abated, for now. You would hardly rule out another U-turn on the issue by Trump.
Speculation abounded about what lay behind the sudden climbdown. Some suggested pressure from US chief executives who don’t want to see a trade war with Europe was important. Behind the scenes warnings from other leaders, including UK prime minister Keir Starmer, was cited by others.
In Europe, however, the lessons taken by the EU’s leaders was that their publicly uncompromising stance – promising retaliation against the US if Trump went ahead with his Greenland tariffs – had paid dividends. The consensus, therefore, is that the EU should be tougher with Trump in future. Underpinning this is the conclusion that the US can no longer be treated as a normal ally of the EU. That is what makes this feel like an enormously consequential week. Jack Power’s assessment is here.
And Martin Wolf has a gloomy analysis here.
When Irish eyes are blinking
The Irish position, unsurprisingly due to our economic links to the US, has been cautious and anxious to avoid any definitive break with the US. But Micheál Martin and his Ministers know that might be impossible. That would be the nightmare for any Irish government – a choice between the EU and the US.
At home, Martin faced predictable calls to boycott the White House on St Patrick’s Day. “That doesn’t put bread on the table,” he snapped back. But who knows what the world looks like by then?
Miriam Lord was on hand to witness the exchanges.
Mercosur on hold
Meanwhile, the trade deal between the EU and South American countries – finalised only in recent weeks – has been thrown into doubt after MEPs voted in Brussels to refer the deal to the European Court of Justice. As Jack Power reported, European leaders will now have to consider whether the trade deal between the EU and four South American countries should come into force provisionally, before it has been approved by MEPs, a move that would prove highly contentious.
At a time when Europe is facing a hostile US and the threat of a possible trade war lingers, it’s an odd move, testament again to the enduring power of the farming lobby in Brussels. A majority of Irish MEPs voted for the move, which passed by a narrow margin of 10 votes.
Do the crime, do the time
Finally in other stories you might have missed, Conor Gallagher had a brilliant lookback at what has happened to the Dublin rioters of November 2023. There have been 99 arrests, and 82 people have been charged.
Of those, due to their age, 17 have been referred to the Garda Youth Diversion Programme instead of being criminally prosecuted. Ten of those have been accepted into the programme, while another seven are awaiting assessments for suitability.
Ten people have been convicted in the Circuit Court and 23 in the District Court for offences connected with the riots. Another 14 are awaiting verdicts or sentences in the Circuit Court and 22 in the District Court. The remaining 13 cases were dealt with through “other court outcomes”, which could include acquittal, charges being dropped and the imposition of the Probation Act.
Sentences have typically been stiff, almost all involving prison time, with the courts seeking to reflect the seriousness of the riots and the impact on Irish society. The conclusion of one case is related in detail by Conor:
“In December Leanne Kelly, a 34-year-old homeless woman, became the latest person to be convicted for involvement in the Dublin riots of November 23rd, 2023.
“Unlike many of the other rioters who have appeared before the courts in the past two years, her involvement was limited to a single offence, though a serious one: criminal damage to a Dublin Bus on the night.
“She used a burning Garda car to set alight a piece of cardboard, which she then placed inside the bus on O’Connell Bridge. The vehicle, which had already been abandoned, was destroyed and cost €477,851 to replace.
“Kelly’s barrister handed in a handwritten letter of apology on her behalf. But when Judge Martina Baxter suggested putting the matter back for drug testing, Kelly told her to “f*** off” and said: “You’re not getting any urines out of me.”
Judge Baxter agreed to sentence her there and then. Kelly received six years.”
