Taoiseach and Co. take the capital by storm

By Jack Holland

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Wednesday, March 13 — the countdown to St. Patrick’s Day in Washington ticks on. A bunch of Irish hacks huddle into the media van, leaving Jury’s Hotel and heading toward the White House as the rain beats down hard on this, the eighth and latest of the St Patrick’s Day extravaganzas in the nation’s sodden capital.

The eighth, because it was not until the Clinton era, when Northern Ireland first became a serious part of the U.S. administration’s agenda, that St. Patrick’s Day in Washington was anything other than a relatively obscure photo opportunity. The high point in those distant pre-Clintonian days was when the taoiseach of the day handed the president of the day a Waterford Crystal bowl full of shamrocks, and a few inoffensive words were exchanged.

But from 1995 onward, the St. Patrick’s festivities have lasted for days. The capital fills up with visiting Irish and British politicians of every political stripe, along with ex-terrorists, human rights lawyers, social activists, government officials, lobbyists, and just old-fashioned social climbers, with the media trailing behind. The functions multiply. As well as the Irish embassy’s party, the British embassy hosts a lunch, and there is the speaker’s lunch, not to mention the breakfasts, lunches, receptions, press conferences and soirees thrown by various organizations and political leaders. Since Clinton, the photo opportunity with the president and taoiseach has been turned into a full-blown reception in the East Wing of the White House.

Alas, the van that sped the Irish hacks toward the White House that morning was taking them away from one of the few real stories that emerged during the four-days of Irish activities. First minister in Belfast’s new government and Unionist Party leader David Trimble was receiving an award from Global Citizens Circle at a breakfast reception in Jury’s Hotel. The award is given to those who foster understanding and constructive engagement between diverse peoples.

A few days before, Trimble had called the Irish Republic a sectarian state. On the podium at Jury’s he went on to elaborate that sentiment by claiming that the recent abortion referendum in Ireland was proof that the state remained sectarian.

There were groans all around, especially from the visiting nationalists, among whom was the new leader of the Social Democratic and Labor Party, Mark Durkan, who had replaced John Hume last November, and was also Trimble’s deputy first minister in the executive government. He lamented that the first minister’s remarks were going to dominate the Washington visit and would be “counterproductive.”

As for Bertie Ahern, the Irish taoiseach, when asked to comment on Trimble’s remarks he merely said that they were “wrong.”

Meanwhile, as Trimble’s latest remarks bounced across the ocean to Ireland, and the Bush administration was trying to get 20,000 Isr’li troops out of the West Bank, in an effort to get peace talks started again, back at the Roosevelt Room in the White House, the president was receiving his bowl of shamrocks from the taoiseach. Including that of the shamrocks, five shades of green were on display. Ahern’s tie was a bright green, while the president’s was a rather tasteful pea-green. Their ladies, Celia and Laura, were definitely trying to outgreen each other, being clad head to foot in outfits of that color. Laura’s outfit was a dazzling emerald green, and Celia’s was a shade of lime. But only the shamrocks were shamrock green.

Later at the reception, Sir John Reid, Britain’s Northern Ireland secretary of state, who was combining this business trip with his honeymoon, was paying the price, in terms of jokes about it.

“Sorry to disrupt your honeymoon,” the president said with a big smile, “but it’s in a noble cause.”

Turning to more serious matters, he thanked Ireland for supporting the coalition against terror.

“The people of Northern Ireland know the threat of terror, and the value of peace,” President Bush said, looking more assured and self-confident than the year before. “The next generation must not grow up among the Troubles.” He held up the Northern Ireland peace process as an example to the world. The fight for peace must begin somewhere, he went on, quoting an Irish proverb: “You’ll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind.”

To his left, sitting behind a row of fire department officers, the president of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, sat listening intently.

The most moving moment came when the Fire Department’s Emerald Society pipers marched into the East Room, pipes wailing. It was almost six months to the day on which over 300 of their colleagues had died at the World Trade Center.

Two hours later, Ahern was with Sen. Edward Kennedy to announce that in honor of his work in health care in the U.S. and for peace in Northern Ireland, Trinity College Dublin has created the Senator Edward Kennedy Center for Health Service Management.

That evening, it was the taoiseach’s turn to get a prize. The media van whisked the hacks off again to the American Ireland Fund Dinner at the International Trade Center, where Loretta Brennan Glucksman, wearing a necklace of sapphires, presented him with the AIF Peace Award.

The rest was dining, dancing and drinking.