We write to formally call for a boycott of the annual Shamrock Ceremony, scheduled to take place later this month. For far too long, the Irish American community has been politically neglected — courted for votes through promises that are abandoned the moment they are no longer useful. This administration is the latest and most egregious example of that pattern so commonplace in American politics. It has sought our support while governing on a set of values and interests entirely foreign to our own.
Let us be clear, this is not a question of partisan loyalty. Whether you are an Irish American who voted for Donald Trump in the belief that he represented something new and fresh, or one who opposed him from the beginning, the conclusion is the same:
This administration has not served Irish American interests. That is not a talking point of the left or the right. It is a statement of fact.
In recent years, Irish Americans have shifted significantly to the right, playing an instrumental role in electing Trump in 2024. Many were drawn in by a clear and resonant promise: ‘no new wars’. That promise has not been kept. Peace has been deliberately avoided while conflict is aggressively pursued by this administration. What we were offered was an end to foreign entanglement. What we have received instead is military intervention in Venezuela, continued weapons flows into Ukraine that deepen tensions with Russia, and yet another war in the Middle East.
That reality was brought into sharp and painful focus this past week with the deaths of Sgt. Declan J. Coady and Maj. Jeffrey R. O'Brien — Irish American soldiers, both killed in the Middle East. Their deaths cannot be separated from the political decisions that provoked this conflict, nor can they be dismissed with the cold remark that people die in war. They were sent into a war their own community voted against. We will not forget that, and we urge Taoiseach Martin to take this into consideration.
Nor can we ignore what Irish Americans across the political spectrum continue to witness in Gaza — another year of mounting civilian casualties, intensifying without pause and without conscience. From both the left and right, we see the same heart wrenching images and have reached the same conclusion. This administration does not govern by the values it campaigned on. It serves interests that are foreign to all people of the United States of America.
The NRC therefore calls on all Irish Americans — regardless of where we stand politically — to oppose an administration that has broken faith with our community and with the entirety of the American people. And we call on you, Taoiseach Martin, to refuse attendance at this year's Shamrock Ceremony. To attend is to hand a political gift to an administration that has plainly demonstrated it does not represent us. The dignity of Ireland and the Irish American community should not be made available as a backdrop for that failure.
Sincerely,
Nationhood Revival Coalition
United States of America
A Letter to Taoiseach Micheál Martin
March 7th 2026