‘God love him’: Sympathy for the Taoiseach as Washington trip affected by Covid

“Poor Micheál.”

“God love him.”

There was sympathy aplenty for Micheál Martin at the Ireland Funds annual dinner at the National Building Museum in Washington on Wednesday night as the 800-strong attendance digested the seared beef cutlets and the news that the Taoiseach had tested positive for Covid-19 and had gone into isolation.

Earlier the Taoiseach and his officials were whisked away quickly through the forest of tables and tuxedoed guests that filled the giant auditorium, prompting fevered speculation at the press tables that he had joined President Biden – who had just been given a rousing reception for a speech that rewalked the highroads and byroads of his Irish heritage – for an impromptu meeting.

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When Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi explained the Taoiseach’s absence by suggesting he was on a call with “world leaders”, the speculation pivoted to Ukraine; could he be discussing a breakthrough with EU leaders – or a drastic escalation by Russia?

The truth, alas, was more prosaic. Dan Mulhall, the Irish ambassador to Washington, mounted the podium and explained that despite turning in a negative test in a routine Covid test earlier, the Taoiseach had been retested as he left for the dinner because a “member of the wider delegation” had tested positive. As the Taoiseach sat chewing the fat with Pelosi, the news came through that the second test was positive.

Earlier that day, as the media waited for the Collison brothers –the tech billionaires who were receiving an award from Science Foundation Ireland – outside the Hay Adams Hotel across Lafayette Square from the White House, former Nphet number-cruncher Prof Philip Nolan walked past. Would he stop for a few words? He would. “I’m trying to learn to walk past microphones,” he joked. He’s not trying very hard, though.

Blazing sunshine

A few minutes before that, the Taoiseach, in a press briefing, said that the Government was “concerned” about the recent rise in Covid cases. Not at all, said Prof Philip, offering a sunny analysis in the unseasonably blazing sunshine. The recent rise in cases was nothing to worry about; it was only an “exit wave” – the last burst of a receding pandemic. No reason to be alarmed.

Tell that to the Taoiseach. Poor Micheál. God love him. It’s like being shot on the last day of the war.

Poor Micheál had been having the week of his life until disaster struck. A whirlwind round of diplomacy last week, shuttling from the European Council at Versailles to a meeting with Boris Johnson in London, taking in Ireland’s crushing of England at Twickenham, before crossing the Atlantic on Monday for a week of engagements in Washington.

It’s the best week of the year to be Irish in Washington, an annual flexing of the diplomatic and political muscle the country enjoys in the world capital of politics. This is true even when the president is less conspicuously Irish-American; with the most Irish president ever in the Oval Office, the Irish clout is off the charts.

“The influence, the access that Ireland has in Washington, it’s just incredible,” says one former senior US diplomat at the Ireland Funds dinner. “You guys take it for granted,” says another. In a town where diplomats, politicians, lobbyists and visiting dignitaries cajole and wheedle for a few minutes of presidential attention, Biden was giving over the guts of an entire day for St Patrick’s Day events. Now the Taoiseach would have to watch it on zoom.

Common ground

The two men seemed to get on. It doesn’t take a great leap of the imagination to see the similarities in their personal and political makeup which would make common ground easy to find between them. Each has known desperate personal tragedy in their lives; each has found the will to carry on in politics. Both might have reasonably thought that their opportunity to lead their country had passed, until the fates conspired otherwise. On Wednesday night, Biden recalled they had met before in the White House, when he was vice-president and Martin was Minister for Foreign Affairs, more than a decade ago. “Now I’m president and you’re Taoiseach. What the hell are we gonna do?”

The Taoiseach described their meeting as “very personal, very warm . . . like two Irish people having a good chat”. The invitation to visit Ireland was once again extended to the president and received the customary enthusiastic – but not specific – response. “He can’t wait,” said Martin. He can, though.

Biden talks incessantly and with great apparent sincerity about his Irish heritage, and how it shaped him. Barack Obama used to tease him about quoting Irish poets, though that hasn’t put him off. Yeats got another outing on Thursday; Eavan Boland on Wednesday night. But Biden also talks a lot about what it is to be an American, and about the higher ideals of that country, which he says Americans have “never lived up to completely, but never walked away from . . . opportunity, the rule of law of equal rights and dignity for everybody.” His rhetoric is inclusive and generous; after the toxic chauvinism of the Trump years, Biden sometimes sounds like a balm to the American soul, if a slightly long-winded one.

Tough politics

But in a divided country, there’s tough politics to be done as well, of course, and his approval ratings are on the floor. The Ukraine crisis, however, has united Democrats and Republicans in a way that seems a relic of history, of the time when politics here stopped at the water’s edge, as they used to say. The think-tankers, officials and journalists who make up the vast eco-system of politics here differ on whether the changes to the political atmosphere are permanent, but they all say they are real.

The Taoiseach heartily endorsed the president’s analysis of the Ukrainian conflict, quoting it repeatedly throughout the week, as struggle between “democracies and autocracies”. Martin insisted that Ireland “is not neutral” in that struggle, though he said there would be no change to the policy of not sending weapons to Ukraine, or funding them. If there was pressure from the US side on the point, it was not visible. The Biden administration continues to tread a careful line between avoiding any possible escalation of the war, and helping the Ukrainians defend themselves.

