Ireland’s prime minister— or taoiseach—has confirmed that he will travel to Washington next month for a St. Patrick’s Day visit to the White House. It’s a diplomatic rite that reflects both the bonds of Irish-US kinship and exchange, but also the realities of demographics in the United States, where some 40 million people claim Irish ancestry.
The “shamrock ceremony”— so named because the US president is gifted a bowl of clover— has roots in the 1950s when Ireland was still a toddler republic. Its more modern form took shape when President Ronald Reagan and Speaker of the US House Tip O’Neill began to host more elaborate receptions featuring Irish American luminaries.
That tradition continued under both Bushes, Clinton, Obama (himself with maternal ties to Ireland’s Co. Monaghan), Trump I, Biden, and now Trump once more.
The current taoiseach, Micheál Martin, visited Trump last March. The tone was tense at times as the president took a few shots, mainly at what he considers a trade imbalance with the EU, and Ireland specifically. Cautious and mostly mute, Martin’s performance drew mixed reviews back in Ireland, although most grudgingly understood the necessity for statecraft with a global superpower that is also Ireland’s leading source of exports.
But much has happened since March ’25. Trump’s aggression toward Europe intensified with a naked grab for Greenland – against the backdrop of an actual US military incursion into Venezuela. Heavy-handed enforcement by masked federal agents targeting “blue” US cities— with what amounts to an occupation of Minneapolis/St.Paul—resulted in the shooting deaths of two US citizen, with injury and harassment of many more.
Worse still, “investigations” into these actions have reportedly been undermined at Trump’s direction and by his top ranking cabinet members, who’ve unapologetically targeted victims as “domestic terrorists.” Many thousands— most without criminal records or charges— are being detained for months on end in prison camps, including at least one Irish national with ties to Boston. Many children are also languishing in federal detention.
The Epstein files— which point to a conspiracy among powerful men to traffic and sexually abuse girls, teens, and young women— suggest that Trump was at least aware of, if not actively involved in, the crimes and cover-ups. And the Dept. of Justice last week raided an election office in Georgia, apparently in pursuit of evidence to support Trump’s obsession over his clear-cut electoral loss in 2020.
Trump’s anti-Black and brown racism has long been evident in public statements, slurs, and policies. But, last weekend, he reached a new low when he posted a meme depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as primates.
So egregious was Trump’s vile post that even a typically conservative-leaning Irish American group — the Ancient Order of Hibernians— has demanded he apologize. (As have US bishops representing Chicago and Detroit, although Boston’s archbishop has been quiet to date.)
The president has refused to apologize.
The alarm bells that were buzzing at low rumble last year are now blaring away at Defcon 5 levels. All of which raises the question: At what point will a nation like Ireland— a high-functioning democratic republic with values very much aligned with what we’ve long considered American ideals— consider turning down an invite to Pennsylvania Avenue?
In a social media exchange this week, Ireland’s former ambassador to the US— a good man named Daniel Mulhall— explained the thinking thusly: “The aim of such visits is to reward ourselves with the kind of profile that a small country rarely achieves. Other countries are jealous of this annual access we have to the highest echelon in the USA, regardless of who the president is. If we break that pattern it may never revive.”
There’s merit, of course, to this rationale in the course of normal events. But these are far from normal times and the pace of deterioration here is rapid. Perhaps our friends and cousins across the pond might treat it like 2020— when we all hit pause when the coronavirus struck. It’s an apt comparison.
There’s a real illness afoot in our White House. If our St. Patrick’s Day party must be put on a temporary timeout, this is the year to do it.
