IT was an open goal for deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly in Washington DC this week.

With her Sinn Féin counterpart staying away from the White House, the DUP MLA and veteran bus stop battler had the field clear to make the case for the "precious union".

Indeed, for days leading up to this diplomatic D-Day, which apparently included a private "meeting" with President Donald Trump, the DUP deputy was talking up its importance. 

It was wrong of Sinn Féin, the Alliance Party and the SDLP to stay away in protest at US wars on Gaza and Iran, harrumphed Communities Minister Gordon Lyons. "We need to show up," he insisted.

And show up President Trump certainly did. Show up the DUP, that is.

For as well as requiring Taoiseach Micheál Martin to do the introductions to President Trump — not entirely sure how that photo is going to make it into the DUP ezine with the Taoiseach standing between the pair — Ms Little-Pengelly was left red-faced as President Trump took to the podium to stump for a United Ireland.

After commending the convivial rapport between the Taoiseach and the deputy First Minister at the Speaker's Lunch on Capitol Hill, Trump opined that a merger between North and South would be a good thing. 

So much for the much-vaunted special relationship between the occupant of the White House and the DUP.

There was surely something desperate then about the late-night post from the deputy First-Minister in the wake of that Speaker's Lunch embarrassment, where she reminded her fans on X that President Trump's mother was from Scotland. Clutching at straws hardly does the entire mess justice. 

Yet the DUP should be thankful for small mercies — their delegation could have gone to New York instead.

For In the Big Apple, after keeping his cards close to his chest on Monday re a United Ireland, the newly-ensconced Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, was on-message on St Patrick's Day. In a video message to mark the day when everyone in America is Irish, the Mayor saluted the bravery of the H-Block hunger strikers, blasted Britain's colonial rampages and toasted the Irish who built New York. Later, acknowledging his slip-up the previous day, Mamdani put on record his support for self-determination for the Irish. No doubt some of the Irish pols and union leaders who had joined the Mayor for the traditional St Patrick's Day breakfast had a word in his ear overnight. 

The powerful Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, could have schooled the new Mayor on the proper answer to any question about Irish unity. Reporters who asked her if she supported a United Ireland – as she took part in the St Patrick's Day parade down Fifth Avenue – received a succinct answer: "Indeed I do."

Surveying this diplomatic car-crash for the DUP, one is reminded of the fillip given to Irish nationalists when unionists embarked on a campaign of meetings across Britain to attack the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985. Commentators concluded that no single initiative had increased support for Irish unity more than the sight of unionist refuseniks arguing against power-sharing and reconciliation in the left-behind and benighted 'province'.

All in all, a successful St Patrick's Day in the USA for Irish nationalists — and that's without showing up. One can only imagine what could be achieved if there had been a spokesperson for northern nationalists on hand to capitalise on the DUP's DC debacle.