Mary Lou McDonald – 2022 Comments on Meeting with Nancy Pelosi

The comments made by Mary Lou McDonald, the President of Sinn Fein, on 9 September 2022.

This week I have been in San Francisco for a series of engagements with business leaders, the local Irish community, trade unions and political leaders. We have discussed the challenges and the many opportunities for both Ireland and the United States in the time ahead and the unique ties which bond our two nations.

Yesterday I met with US Speaker Nancy Pelosi and thanked her for her steadfast commitment to protecting the Good Friday Agreement and ensuring that the Irish people do not become collateral damage to the Tories’ Brexit plans. Speaker Pelosi’s commitment to protecting peace and all elements of the Good Friday Agreement is unshakeable.

Speaker Pelosi reiterated to me the importance that the US Administration continues to place on protecting these important rights and affirmed again that the US stands firmly with the people of Ireland. We discussed President Joe Biden’s remarks earlier this week to the new British Prime Minister Liz Truss that she must show a change of tack from previous holders of that office and engage in good faith negotiations around the implementation of the protocol.

British Prime Minister Truss must break with the bad faith agenda of her predecessors and change direction, end the unilateral actions and respect international law. We need to see a recommitment to the Good Friday Agreement, support the restoration of the political institutions and an end to game playing around the Irish protocol.