Kenny should attend St Patrick’s Day event in US, says congressman

US congressman Brendan Boyle has said Taoiseach Enda Kenny should attend the St Patrick's Day celebrations in the White House, contradicting the view of former Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley.

Mr Boyle, who represents the 13th congressional district of Philadelphia said that, while he was not a supporter of Mr Trump, he strongly believed the White House shamrock ceremony should continue.

“This isn’t about any individual president or Taoiseach. It’s about celebrating the special bond that exists between Ireland and the United States,” said the Irish-American Democratic representative, who is also a member of the house foreign affairs and budget committees.

He was commenting after Mr O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland, had organised an online petition calling on the Taoiseach not to attend the annual White House celebration which is scheduled to take place in two weeks’ time.

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"We are not a deportation nation that breaks up immigrant families and separates parents from their children," Mr O'Malley said. "As John F Kennedy said: 'We are a nation of immigrants.'"

The petition, which has garnered 40,000 signatures, is to be sent to all members of congress.

Ciarán Staunton, chairman of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, also criticised Mr O’ Malley’s intervention. “While I am totally opposed to Trump’s immigration orders, St Patrick’s Day is an important opportunity for Irish-Americans to explain the situation facing the Irish-American community directly to president Trump,” he said.

Wrong

Speaking on RTÉ on Wednesday, Mr O’Malley, who ran as a democratic nominee for last year’s presidential election, said that the decision to proceed with the St Patrick’s Day visit was wrong.

He said Mr Trump’s behaviour and stance on immigration “absolutely runs counter to everything that the Irish-American immigrant experience and the immigrant experience in the United States has been all about for the last 240 years”.

The Taoiseach is expected to present the customary bowl of shamrock to the US president at a ceremony at the White House on Thursday, March 16th, and attend the House speaker’s lunch at the House of Representatives.

The status of the estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish living in the United States has been brought into sharp focus by Mr Trump’s pledge to clamp-down on illegal immigration.