Leo Varadkar offers advice to Micheal Martin ahead of St Patrick’s Day White House visit

Leo Varadkar has offered his advice to the Taoiseach Micheál Martin, ahead of his visit to the White House for St Patrick’s Day.

Mr Martin will be visiting Donald Trump for the traditional presentation of a bowl of shamrocks during St Patrick’s Day on March 17, at a time when US domestic and foreign policy is under increasingly intense scrutiny.

Internationally, the US and Israeli bombardment of Iran has seen criticism both in the US and abroad, with hundreds of Irish people having to flee countries in the Middle East that have been caught in the crossfire such as Dubai and Oman.

Meanwhile, on US soil, Mr Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have seen huge political unrest in states such as Minnesota, where a mother of three was shot dead, which led to nationwide protests.

Despite calls for Mr Martin not to meet Mr Trump at the White House next Tuesday, he said that the meeting will still go ahead — with his predecessor Leo Varadkar warning that things can go wrong, particularly if the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict is brought up.

March 14, 2018: US President Donald Trump and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at the White House for St. Patrick's Day. (RollingNews.ie)

Mr Varadkar, who met with Mr Trump three times for the annual shamrock presentation, said that while a meeting in the Oval Office is probably not the best place to bring up any concerns, the ceremony itself is a ‘different opportunity.’

Speaking on Brendan O’Connor on Saturday, Mr Varadkar said that while the visit to the Oval Office visit is a ‘very public’ rolling press conference, the shamrock bowl presentation is a ‘more scripted affair,’ and, he argues, is the better time to bring up any concerns as the Oval Office meeting could go awry.

‘[The presentation is] a safer environment in which to say something if you wanted to,’ Mr Varadkar said. ‘That’s where I would’ve made my remarks on Gaza for example in front of President Biden when I was there last time, it’s where Enda Kenny would have made his remarks on migration in front of President Trump when he visited.

‘So, that’s probably a better opportunity than in the Oval Office, which is much more free-flowing; it could go wrong.’

Mr Varadkar added that it’s likely that JD Vance, Mr Trump’s Vice President, will also be at the event, admitting that Vance is ‘an agent provocateur in a lot of these things, and has been interestingly quiet on this particular war [in Iran].’

Mr Varadkar added that while he doesn’t believe the world has changed by this, the latest conflict in the Middle East, he has admitted that Europe’s relationship with the US has changed following the onset of the war by the FIFA Peace Prize winner.

‘Even if a traditional Republican or a liberal Democrat becomes president in three years time – assuming there are free and fair elections – I don’t think things go back to the way they were before, because there’ll always be the risk and the fear in the minds of Europeans that America will go back the other way again,’ Mr Varadkar said.

‘And that’s why I think the inevitable need for the European Union to build up its foreign policy capacity, its military capacity, will remain.’

The shamrock presentation ceremony took place March 12 of last year — a break in tradition from the usual visit on St Patrick’s Day itself — back in 2025, after Mr Trump was re-elected in 2024.

UFC fighter Conor McGregor was instead invited to the White House on St Patrick’s Day that year.

* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.