IN the Oval Office on St Patrick’s Day, Taoiseach Micheál Martin defended Keir Starmer following Donald Trump’s disparaging of the British prime minister as being no Winston Churchill.

The taoiseach described Starmer as “an earnest, sound person” and while “Churchill was a great war-time leader”, he noted that “in Ireland it was kind of a different perspective in terms of our own War of Independence and so on – he created his own bit of difficulties for us”.

Opponents of Martin were quick to jump on the assertion that “Churchill was a great war-time leader”, with many social media commentators citing Churchill’s warmongering and ignoring the taoiseach’s explanation of his complex relationship with Ireland.

However, the taoiseach was correct on both counts.

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It is hard to argue otherwise than that Churchill was a great war-time leader for Britain during the Second World War.

In his dignified response to Churchill’s hot-headed, highly personalised outburst against him immediately after the war in Europe ended, Éamon de Valera acknowledged as much by commending Britain’s “stand alone” and said Churchill should be “justly proud of his nation’s perseverance against heavy odds”.

While it is correct to continuously scrutinise Churchill’s actions during the war, he undoubtedly played a formidable role in defeating Nazism, an evil that needed to be vanquished.

The taoiseach was also correct to add the caveat about Churchill and Ireland.

Although Churchill may be lauded by most British people, opinions of him in Ireland........

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