Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

The Candidate
The Explainer
13 Mar 2025
The Oval Office meeting veered between success and humiliation
00:00

Ireland watched the Taoiseach's Oval Office visit with bated breath. Would it be a disaster, an incredible success, or something in between?


One of the biggest events in the Irish political calendar is over, and Micheál Martin has survived his 50-minute encounter with Donald Trump. Not without slipping on a couple of banana skins, of course.


Christine Bohan, Christina Finn, Rónán Duffy, and — up bright and early in Washington DC — Jane Matthews look at how the meeting panned out. Did it offer the warmness towards Ireland some might have hoped to see? Or was it simply a bout of official paddywhackery? And to what extent will Martin's comments on housing come back to haunt him?