US PRESIDENT Barack Obama devoted most of St Patrick’s Day to Ireland, spending half an hour with Taoiseach Enda Kenny in the Oval Office, attending speaker John Boehner’s lunch for Mr Kenny in the Capitol building, and throwing a reception for the Irish at the White House in the evening.
The Taoiseach was accompanied in the Oval Office by six Irish officials: assistant secretary of the Taoiseach’s Department Martin Fraser; director general of the Department of Foreign Affairs Niall Burgess; special adviser to the Taoiseach Mark Kennelly; Government press secretary Eoghan Ó Neachtáin; Ambassador Michael Collins and deputy chief of mission Orla O’Hanrahan.
Throughout his whirlwind, two-day visit, Mr Kenny repeated the same things: the powerful and unshakeable bond between Ireland and the US; the newness and unprecedented strength of his own electoral mandate; that “Ireland is open for business”; and gratitude to the US for its role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland.
Before business people on Wednesday, at the American Ireland Fund gala that evening, and again in the Oval Office yesterday, Mr Kenny repeated that there could be no question of raising Ireland’s corporate tax rate.
In addition to the presidential visit in May, the Irish and US leaders discussed investment in each other’s countries and food security in the developing world, a joint initiative that flowered under the previous Irish government.
“We had an excellent conversation about how Ireland is going to be bouncing back from the severe economic challenges that it’s experienced over the last several years,” Mr Obama said.
The US leader said the Taoiseach “exudes confidence”. He thanked Mr Kenny “for the operations at Shannon that are so vital for us moving our troops”.
Breakfast at Joe Biden’s vice-presidential residence was attended by two cardinals, the governors of two states, a supreme court justice and at least two cabinet ministers. Senator Ted Kennedy’s widow, Vicki, was also there.
Whether it was Mr Biden’s late mother, “quintessentially Irish” Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden, or Mr Kenny’s grandfather, the Aran Islands lighthouse keeper James McGinley, parents and ancestors were a recurring theme throughout the day.
With a nod to Irish Ambassador Michael Collins, Mr Biden recalled that his grandfather, Ambrose Finnegan, evoked an earlier Michael Collins when he warned him: “Joey, be careful what you sign!” Ireland and America “have been tied since the birth of this country”, Mr Biden said, noting that eight Irishmen signed the Declaration of Independence and 22 of 44 US presidents had Irish origins.
A poll published by IBOPE Zogby International for St Patrick’s Day showed that 79 per cent of Americans have a favourable opinion of Ireland, 42 per cent of American adults celebrate St Patrick’s Day, and 35 per cent claim Irish descent.
At Mr Boehner’s traditional St Patrick’s Day lunch, Mr Kenny evoked Mr Boehner’s youth, working in his father’s tavern in Ohio, his “quintessential American story” and his ascent to the third-highest office in the US.
Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, Margaret Ritchie of the SDLP, Tom Elliott of the UUP and David Ford of the Alliance Party also attended Mr Boehner’s lunch.
In his remarks at lunch, Mr Obama used the camaraderie of Tip O’Neill, a Democrat, and Ronald Reagan, a Republican – two Irish Americans who started the tradition – as a reminder that bipartisanship is sorely lacking in today’s US politics.
From Capitol Hill, it was on to the Embassy’s reception, followed by the White House reception, where Mr Kenny compared the Irish emigrants who were driven out by the Famine to the African slaves who departed from another Atlantic coast. Both peoples came to America, he said, “The Irish to freedom . . . The Africans to slavery . . . In time, theirs were the genes that built America.”