Government to consider St Patrick’s Day plans amid global uncertainty

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, Press Association

The Government is to consider its strategy for St Patrick’s Day amid a tumultuous time in global politics.

The major focus will be on the Taoiseach’s traditional trip to the White House for a bilateral with the US president.

Calls were made last year for the Taoiseach to drop the trip as Donald Trump began his second term as president; the leaders of the main opposition party Sinn Féin did not attend the White House over the US administration’s approach to Gaza.

Those calls have been amplified in the wake of the US’s rescinded threat to take over Greenland and Mr Trump’s anti-immigration crackdown in the city of Minneapolis and elsewhere in the US.

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Helen McEntee is to brief Cabinet on Tuesday on this year’s plans for St Patrick’s Day.

There are 40 separate visits by Cabinet and junior ministers, the Attorney General Rossa Fanning and the Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy planned to 52 countries.

Last year, 38 representatives of the State travelled to more than 90 cities in 40 countries.

The plan aims to present Ireland as a trusted and engaged global partner and reaffirming its values, such as its commitment to free and fair trade and the rule of law.

Ms McEntee is to outline that visits will be to “core markets” in the US, the EU and the UK, as well as “emerging and high-growth” markets in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Higher Education Minister James Lawless has said he understands that he is travelling to Australia as part of the plans.

Several visits to the Middle East and north Africa are also scheduled for later in March and early April, following Ramadan.

The St Patrick’s Day trip will pose a tricky diplomatic balancing act for Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who will meet Mr Trump amid tensions with the EU over Greenland and after the vast majority of European leaders snubbed Mr Trump’s so-called Board of Peace.

St Patrick’s Day is also the date that Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro is next due to appear before a US court.

Sinn Féin has yet to declare whether it will attend Washington DC in March this year, after boycotting the trip last year based on “a principled stance against the threat of mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza”, according to Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald.