IT’S extremely encouraging to see the extent of unanimity this year among non-unionist parties in relation to the annual White House St Patrick’s Day jamboree.
If reports from the United States and from Dublin this year are to be believed, the 2025 event is going to be more a shake-and-dash than a jamboree, with the usual Irish-themed entertainment and set-piece formalities either done away with or considerably slimmed down. That would be par for the course for the Donald Trump administration, which wears its contempt for its historical friends and neighbours as a badge of honour.
The centrality of the United States to the continuing genocide in Gaza and the West Bank is of course the main reason that so many politicians of principle and honour are giving Washington DC a wide berth on March 17. But those who have chosen to snub President Donald Trump are benefiting too from being separated from the dizzying round of frankly bonkers political initiatives that Trump’s White House has embarked upon in his six weeks in office. The abandonment of Ukraine and the handing of almost total victory to Russian President Vladimir Putin; the targeting and humiliation of its closest neighbours, Mexico and Canada; the draconian assault on equality and inclusion in federal workplaces; and in the UK’s case, the belittling of that country’s armed forces (a step too far even for the appalling Trump fanboy Nigel Farage).
Unlike UUP leader Mike Nesbitt, DUP leader Gavin Robinson is staying away, his place being taken by deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, who will make up a modest DUP delegation with Communities Minister Gordon Lyons. Just a few short weeks ago the Washington trip would have been seen as a dream assignment for any DUP politician. The party has for years been an enthusiastic and uncritical admirer of Trump, his brash, shallow culture wars agenda chiming very much with the DUP’s political identity. Indeed, shortly after the Trump inauguration, the DUP leader and Sammy Wilson were giggling like schoolboys in a podcast as they revelled in how Trump had “panicked” the Irish government.
That sense of giddy excitement has largely dissipated as the party has been forced into a rethink after Trump’s savage humiliation of Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky and the aforementioned trashing of Britain’s cherished military history and competence.
Throw in Trump’s liking for the proposed ‘sell-out’ of the Chagos Islands and that Robinson-Wilson laugh-in seems a lot longer than four weeks ago. We wait with interest to see if there’s a peep about these things if the DUP gets a word in Trump’s ear – and nobody would bet the farm on that.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin travels to Washington with a brief to protect his Republic’s extensive American FDI interests. That will require dissembling, flattery and other dark political skills.
He should do well.
