It’s a star-spangled special today with events across the ocean relegating the Dáil’s dull two-day sitting to a minor role.
This week, we watched anxiously from behind the National Sofa as Taoiseach Micheál Martin arrived at the White House for his much anticipated St Patrick’s Day appointment with president Donald Trump and the Oval Office bully chair.
This time last year when the Taoiseach called around, he didn’t have to endure the type of mauling Trump has meted out to other political guests invited to his golden bully chair, but their encounter was mortifyingly awkward.
A success, so.
But that was before Trump lost the diplomatic plot and had the president of Venezuela abducted in a dawn raid on Caracas, before threatening to annex Greenland and then starting an illegal war with Iran, throwing the global oil market into turmoil while insulting EU leaders and throwing a juvenile strop with UK prime minister Keir Starmer.
And throughout it all, apprehensive leaders of nations pander to him in his bling-encrusted batshit-cave, perching uneasily beside him in the bully chair and struggling to smile while he treats them like halfwits and talks whatever crazy talk comes into his head.
Now, more often than not, honoured visitors trapped in these one-sided dialogues are remembered as much for their tense body language and flabbergasted expressions as for what they might have managed to say.
And on Tuesday evening in the big house on Pennsylvania Avenue, it was Micheal’s turn again.
The early omens were good. The Irish delegation awoke to a sunny St Patrick’s Day morning, much relieved as a tornado warning had been issued the night before, with schools and public buildings set to close at 2pm as a precautionary measure.
There was no big fuss and, as it turned out, no tornado either.
And there was no need to hide behind the couch, as it turned out.
The Taoiseach put in an assured and composed performance during the Oval Office meeting, visibly relaxing as it wore on. At times, he seemed to be trying to keep a straight face as his host came out with all sorts of bizarre blather.
The strained atmosphere of the previous meeting was far less in evidence and the Taoiseach, while certainly not pushing it, at least stood up to some of Trump’s more unwelcome assertions. Something that far more powerful men have been unable to do when in the bully seat.
It was an impressive display from the leader of a small country and it won Micheál plaudits both at home and abroad.
Once, Keir Starmer was Donald’s friend. Now, it was Micheál Martin who was defending him as Trump belittled the UK’s PM by damning him with faint praise.
Starmer used to be called the Trump whisperer.
What did that make Micheál Martin?
The Potus Plámáser?
During their meeting, president Trump all but invited himself over here in September for the Irish Open golf championship, which is being held in his family-run Doonbeg golf links in Co Clare.
The Taoiseach, buttering up Donald like a floury spud, indicated he would be delighted to see the US president here for this major sporting event.
A trip to Ireland this year seems almost certain now.
However, former ceann comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl sounded a note of caution at the last Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting before the Dáil rose for a week in honour of our patron saint.
While TDs and Senators were fully behind Micheál Martin’s trip to Washington and wished him all the best in his discussions with the US president, Ó Fearghaíl referred to media reports that the Government was considering inviting him to address TDs and Senators in Leinster House – as has been done by previous incumbents – if he pays an official visit.
He told the Taoiseach that the Houses of the Oireachtas are “inviolable”. Inviting Donald Trump to address members would not go down well with the public and it would bring politicians into “even more disrepute” with the people.
His remarks weren’t addressed at the meeting, although it is thought a full State visit is unlikely.
Micheál Martin presents Donald Trump with a bowl of shamrock on Tuesday, as his wife Mary O’Shea looks on, at the annual St Patrick’s Day event in the East Room of the White House. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty
On Sunday, Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ireland’s ambassador to the US, hosted a reception in her official residence, just a stone’s throw away from the White House.
The mansion was packed to the rafters with around 800 guests cheerfully putting the final nail in the coffin of the Ferrero Rocher as the ambassadorial cocktail nibble of choice.
The crisp sandwiches, green milkshakes (supplied by McDonald’s) and green, white and orange M&Ms on offer went down very well – a worrying indication that Trump’s influence may have infiltrated the embassy belt.
Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s First Minister, boycotted the celebrations for the second year in a row in protest at the US government’s support for Israeli attacks on Gaza.
The Deputy First Minister, Emma Little-Pengelly, led a small DUP contingent including Edwin Poots, the Speaker of the NI Assembly, and former MP Ian Paisley jnr, a long-time stalwart of the St Patrick’s week circuit to Washington.
One unexpected arrival among the largely Irish crowd was Kristi Noem, the controversial homeland security secretary who was fired earlier this month by president Trump. The Stetson-wearing Republican, dubbed “Ice Barbie” during her tenure, is the first cabinet member to go overboard from Trump’s second administration. She is about to start a new job as special envoy for the so-called Shield of the Americas.
