'I will not stand by' - President's sister on flotilla

All but two of 175 activists onboard a flotilla carrying aid to Gaza that was intercepted by Israeli forces early yesterday and who were detained have been released.

The Global Sumud Flotilla continues, however, with the remaining participants located near the Greek Island of Crete.

Among them is the sister of President Catherine Connolly, Dr Margaret Connolly.

She said she decided to take part in the venture because of "the catastrophic destruction of Gaza since October 2023".

Dr Connolly said that had resulted in the "near devasation of the enclave".

She said Gaza is "one fifth of the size of Sligo," and described it as "2.3 million people being held in an open concentration camp".

"I have been actively involved in the Sligo-Palestinian Organisation in Sligo for 30 years now, and I just felt at [age] 67 I must do a little more," she said on RTÉ's Six One News.

Dr Connolly said her family are fully supportive: "My family are totally behind me, my two daughters and my son are totally behind me, and so is my husband."

She said she made the decision to take part in the flotilla for herself, and that her "heart lies with the Palestinian people".

"We have had 800 years of colonisation by England, why wouldn't we come on the flotilla? It is but a small thing, a drop in the ocean.

"But if I can make people wake up and feel the pain that I feel for what the Israeli regime is enacting in Gaza, it will have been well worthwhile," she said.

'I am here in my own right'

As sister of President Connolly, Dr Connolly said: "I am totally here in my own right, the President knows that. I am here as Dr Margaret Connolly, a mother, a human being, and a GP.

"I am here in my own right, for myself, and to wake people up that this bloody genocide has to stop."

She added: "We have to stop normalising violence and war as if it is a computer game.

"It is absolutely insane to allow the US government and the Western powers to enact this genocide, ongoing for three years almost, and feel that they can get away with it, acting with impunity.

"Everywhere they go, they destroy societies, they are out to destroy the people of Palestine," she said.

Dr Connolly said that those onboard the vessel next to her were "kidnapped" on Wednesday night, a reference to the Israeli interception of the flotilla.

At the time, she said she had been on the bow of the ship minding a "little baby bird that happened to land for an hour, and it was quite surreal, and very calm".

"I did not feel afraid, but we saw a huge light coming towards us and that was the warship."

Dr Connolly described comments by the Taoiseach today, that the international community must "call out" what took place on Wednesday night and that Israel has to abide by international law, as "a little late to say".

"It's a little late after our two special comrades - Thiago from Brazil, holding a European passport and Saif, a Palestinian man who has a Swedish/Spanish passport - both these comrades have been separated from the rest of the Irish who were kidnapped and are now being taken to an Israeli jail.

"How will Micheál Martin's comments help those two men?" she asked.

"Most of their comrades are terrified that the Palestinian lad may never be seen again."

She said there was a lot of violence on the boat when the Israelis tried to separate the men from the rest of the crew, "and our hearts and our thoughts go out to their families tonight because we're all very, very distressed at the scenes we have seen".

Those on board flotilla currently safe

Dr Connolly said she and the others are currently safe and that she preferred to repeat her broader message that "we must stop being complicit in genocide - it cannot be allowed to go on".

"It is violence and abhorrent," she said, insisting "I will not stand by and do nothing."

She said the plan at the moment was to ride out a storm in a bay where they have sheltered.

"Spirits are high ... It is our right to travel these waters, America and Israel do not own this world, that is the message.

"The people of the world own this world, and we all, civilians across the planet need to stand up to the might, greed, and avarice of these colonial powers who only want to destroy everything in their path," she said.