The Irish president, Catherine Connolly, presented US president Donald Trump with a book of poetry during his visit to Dublin. During the brief courtesy visit Ms Connolly told Mr Trump of Ireland’s “strong view” that war and genocide should not be normalised. The Irish Examiner reported that this “was coupled with the less-than-subtle gift provided to Mr Trump by Ms Connolly: a volume of collected poems by Belfast-born Michael Longley”. The poems included Longley’s famous poem ‘Ceasefire’.

The Examiner commented: “Hard to be much more pointed than that.”

The Irish president has previously accused Trump of being “volatile” and “acting like a bully”, and criticised his actions in the Middle East. 

In a statement after the meeting, Connolly said that she conveyed to Trump “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,” she said in the statement.

She also said that she highlighted to 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".

She said she 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”.