Catherine Connolly emphasised Ireland's "unique insight" to conflict resolution to Donald Trump

After her meeting with President Donald Trump, President Catherine Connolly released a statement explaining what she said to him.

US president Donald Trump made a quick visit to Áras an Uchtaráin before making his way out West to the Irish Open, meeting Irish president Catherine Connolly.

What the pair discussed during the meeting was kept behind closed doors, and President Trump didn't elaborate upon his departure.

After he left the Áras, President Connolly released a statement indicating what she said to him and how she emphasised that Ireland is in a unique position to help with conflict resolution.

She shared: "As President of Ireland, I am very conscious that Ireland and the United States of America are bound by strong ties. This is a deep connection, built over centuries, which allows us to speak openly to one another.

"We are in a world facing the existential threat posed by war and climate change, both of which are inextricably interlinked. I conveyed the strong view of the Irish people that the normalisation of war and genocide can never be accepted.

"As a country which has suffered famine, colonisation and the violence of the Troubles, but also the importance of the long and challenging road to peace, I emphasised the unique insight which Irish people can bring to the resolution of conflict.

"I highlighted to President Trump the strong commitment which the Irish people have to international relations, to the importance of the United Nations, including the pride which Irish people feel in Ireland’s contribution to UN Peacekeeping since 1958, and to the obligations contained within Article 29 of our Constitution towards the peaceful resolution of international disputes.

"I assured President Trump that the Irish people would strongly support all those who have the strength to build a shared peace in all those parts of the world currently suffering from such horrific war and violence.”

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This message was also somewhat conveyed in the gifts Catherine Connolly gave to Donald Trump, as is tradition for Ireland's president to gift items to visiting world leaders.

Newstalk reporter Jessica Woodlock told The Pat Kenny Show : "She gave him a St Bridget's cross, which would be quite usual.

"She gave him a book about the voyage of St Brendan, which she describes it as 'one of Ireland's most important contributions to the culture of mediaeval Europe and a significant work of literature.'

"But interestingly, and I think a lot of people will read into this, out of all the great poets that Ireland has produced, she gave him a book of collected poems from Michael Longley.

"Now Michael Longley is a Belfast poet and she describes him, so this is the official correspondence that was issued to us from the Irish this morning, he's described as 'one of the finest poets in Ireland'.

"She describes his work as 'spanning love, war, nature, and art'. And the Aras's communication importantly points out that Michael Longley's sonnet, Ceasefire, draws on Homer and has become one of the defining Irish poems about what it is to forgive.

"So people will draw conclusions from her specific choice of that poem out of Michael Longley's collection, which as I said, discuss war and love as well."

Main image: President Catherine Connolly and President Donald Trump during meeting in Áras an Uachtaráin while on a courtesy call at the start of his visit to Ireland. Picture by: Tony Maxwell/Rollingnews.ie