Ireland’s role in helping to shape sanctions and other forms of pressure on Russia at the European Union and on the United Nations Security Council dominated discussions between Micheál Martin and President Biden yesterday in Washington.
Biden said Ireland had taken a hit for “stepping up” against Moscow; Vladimir Putin was paying a high price for his actions in Ukraine and Ireland was part of the reason for that through their actions as a neutral country in bodies like the UNSC and EU.
The taoiseach’s planned Oval Office bilateral talks with Biden on St Patrick’s Day were scaled down to a 45 minute video meeting after he was diagnosed with Covid-19 the evening before he was due to meet the American President.
Martin is now likely to remain isolating in America for ten days and will chair next week’s cabinet meeting from America. A government source said guidelines set down by America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised against foreign travel for ten days after a Covid diagnosis.
In the opening minutes of their meeting, which was open to the media, Martin said: “Last year, we met virtually across the Atlantic. This year, we’re meeting virtually across the road. So, we’re getting closer.
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“But I’m feeling good. And I think that reminds us of the importance of vaccines, and — because vaccines prevent severe illness.”
Martin stayed overnight in Blair House, the American state guesthouse for distinguished visitors to the White House. He sounded hoarse but in good form during his meeting with Biden and a later online briefing for members of the Irish media.
Biden said that Ireland taking in more than 7,000 Ukrainian refugees with plans to receive many more “speaks so loudly about your principles . . . it’s amazing, and I want to publicly compliment you for it”.
He later told US senators and representatives at a Friends of Ireland caucus lunch on Capitol Hill hosted by Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the US Congress that Ireland was paying “a big price, a big number” for supporting the strategy of sanctions against Russia “including aircraft” and other impacts. This was a reference to the loss of up to €3.5 billion worth of aircraft owned by Irish leasing firms to retaliatory Russian measures.
“It is not a minor contribution they are making in this effort — it is significant,” he said.
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“Everybody talks about Germany having stepped up and changed their notions about more leaning forward and they have . . . Well so has Ireland, a neutral country, Ireland has stepped up and [is] taking a hit for what they are doing.”
With Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, Dame Karen Pierce, Britain’s ambassador to America, and Northern Ireland economy minister and DUP MLA, Gordon Lyons, in the room, Biden drew sustained applause from the members of Congress when he stressed the Good Friday accord and successor agreements “are firmly, firmly, firmly supported here in the United States” and it would insist on their implementation. Lewis joined in the applause.
But Biden continued: “Now you have Ireland and great Britain standing together against a murderous dictator, a pure thug, who is waging an immoral war against the people of Ukraine.
“We are at an inflection point of history . . . it occurs every several generations. It is a genuine struggle between autocracies and democracies, and whether or not democracies can be sustained.”
The taoiseach later told Irish journalists that while he was disappointed personally at not being able to meet Biden in the Oval Office, it was “not the end of the world” and had to be kept in perspective in the context of what was happening across the world today.
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The taoiseach was represented by Dan Mulhall, the Irish ambassador to Washington, at a Friends of Ireland caucus lunch hosted by Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives.
Senior figures from Capitol Hill attending included the senator Patrick Leahy, president pro tempore of the United States Senate, the congressman Richie Neal, chairman of the ways and means committee, and Neal’s fellow co- chair of the Friends of Ireland Caucus, the Republican congressman Mike Kelly.
Mary Lou McDonald, the Sinn Fein leader, Michelle O’Neill, the deputy leader, and Colum Eastwoo, the SDLP leader, shared a table with the congressmen Mike Doyle, Pete Aguilar and Raphael Warnock.
The Democrat congressmen Brendan Boyle and Bill Keating were also among the attendees as was John McColgan, the television producer and co-creator of the Riverdance show.
Looking around the room, Biden said: “We should have more times like this when Democrats and Republicans get together and we not only agree on one thing but we remind ourselves we actually like each other.”
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Allowing himself one St Patrick’s Day cliché, he said his grandfather James Finnegan used to say to him: “Joe, if you are lucky enough to be Irish, you’re lucky enough.”