Ukrainian president Voldymyr Zelenskiy addressed Congress via videolink on Wednesday, with many members watching his speech, The New York Times reported, with tears in their eyes. But they knew, and he knew, that he would not get a no-fly zone. Though Biden did announce a further $800 million in military aid for the embattled country. Nevertheless, Martin said after their meeting, the US president is “focused on the need to ensure it doesn’t escalate”. He travels to Europe next week to meet with Nato and EU leaders.

The St Patrick’s Day visit always provides an opportunity for the Irish Government to intensify its lobbying on Capitol Hill and to shore up support for the Belfast Agreement.

On Tuesday Martin did the rounds, as separately, did the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad Mark Daly, who has been championing a new Irish American caucus featuring key figures at State level in the US.

Renegotiation

Martin met with a key “Friend of Ireland”, Congressman Richard Neal, who is also the chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee in the House of Representatives. All trade deals, including the long-coveted (by British Brexit supporters) bilateral US/UK agreement have to go through the Ways and Means Committee, irrespective of who is in the White House.

Neal has made clear there will be no UK trade deal if there are any British moves that undermine the Belfast Agreement; Pelosi and Biden himself echoed that sentiment repeatedly. Neal told the Ireland Funds gala dinner that there could be no renegotiation of the Belfast Agreement. Pelosi warned again – at the same event – that if the Northern Ireland border “hardened”, there would be no US-UK trade deal. Biden said that too much “blood, sweat and tears” had been expended to undermine the agreement now.

Dublin City University had decided to use the opportunity of St Patrick’s Day to award an honorary degree to Neal in recognition of his work for peace in Ireland. Neal duly used his acceptance speech to state clearly: “Under no circumstances can there be a return to a hard border in Ireland”.

As if to underline Neal’s importance in Washington politics, just as the degree was about to be conferred and about 45 minutes into the overall ceremony the doors opened and in swooped Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the third most senior figure in US politics.

Dressed in a white suit she sat down at an aisle seat. As she arrived the former secretary of the US Air force Barbara Barrett was accepting her honorary degree from DCU. She departed from her prepared remarks to welcome Pelosi to gave a little wave as she was applauded by the crowd. “Ireland never had a better friend that Speaker Pelosi,” Neal declared.

Skillfully navigated

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and Northern Ireland deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill arrived from New York just in time for the DCU conferring event which was held just across the road from Union Rail station.

McDonald headed a sizeable Sinn Féin presence in Washington, where the party has long skilfully navigated the political currents. Not so long ago, Gerry Adams could fairly present himself as the man who had brought the IRA to the table, an architect of the Northern Peace Process. Now McDonald is the leader of the opposition, favourite to become the next Taoiseach.

There was a significant development on immigration this week, when two senators, Dick Durian and Pat Toomey, introduced a bipartisan bill that would result in up to 5,000 extra visas for Irish people every year - evidence that the Irish influence here has real world benefits for Irish people.

The North remains the focus, though, for much of Irish America. Also coming to a head as St Patrick’s Day approached was a resolution tabled by a Massachusetts Democratic congressman William Keating on Northern Ireland which had received the backing of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America.

It criticised British government plans to stop investigating or prosecuting cases arising from the troubles in Northern Ireland. It backed the full implementation of the Belfast Agreement accord and also called on “the government of the United Kingdom to charge individuals who committed unjustifiable crimes on Bloody Sunday”.

The resolution had been accelerated through the various procedural hoops and was due to be considered on St Patrick’s Day. It is understood that the British embassy in Washington contacted the staff politicians on Capitol Hill with their concerns about the proposal. Sources said the British side had raised “technical legal issues” about the text. But these were largely rebuffed and the resolution was adopted on Thursday.

Deeply concerning

Right through the week very senior figures on Capitol Hill made it clear they would not stand or any undermining of the Belfast Agreement which they view as a success story in American foreign policy. And on St Patrick’s Day, Senator Bob Menendez , chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that reports the British government is considering introducing amnesty legislation for Troubles-era crimes were “deeply concerning.”

“There can be no peace in Northern Ireland without justice . . . I am similarly concerned by reports that the British government is considering invoking Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the provision of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement designed to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland,” he said.

“Let us use this St. Patrick’s Day to not only celebrate the strength and depth of Irish values, but also to recognize this is the moment to take further steps to implement the Belfast Agreement, not undermine it.”

Later that evening, following (yet another) St Patrick’s Day reception hosted by the Irish Embassy, at which visiting Irish politicians proudly displayed their Biden selfies snapped at the White House earlier, the visiting press pack and politicians slaked their thirst at a packed and noisy downtown bar.

The music blared and the crowd hooted at the college basketball game on the TV. Collette, a social worker in a Meath jersey who works with disadvantaged children and was on an exchange trip run by an Irish American foundation, was fairly going for it on her last night in Washington.

“I heard about Micheál Martin,” she roared above the din. “Jaysus, I feel sorry for him.”