Flashback to last year and Taoiseach Enda Kenny presenting the traditional bowl of shamrock to President Obama in the East Room of the White House. RollingNews.ie photo.
By Ray O’Hanlon
rohanlon@irishecho.com
Political leaders come and go.
The shamrock stars in March regardless.
With the Irish political landscape in flux after the recent general election, there is more than a little scrambling going on behind the scenes with regard to St. Patrick’s Day in America.
Ordinarily by now it would be known that the taoiseach was on his way to meet with the president at the White House.
A list of traveling Irish government ministers would have been issued to the press.
It would be all hands on the global deck, and the identity of those hands would be known.
Not so this year, although it would seem to be the case that a taoiseach will indeed be flying the Atlantic to the nation’s capital next week.
An invitation has gone out from Ireland’s Ambassador to the U.S., Anne Anderson, for a reception at the Willard Hotel close by the White House, where preparations are presumably well underway for the annual St. Patrick Day celebration and its shamrock centerpiece.
But there are a couple of differences compared to last year.
Firstly, this year’s D.C gatherings are set for Tuesday, March 15.
Last year they were on St. Patrick’s Day itself, the 17th.
And this year’s invitation to the ambassador’s gathering mentions a job title, but not a name alongside it.
It refers only to “On the occasion of the visit of An Taoiseach (Prime Minister of Ireland) For St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations”….
Just who “An Taoiseach” turns out to be will hinge on events in Dublin tomorrow when the new Dáil convenes in Leinster House.
The 158 newly elected TDs will vote for a new taoiseach.
It would appear likely at this juncture that those votes will prove inconclusive.
In such an event it is likely that the current taoiseach, Enda Kenny, will continue on in some form of caretaker capacity until, well, that in itself is uncertain.
So next week it should be Enda Kenny stepping off the plane onto American soil, ready to again present a bowl of shamrock in presumably Irish soil to an American president who will be taking possession of said bowl for the last time.
The stage is the same; the characters are leaning towards stage left.
