The tradition began in 1953. Ambassador John Joseph Hearne, Ireland’s envoy to the United States, presented a bowl of shamrocks to President Eisenhower. Eisenhower accepted them. The two countries were friends. The tradition continued through every subsequent administration, through every president, through every diplomatic tension and every trade negotiation and every moment when the relationship between Ireland and the United States was complicated by the fact that they are, in addition to being friends, also trading partners with a trade deficit the American side has been tracking.
Tuesday’s ceremony maintained all of these traditions simultaneously.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin arrived at the White House with a Waterford crystal bowl containing fresh shamrocks grown in Ballinskelligs, County Kerry, certified with phytosanitary documentation, and presented with a speech about shared history, Irish contributions to the American Revolution, the pursuit of happiness, liberty, democracy, equality, and the next 250 years of partnership between two great nations.
Trump accepted the bowl, praised Irish Americans, mentioned the Irish role in the Revolutionary War, and then — glancing toward the Taoiseach, in front of the guests, with the shamrocks on the table — said: “We have a tremendous deficit by the way. I looked at the numbers and you guys are much better business people than our past politicians. We have to talk about that deficit. Are we allowed to talk about that today? It’s a substantial deficit.”
The Taoiseach had prepared remarks about friendship and history and St. Patrick banishing serpents. The Taoiseach had not prepared remarks about the trade deficit. The Taoiseach is, by profession and training, a diplomat. The Taoiseach smiled. The shamrocks were on the table. The photo was taken. The tradition continued.
What The Taoiseach Had Prepared To Say, Which He Said
Taoiseach Martin’s prepared remarks for the ceremony were, by any measure, a masterclass in the diplomatic art of saying several things at once in a context that requires warmth and produces photographs.
On trade, specifically: “The US is the largest economy in the world. Ireland is small. We need free and open trade to make our way in the world, and we like to see as few barriers and tariffs get in the way of that as possible.”
This is the diplomatic equivalent of saying “please don’t tariff us” while holding a crystal bowl of shamrocks and smiling at the person who might tariff you. It is the correct thing to say in the correct register for the occasion and it was said correctly and Millicent Hearsay, who covers culture and therefore diplomacy as a form of performance, considers it the finest execution of constrained subtext she has witnessed this week, which is a week with significant competition.
On the Middle East, he called for “dialogue, negotiation and de-escalation.” He noted that small countries depend on international rules and order and the United Nations for their peace and security. He said this standing next to the president who started the war, which is a rhetorical position requiring the specific skill set of a man who has successfully governed a small island nation in proximity to a larger complicated neighbor for his entire career and who therefore knows exactly how to say a hard thing softly and mean it fully and smile for the photo.
The Liquefied Natural Gas Subplot
Trump expressed hope that a deal will be reached on American liquefied natural gas exports to Ireland. “That will bring down your deficits a lot,” he said.
The Irish Taoiseach, asked about this, did not immediately agree. The Irish Taoiseach had come with shamrocks. The LNG deal was not in the shamrock bowl. The LNG deal is a separate negotiation for a separate occasion, though Trump appears to have been hoping to discuss it at the shamrock occasion, which is either an efficient use of a diplomatic visit or a misreading of the ceremonial energy of a crystal bowl of County Kerry shamrocks, and Millicent declines to adjudicate which.
The Seventy-Three-Year History Of This Ceremony, And What It Has Survived
Since 1953, the shamrock ceremony has taken place through the Korean War, the Cold War, Vietnam, Watergate, the Iran hostage crisis, the Gulf War, 9/11, the financial crisis, a global pandemic, and now a war in Iran on its eighteenth day with a treason-adjacent media situation on its third day. The shamrocks have arrived every year. The crystal bowl has been beautiful every year. The photo has been taken every year. The friendship between Ireland and the United States has, by the diplomatic record at least, been maintained every year.
Whether this year’s ceremony represented a high or low point on the warmth spectrum is a question Millicent is leaving to historians. What she can confirm is: the shamrocks were real and fresh and properly certified. The crystal was from the House of Waterford. The Taoiseach’s socks were described by Vice President Vance as slightly more muted than last year’s. The gift bag contained Donegal-style wool socks for guests. The trade deficit was mentioned. The LNG deal was floated. The Middle East de-escalation was requested. The photo was taken.
The shamrocks are on a table somewhere in the White House now. They are the same shamrocks that have been placed on that table, in some form, since Eisenhower. They are green. They are from County Kerry. They were grown for exactly this moment. They do not have opinions about trade deficits or liquefied natural gas or treason charges or eighteen-day wars. They are shamrocks. They are the most diplomatically neutral thing in the room. They are, on this particular St. Patrick’s Day, also the most Irish thing in the room, and possibly the most hopeful.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day. The tradition holds. The deficit conversation continues. The shamrocks are very nice.
Millicent Hearsay, Culture Desk, covered this story on St. Patrick’s Day from a position of genuine affection for the tradition and genuine appreciation for the Taoiseach’s craft. She noted that the phytosanitary certification of the shamrocks is a detail that only becomes funny in the current regulatory environment, which has had some opinions about imports this year. Confidence: 17.3%. Gerald the houseplant was told about the Waterford crystal bowl. Gerald is himself an unglazed terracotta situation and has no comment. Gerald is fine. The shamrocks are fine. The deficit conversation will continue on a separate occasion.