If Micheál Martin had gone to the Oval Office and secured $1bn in funding to help fix a heap of Ireland’s problems, and then convinced Donald Trump to say sorry to Zelensky, disavow his friendship with Putin and stop going after Canada and Greenland, I wonder would there still be people on all sides of the political and media divide who would say he was awful and the trip to the White House was a disaster.
I was watching the coverage on Wednesday and, while it wasn’t necessarily beautiful, it certainly wasn’t a disaster.
Look at what happened with Macron, Starmer and Zelensky: These were not beautiful either because the Trump Oval Office visits are (to borrow a phrase from the president) ‘like nothing we’ve ever seen before’ and so you have intelligent world leaders acting in a very peculiar manner to avoid a ¬whimsical but consequential ¬backlash from a volatile Trump.
Macron got the jocular ¬treatment, Starmer got the royal treatment, Zelensky got the hair dryer treatment (Alex ¬Ferguson style) and Micheál Martin got the silent treatment, by which I mean, he was largely silent and was kept quiet by Trump who used the opportunity to have an impromptu press conference while having a pop at a few of his least favourite things.
The Taoiseach smiled, muttered the occasional tactical agreement but largely didn’t get involved (whether he wanted to or not). If he had put one foot wrong, Trump would have let him and us have it with both barrels as soon as the Irish delegation got to the Aer ¬Lingus desk at Dulles Airport. That’s how he rolls.
I have no doubt that Micheál Martin would have loved to interject repeatedly to correct or to defend or to wave away certain things said by Trump, but to what end and at what cost?
Watching the various political criticisms made me wonder how the hurlers on the ditch would fare if they had to wear a suit and sit down beside the trickiest American president in the ¬history of that office. It’s one thing to shout and rave about what the Taoiseach should have said and done but honestly, would the naysayers have operated any differently had they been in his shoes?
And if they did actually come good on what they would do, can you imagine the damage that might cause to this country?
These Oval Office visits aren’t flattering for the world leaders but these are not normal times and this is not an orthodox president, so we have to tweak the act a little and if that involves holding our collective noses and biting our tongues to protect our people and economies, let’s see how this strategy works out and if the aforementioned hurlers have a better strategy, be sure to let the Taoiseach’s office know.
