DANIEL MULHALL, former Irish Ambassador in London and Washington, looks at the implications and aftermath of Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s St Patrick’s visit to Washington
Enjoying the craic on St Patrick’s Day? (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)A VISIT by our Taoiseach to Washington for St Patrick’s Day has for many years been an annual feature on Ireland’s political calendar. It has always been a high stakes affair. In the past, the situation in Northern Ireland would have been a prime topic of discussion. That ultimately paid dividends in the fact the United States under successive Presidents became a very effective supporter of peace and reconciliation in Ireland.
Most recently, US influence helped secure a post-Brexit EU-UK deal in the shape of the Windsor Framework that preserves an open border in Ireland.
This year’s visit to Washington was a potential banana skin for Taoiseach Micheál Martin. That’s because Donald Trump is a very different President now compared with his first term in office. He is more politically experienced, having already served four years in the Oval Office and been seasoned by the legal and political travails he encountered after his exit from the White House in 2021.
The whole world was shocked by the spectacle of President Zelenskyy’s recent ordeal at the hands of President Trump and his Vice-President, and there were fears of a potential repeat with Micheál Martin as the victim.
In the event, it all worked out quite well for the Taoiseach. His natural emollience served him well in his dealings with Trump and Vance.
The day started very well with a warm encounter with the Vice President over breakfast. In previous meetings with world leaders, Vance has tended to play the ‘bad cop’ role. In the Taoiseach’s company he glowed with enthusiasm for Ireland. The positive tone of his speech was such that it could easily have come from dedicated Irish-American like Joe Biden. Sporting shamrock socks and having received an invitation to visit Ireland, Vance was not likely to have a go at the Taoiseach when he arrived in the Oval Office.
For Donald Trump, politics is personal. He wants to be liked by other leaders and he likes to like them. The Taoiseach evidently struck the right note in their initial exchanges which no doubt featured a discussion of Doonbeg, the President’s golf resort in County Clare of which he is inordinately proud. Micheál Martin managed to get on the right side of the President to the point where Trump seemed reluctant to take issue with Ireland, even on the trade issue which is one of his enduring preoccupations. The Taoiseach did not get many opportunities to intervene during the extended session in front of the media but that was to be expected. In the Oval Office these days, it’s the Donald Trump show out and out. Visiting leaders tend to be extras, competing in vain for limelight.
The Taoiseach will have used his private time with him to try to correct some of the President’s misconceptions, but there is a limit to what can be done with someone who is as adamant in his views as President Trump.
Ireland’s potential vulnerability on the Palestinian issue, and in particular the Occupied Territories Bill, never broke the surface during President Trump’s freewheeling public performance that lasted the best part of an hour. The Taoiseach managed to pivot to the need to preserve the Gaza ceasefire and to get a flow of humanitarian aid to the embattled Palestinian population. He also praised Trump’s bid to broker a peace in Ukraine, drawing comparisons with past peace efforts in Northern Ireland.
The President’s unhappiness about our surplus with the USA in goods’ trade did get lots of attention. The situation is more nuanced than the President suggested, in that the US surplus in services more than outweighs Ireland’s advantage in goods. Moreover, shipments of product from the subsidiaries of US pharma companies in Ireland to their US parent companies account for a large portion of Ireland’s exports to the US. American multinationals also make substantial profits in Ireland which ultimately enrich the US economy.
While the Taoiseach’s Washington visit has to be considered a success, the risk to Ireland has not gone away.
There remains a very real prospect of an EU-US trade war. The Trump Administration has already imposed tariffs on EU steel and aluminium exports while the EU has announced its retaliation which will take effect next months. That leaves time for negotiation, but escalating trade tensions remain a real risk.
I am sure that the EU Commission has various proposals up its sleeve to tempt Donald Trump into an agreement, and we must hope they are successful. I am less worried about the risk of disinvestment.
American companies have good reason for investing in Ireland and that is not going to change. They have expensive plants in Ireland which it would take years for them to replicate in the United States. And they will always need a base in Europe, especially if tariffs become a more serious barrier to transatlantic trade.
St Patrick’s Day is a unique asset for Ireland. It gives our country the full attention of Washington for an entire day each year when a kind of green mist descends on the city, briefly enveloping and soothing partisan politics. This year’s festivities were more fraught than usual, but in the end the St Patrick’s spirit saw the Taoiseach through relatively unscathed.
Daniel Mulhall is a former Irish Ambassador to the USA and former Ambassador to the UK. He is an author and consultant. His latest publication is: Pilgrim Soul: W.B. Yeats and the Ireland of his Time (New Island Books, 2023)
Reprinted with permission from the Irish Post.