Former taoiseach Enda Kenny at the Ireland Funds National Gala in Washington’s National Building Museum on Monday. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA
Former taoiseach Enda Kenny, no stranger to the White House, looks like a man who is enjoying his retirement. He attended the annual black-tie Ireland Fund dinner, which was a much quieter affair this year without the presence of the boisterous Burkes, from his native Mayo.
Last year they breached the heavy security around the event – where ticket prices start at $1,250 a plate and sponsorship packages shoot up from there – but were rapidly intercepted and manhandled out of the National Museum Building by security.
Isaac and Ammi Burke, along with their mother Martina were protesting at the imprisonment of Enoch Burke, who is in jail for refusing to comply with a court order.
At the time, the bouncers didn’t stand on ceremony, with one observer remarking: “Jaysus, yer man tackled Mammy Burke like Bundi Aki.”
Meanwhile, we hear Enda is planning to do the Ring of Kerry cycle again in July. It’s just 140 hard kilometres around the wild southwest coast – a tough circular route starting and finishing in Killarney.
The former Fine Gael leader wasn’t the only flag-bearer for the party at the various events around Washington. Former minister for foreign affairs Simon Coveney confessed that it was his first time to visit the White House as he was always on duty elsewhere during the annual ministerial airlift.
Former minister of state for Europe Lucinda Creighton was also in town and she was spotted applauding enthusiastically during Donald Trump’s rambling speech (charitably described by one onlooker as “bonkers”) during the White House shamrock ceremony in the East Room.
Former tánaiste and minister for foreign affairs Simon Coveney (left) speaks with Edward Walsh, the US ambassador to Ireland, at the St Patrick’s Day Business Leaders Luncheon in Washington on Monday. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA
The Burkes of Castlebar weren’t the only notable no-shows.
This year, mercifully, the White House was a Conor McGregor-free zone. There was no sign of the former MMA fighter and his name wasn’t even mentioned by Trump or any of his courtiers, in contrast to last year’s galling carry-on when McGregor was feted by Trump in the Oval office on St Patrick’s Day.
Was this by accident or design?
The diplomatically savvy Irish team knows it is up to their US hosts to draw up the White House guest lists and would never make any direct attempts to influence who makes the cut.
However, we hear that the US side may have been quietly apprised of McGregor’s controversial exploits and court activity by some concerned Irish counterparts, in the interest of everything going off well for everybody.
No sign of Melania Trump in the White House and no surprise either.
Chatshow host Jimmy Kimmel, who knocked great crack out of the shamrock summit, talked about the Irish leader’s “standing arrangement to meet president Trump once a year, just like Melania”.
Ken O’Flynn, Independent Ireland TD for Cork, was in Washington this week
It must have felt like home from home for Micheál Martin, with three Cork politicians over for the festivities and networking opportunities.
It was like his erstwhile constituency colleague in Cork South Central, Simon Coveney, had never left. Some people at the embassy reception, perhaps not fully up to speed with domestic politics, were still calling him “minister”.
And then there was the Taoiseach’s troublesome young deputy from Cork East, James O’Connor, who is never behind the door when it comes to criticising his boss if he thinks it’s merited.
Even among the long-haul specialists in Leinster House, James is considered a noted aficionado of the air mile. We’re told he looked absolutely thrilled with himself at the shamrock ceremony in the White House.
The other Cork TD strolling about the place – he was also enjoying his trip to Capitol Hill – was Ken O’Flynn of Independent Ireland.
“A productive and focused St Patrick’s Week in Washington, DC,” he posted on his return to the real capital. “Over the week, I held a series of high-level engagements on Capitol Hill, including discussions with Senator James Lankford, a Senate Steering Meeting with Senator Rick Scott, and meetings with Senator Marsha Blackburn and Senator Katie Britt. I also met Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason.”
His whirlwind week concluded at the White House, “where I joined the Taoiseach for the Shamrock Ceremony with President Trump. A significant diplomatic moment and a clear reflection of the enduring relationship between Ireland and the United States.”
Indeed.
And he has loads of pictures too, including some with the Independent TD for Offaly, Carol Nolan, who was also in Washington.
Ken and Carol had a busy time, it seems. He posted a photograph of one of these high-level engagements, where they were sitting at the top table during a meeting on Capitol Hill behind a nameplate which says “Family and Life”. This is an anti-abortion association based in Dublin.
In 2019, Deputy Nolan and TD Mattie McGrath travelled to New York and Washington after the association launched a crowdfunding exercise to cover their costs.