‘Hypocrite of the century’: Irish MP blasts US president’s G8 visit

Barack Obama is a “war criminal” and a “hypocrite,” an Irish politician has said in a damning attack on the US president. The MP slammed the Irish treatment of Obama during his G8 visit as akin to ‘prostituting’ Ireland for a “pat on the head.”

Irish MP Clare Daly took no prisoners in her heated attack on the visit of the Obama family to Ireland during this year’s G8 summit, which was held in the five-star resort of Lough Erne, Northern Ireland.

During a session of the Irish parliament last Tuesday, Daly slammed media coverage of the visit as tantamount to "a nation of pimps, prostituting ourselves in return for a pat on the head."

“It’s hard to know which is worse, whether it’s the outpourings of the Obamas themselves, or the sycophantic fawning over them by sections of the media and the political establishment,” said Daly, saying that the Irish nation had been subjected to “unprecedented slobbering” over the presidential family.

Rounding on the president, she condemned his speech to children in Northern Ireland about the peace process as the “biggest irony of all.” Citing Obama’s decision to supply the Syrian opposition with arms, she asked: “Is person going for the hypocrite of the century award?”

“By any serious examination this man is a war criminal,” said Daly, accusing the Obama administration of purposely stalling the Geneva talks by increasing their backing for the Syrian opposition and undermining secularism in the region as a whole.

She called on the Irish government to take steps to “ensure no weapons go through Shannon [Airport] to Syria in breach of the international laws”

Letting rip on the on Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, she said there was speculation "whether the Taoiseach [PM] was going to deck the cabinet out in leprechaun hats decorated with a bit of stars and stripes to really mark abject humiliation."

Clare Daly’s comments were condemned as “disgraceful” by Kenny, who debated with the MP following her initial speech. He said her comment were a “do-down” to Irish people living throughout the world. Addressing, Daly’s words on Syria, Kenny said that she seemed to have a very “biased” view on the “wanton slaughter of the Syrian people” by the regime of President Bashar Assad.

Daly later questioned what was so “outrageous” about her comments in a column in the Irish examiner, stressing the “unquestionable adoration of the Obamas is ludicrous.”

“Of course the Obamas, like anyone else, have a right to visit our country and enjoy the benefits we have to offer. However, we cannot afford to let a sideshow develop whereby the situation becomes completely depoliticized,” Daly wrote.

Barack Obama, his wife and two daughters touched down in Belfast for the G8 summit on June 17. While the president attended high-level meetings as part of the summit, his family toured the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.