Martin tugs the forelock for Trump

Micheál Martin’s bid to appease a vain and erratic US President at a White House event for St Patrick’s Day has been hailed as a diplomatic triumph by Ireland’s right and rejected as a humiliating act of submission by Ireland’s left.

Given the stakes involved for the Irish economy, a strategy of placating the US administration was inevitable, but never in Irish history has an time of clothing reached such levels of importance as when US Vice President JD Vance revealed his shamrock-themed socks.

It indicated that no Zelensky-type ambush was planned in the escalating trade war with the EU – but Micheál Martin remained tense as he sat in behind Trump at the Oval Office as questions were batted away by the US President.

Martin smiled and nodded as Trump blustered and rambled on a range of topics, firing insults at the EU, Joe Biden, Palestine, Ukraine, and more randomly, US TV star Rosie O’Donnell.

When he did intervene, Martin fawningly spoke of Donald Trump’s “unrelenting focus on peace”.

Complimenting Trump’s ‘peace’ efforts was a kick was a “kick in the the teeth” to the starving people of Palestine, according to Irish Socialist TD, Ruth Coppinger.

People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd Barrett accused the Taoiseach of “utterly pathetic plámásing [flattering]” of Mr Trump.

“Trump is threatening to ethnically cleanse Gaza and is arming the genocidal Israeli regime to the teeth and telling the EU it must spend more on arms – shameful,” he wrote.

Martin showed no embarrassment when Trump named mixed martial arts fighter, and recently adjudged rapist, Conor McGregor, as his favourite Irish person.

And, without irony, he laughed when Trump claimed that Ireland has a housing crisis because “they’re doing so well, they can’t produce houses fast enough”.

A beaming Martin added it was a “good answer”, drawing criticism online from Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin, who noted that joking about the housing crisis, which has left 4,000 children without shelter, is “never a good answer”.

Dominating the media event for almost an hour, Donald Trump told reporters that he loved Ireland and had received a large share of the Irish-American vote before adding: “We don’t want to do anything to hurt Ireland, but we do want fairness.”

He blamed previous administrations for failing to prevent US multinationals from moving operations to Ireland’s low tax environment.

“This beautiful island has our pharma industry”, he said. He raised the “massive” trade imbalance between the two countries and said Ireland is “of course” taking advantage of the US.

He also criticised the EU’s ruling that found that Apple owes billions of euro in taxes to Ireland. Mr Trump said Apple had been “treated very badly”, referring to an EU court ruling ordering the company to pay back taxes in Ireland. Mr Martin interjected to note “we fought with them (Apple)” against the EU on that case.

Martin also smiled when Trump added: “I’m not happy with the European Union and we’re going to win that financial battle.”

For his part, the Taoiseach highlighted what he said was a “two-way street” of investment between the nations.

He referenced Ryanair saying the airline is one of the largest buyers of Boeing equipment and that thousands of jobs in the US are in Irish firms.

“We’ve added value to America,” he declared.

Later, the US President spoke briefly with DUP deputy first minister Emma Little Pengelly and other DUP politicians – after claiming to be unaware that many of Ireland’s political leaders, including Sinn Féin, chose to boycott this year’s White House St Patrick’s Day celebrations over his stance on Gaza.

On a day when the focus of the 26 County establishment was on ensuring that Ireland’s financial interests weren’t directly threatened, the cause of peace was made to take a seat in the back of the bus. But Martin claimed Trump was interested in how the peace in the north of Ireland was holding. He said he told him that lessons from Ireland could be applied to the Middle East and Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters after the Oval Office event, the Taoiseach said: “He was interested in Northern Ireland in terms of the peace there, how are things holding, and I spoke about the importance of reconciliation and how reconciliation is an ongoing journey for all of us.”

BOWL OF SHAMROCK

Trump later said he “loves the Irish’” as Martin presented him with the bowl of shamrock in the traditional climax to the days events at the White House reception.

Mr Trump said: “I’ve had great, great friends over the years, and I love the Irish - special people - and I’ve been to Ireland many times.”

Micheál Martin said the tradition is an “important moment” for reflection on the relationship between Ireland and the US.

He paid tribute to members of the Irish-American community, who he said can be found in nearly every community across the US.

“Through trial and triumphs, thick and thin, the extraordinary Irish people have stood by America’s side,” Mr Martin said.

Trump also noted that more than half of all US Medals of Honor have been won by Irish-Americans.

According to Wikipedia, of the 3,464 Medals of Honor awarded, an estimated 2,021 (58%) have been awarded to Irish-American recipients, more than twice the number awarded any other ethnic group.

“This is an amazing statistic because who would ever think that’s even possible. It’s more than 50 percent of the Medals of Honor were won by the Irish,” he said.

“I’m going to have to check that. That sounds like -- that’s like a -- that’s an awfully good statistic. We’re going to have to check what’s going on over there, huh?”

Urgent Appeal