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WHILE THE PRESSURE is off Micheál Martin with his meeting with US President Donald Trump now in the rearview mirror, he won’t breathe a sigh of relief until all of his US engagements are done.
The Ireland Funds dinner takes place tonight, leaving one more chance of something to go wrong for the Taoiseach.
The event is pricey affair, commanding $1,000 a plate and has been an unlucky affair for some taoisigh in the past.
The Ireland Funds is a global philanthropic network established in 1976 with an aim to “harness the power of a global philanthropic network of friends of Ireland to promote and support peace”.
Every year, during the week’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Washington DC, the National Museum Building, a colossal space that fits 800 guests plays host to the sold-out fundraiser — which raises more than $1 million for Irish charities.
The room is packed to the rafters with Irish-American business people and politicians.
At the gala dinner, there are glittery green gúna’s galore, Irish shamrock biscuits, and plenty of Irish whiskey cocktails. In the past, the odd Irish celeb have among the crowds, such as U2′s Bono, dancer Michael Flatley or Irish rugby star Rob Kearney.
Events in the not so distant past have resulted in some believing the event is jinxed for some Irish leaders.
In 2023, when giving his speech at the event, Leo Varadkar recalled how the last time he was at the fundraiser dinner he had to leave the event early when he was called off to attend an emergency meeting of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).
“I was called away suddenly to receive the terrible news that an oncoming storm had hit Ireland, a pandemic that was about to engulf this country as well as the entire world,” he said in the opening lines of his address.
In 2020, Varadkar was whisked out of the room, and most believed it was due to Trump’s announcement that he was banning travel to the US for people from 26 European countries.
However, it later became known that the reason was things had escalated rapidly back home, and some tough decisions were going to have to be made by government.
In fact, it was this week five years ago that Varadkar held his early morning press conference outside Blair House where he informed the nation it was going into lockdown.
Varadkar returned to the dinner last year, where the focus was very much on how he would raise the issue of Gaza with a room full of Americans. He said Europeans and Americans have a “duty to do all that we can to bring peace and justice to the Holy Land”.
“As we sit here tonight in this wonderful building, Palestinian civilians who are not responsible for the crimes of Hamas are being subjected to humiliation and starvation. And that is wrong,” said Varadkar, which received a muted response from the audience.
In his engagements with Trump yesterday, Martin did not speak as bluntly as he would back home about Palestine and Gaza, instead making repeated references to the Middle East in general.
If Varadkar failed to hammer home the Irish message on the issue last year at the fundraiser event, it is unlikely that Martin will rock the boat this evening in his own speech.
Apart from Varadkar, Martin has had his own bad luck at the dinner.
In 2022, Micheál Martin was Taoiseach and was ready and primed for his first meeting in the White House for St Patrick’s Day.
However, he was dubbed the ‘unlucky Taoiseach’ that year when in dramatic fashion, he was whisked from the room (and away from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who he was sitting next to) having tested positive for Covid-19.
It was a big night for Martin, as then US President Joe Biden was in attendance (somewhat of a rarity for the event) and it was going to be a chance to have a chinwag with the president prior to their meeting in the White House the next day.
Martin managed to get a few minutes – seven minutes in all, the US President would later confirm. Biden took to the stage and gave a speech about his Irish roots and the deep ties between the US and Ireland.
Martin was due to receive the Ireland Funds 2022 International Leadership award that night, but it was Ireland’s Ambassador in the US at the time, Dan Mulhall, who broke the news to the crowd that Martin had tested positive for Covid and accepted the award on his behalf.
Everyone knew what the news meant: Martin’s hopes of making it to the White House that year were over. He ended up having to do a dreaded Zoom call into the Oval Office from across the street where he was quarantining in Blair House.
Tonight, Ireland’s very own Catríona Perry, formerly of RTÉ and now chief anchor of BBC News will MC the Ireland Funds dinner.
US Congressman Brendan Boyle of Philadelphia – the only member of US Congress with an Irish-born parent, will be honoured, along with David P. Joyce of the US House of Representatives and Dan Quinn, the head coach of the Washington Commanders.
Martin eventually made it to the White House this year and had his moment in the spotlight, though he might have preferred to have avoided the 50-minute ordeal in front of the press yesterday.
He will be hoping for better luck at tonight’s event. Fingers crossed.
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