UN Resettlement Programme: Ireland's Ambassador to Ethiopia starts interviews for the 'New Irish'
What's the deal between Ireland and Ethiopia? Charity in return for votes?
To hashtags of #IrishResettlement and #NewBeginnings on an IOM (International Organisation for Migration) Facebook post from May 01, 2025, we see photos of Ireland’s ambassador to Ethiopia, Olivia Leslie, visiting a UN ‘transit centre to kick off refugee resettlement interviews’.
Back in Ireland, we get a deeper insight into this special relationship between countries from an article in The Connaught Telegraph dated August 24, 2024 about the story of Ethiopian journalist Michael Minassie who lives at the Castlebar Accommodation Centre, in Co. Mayo. This is part of the article he wrote for the publication:
A couple of months ago, I was pleasantly surprised when I was told I have the right to vote in the local elections. It appears this did not sit well with some forces in the Irish political landscape, though.
This reality dawned on me one day on Market Square of Castlebar when I was confronted by people with their phone camera trained on me.
“Refugees should not be allowed to vote in Ireland,” they said.
When I asked why they thought so, their maladroit argument was: “Will we be allowed to vote if we go to your country?”
I couldn’t understand why they thought democratic Ireland should have the same yardstick on rights as repressive governments that massacre their own people with impunity.
That incident aside, I grabbed the opportunity given to me not only to exercise my right but also to vote for one of the parties in the Irish government that had been supportive of the Tigrayan cause in the past.
When the plight of the people of Tigray was presented to the UN Security Council eleven times, Ireland was at the forefront. When Ethiopia's arms-suppliers, China and Russia, repeatedly blocked the passing of a resolution on Tigray and when the other big powers, preoccupied by Ukraine, lost interest, Ireland tried to get Tigray, one of the world's gravest humanitarian crises, on to the council's agenda.
I called it “my vote for Tigray” to express my gratitude to all Irish people who, through their representatives at the Foreign Affairs Office, at the Irish Embassy in Addis Ababa, the European Parliament and the UN Security Council, stood on the side of my people.
In November 2021, the Ethiopian government expelled four of six Irish diplomats serving at the Embassy in Addis Ababa “due to positions Ireland has articulated internationally on the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia”. Why two were allowed to stay on is anyone’s guess.
The then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney (globalist poster boy, Peter Sutherland protégé) said Ethiopia had been the largest recipient of Irish Aid funds in the last five years. He said:
“We will maintain our solidarity with the people of Ethiopia as the humanitarian crisis worsens. In the coming weeks, Irish Aid will disburse €16m to humanitarian partners operating in Ethiopia including UN OCHA, UNICEF, UNFPA and the International Rescue Committee”.
Ireland’s cosy relationship with Ethiopia goes back even further, to November 2014, when President Michael D Higgins struck some kind of a deal with then Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Little surprise the Marxist pair were warming up on the ‘threat’ of infectious diseases, even back then.
After the meeting Ethiopian Airlines opened a flight path from Addis Ababa to Dublin, which has since changed but it’s interesting to keep an eye on the course of events…
It’s unclear just how many Ethiopians live in Ireland, estimates of around 3,000 are thrown about. It is clear there are plans to resettle many, many more to our shores under UN resettlement programmes. It’s not the fault of the refugees that they are being moved about, they are victims as much as anyone. We must focus our energies on who’s creating the problems and facilitating the plantation. Who’s looking for the grateful asylum seekers to vote in elections to keep them in power?
What’s the deal?
Show your support for independent journalism and kindly buy Aisling a coffee HERE. Thank you.
Nobody from the Irish Government should be having deals with countries outside of Ireland especially giving votes to immigrants and benefitting personally as a result. This is corruption.
A great string of articles Aisling.
"Destruction with a smile and a pretty face... How weaponised empathy, knee jerk policy making and empty virtue-signalling were unleashed to replace diplomacy and destroy the West." For what it's worth, this is a book that does not exist but that should be written.