Yes, so all-pervasive is the mood of trepidation before the meeting of Micheál Martin and Donald Trump that there’s no room for the usual hand-wringing about antisocial behaviour ruining St Patrick’s Day celebrations here. The forthcoming national holiday notwithstanding, the focus is firmly Stateside. As it turns out, the encounter between the Taoiseach and the US president passes off without major mishap.
“There will be a national sigh of relief,” says Kieran Cuddihy on The Hard Shoulder (Newstalk, weekdays). “No landmines stepped on.” The host’s ruefully accurate verdict underlines both the anxiety in the run-up to Martin’s visit and the low expectations surrounding it.
What was once a feelgood beano to the White House – the former taoiseach Bertie Ahern can’t help boasting to Cuddihy that he made the trip 11 times – is in this instance portrayed as venturing into a bear cave, armed only with a stick to prod the Trumpian grizzly. (The feeling is best summed up by the presenter Joan O’Sullivan’s dramatic introduction, on Wednesday’s Morning Ireland , on RTÉ Radio 1: “D-Day in Washington.”) But as the day progresses the coverage takes on a cautiously optimistic note.
When the Taoiseach meets first with vice-president JD Vance, Rachael English, host of News at One (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays), wryly remarks that, rather than fill his usual role as Trump’s pugnacious wingman, the veep has “the same level of come-all-ye and schmaltz” as th.
