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TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY will meet US President Barack Obama in the White House in Washington D.C. today as part of the annual St. Patrick’s day celebrations.
An Taoiseach will have appointments all day in the White House, beginning in the Oval Office at 10.30 am local-time where he will meet with President Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden.
Vice-President Biden, who spoke last night at a dinner organised by the American Ireland Fund, will also hold a breakfast meeting with An Taoiseach this morning.
At 12.00 pm, Kenny will then attend a St. Patrick’s Day lunch in the United States Capitol building hosted by speaker House of Representatives John Boehner.
Later this evening, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will host a St. Patrick’s Day reception in the East Room of the White House where Kenny is expected to make the annual presentation of shamrock to the US President.
As part of their meetings throughout the day, An Taoiseach is expected to raise the issue of undocumented Irish citizens who are living in the US but do not have the full residency or working rights.
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We may mock and laugh and gripe but there isn’t a country in the world who wouldn’t want their prime minister to be feted the length and breadth of Washington for an entire day, every year.
It is great the way you Pixieheads always look on the bright side . This is good….just keep paying us back our money, and you can smile all you like.
Well if you can tell me one tangible agreement that came from the visit last year I might agree with your comment.And not the pri arranged IDA stuff.
Is that you Barry Murphy?
@scaldybag It’s either look on the bright side of things or just be a moaning jealous troll like your sort.
And who is this we owe money to?
Do you work for the credit union?
Or maybe a bank?
Anyways if you’re German or British don’t worry “your” getting money back couldn’t have you worried that your Giro wont be paid next week.
With interest of course you get nothing for nothing.
Agreed, it is truly sensational for a country our size.. Incredible the number of top Irish-American politicians/public servants.. Joe Biden, Paul Ryan, Samantha Power, John Brennan, Martin Dempsey, Marty Walsh, Denis McDonough, Raymond Kelly, Christine Quinn.. etc
Oops *”You’re”
I’m more interested in where Kenny had the cannabis plant he’s handing to Obama in the pic grown.
Samantha Power & John Brennan – We can feel very proud of these two as they support the neocon agenda of destabilization across the globe, & American foreign policy of supporting state terrorism, ah sure not to worry they are Irish..
@Joney – Not my point.. agree or disagree with individuals, it is striking that our diaspora has climbed into the upper echelons of the world’s most powerful country.. PS “neocon” is so early noughties.
Dermot, I am not talking about a pair of trousers or suit on a Paris catwalk that have gone out of fashion, & you seem to think that this movement died with the bush administration? Just take a look to Ukraine to see the state of the place & the likes of Victoria Nuland (Neocon) pulling the strings.
True fergal. And you can bet your life the journal posters will mock, denigrate and gripe the taoiseach in spite of this yearly opportunity to network in the most powerful office in the world.
Sebastian US multinationals like all big business have no loyalty to any nation only profit which has always been the way. Can you lay out a list of companies that have transferred here due to a St Patricks Day visit from the Taoiseach ??
Its the Tax Haven reputation that we now have world wide that brings them here nothing else, certainly not a visit from the most blatant corporate puppet and weakest excuse for a leader of people in the western world. If only he could get together with other leaders and close the loop holes in the way they pay their taxes so that we could get our full 12.5% and make some real money off them for the state instead of making do with 2% to 6% corporate tax and the PRSI, PAYE, USC, taxes on the mere 11% of people employed by them.
With the banking stress tests coming up there is a high risk that our already hard pressed SME sector could be destroyed costing us tens of thousands of jobs, what has Kenny or Noonan done to help the largest employment sector of them all with over 70% of jobs.
Did he tackle upward only rent like he said he would? : Nope.
Did Noonan force the banks to stop closing down overdraft facilities for small businesses ? : Nope;
Did they get the banks to start lending to SME’s the very reason the were recapitalised ? Nope
” denigrate and gripe the taoiseach in spite of this yearly opportunity to network in the most powerful office in
the world. ”
Maybe if we had a real leader that put the people first these visit’s might bear some fruit but not this little coward.
A bit of critical thinking on your part I think.
DDI will change all that, won’t they Martin?
(Or are they crumbling apart rapidly???)
How are the Irish Far right doing Jeremy ??? The people make the decisions in Direct Democracy !So why are you so against the Irish people having some real political accountability …oh I forgot you are very very right wing. Well we have right wing people in Direct democracy as well as centrists and left wing too, not too far right mind as the idea giving the people any say in the running of the country does not seem to appeal to them. Just like it doesn’t appeal to you so like I say you must be very Far Right indeed. How would you describe your politics…. a Corporatist perhaps????
Martin. American companies only here for low tax? Nothing to do with the historical links? English speaking workforce and the only one in the euro area? Highly educated flexible workers? Peace and stability? None of those mean anything?
Britain has all that Sebastian and more, as well you know why not go there.????……….Ans: they are not a tax haven !!!
” Nothing to do with the historical links? ” Show me a corporation on this earth that puts historical links above profit and I’ll show you a Labour Minister telling the truth.
Britain is another English speaking member of the euro? Didn’t know that. And yes of course US multinationals invest in the UK. Whoever said they didn’t? I certainly didn’t. The historic links are not enough on their own and that’s why a small country needs an extra edge or 2 like I mentioned.
But Martin would u prefer we give up the paddys day networking and the many trade missions the govt has undertaken? With logic like that im not surprised DDI have turned into a joke.
As for your Euro comment Britain is also a member of the EU trading block and there’s currently more money to be made for US companies dealing with sterling than the Euro see latest financial times article on Sterling ad the Dollar.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/04c9c3c2-955e-11e3-8371-00144feab7de.html#axzz2vwNgilrO
” But Martin would u prefer we give up the paddys day networking and the many trade missions the govt has undertaken? ”
Of course not but don’t be fooled (as you appear to be) that its anything more than a political stunt for the benefit of Irish American votes. That’s all and I think you know that too.
“With logic like that im not surprised DDI have turned into a joke”…….Huh What ??? Still the Fastest growing party on the Island and you say it is a Joke. What does that make FG and Labour with their popularity plummeting daily.
Why is you want the Irish people from ever having real political accountability. Lets see what happens in the local elections and let the people decide who is the joke on.
Could you lay out your issue with the concept of Direct Democracy please? I would be very interested in what is it about it that you oppose.
Is it political re-call ( the ability for people to remove a politician who lied or abused his office )
Is it and End to the Whip system?
Or is the people having the right to call referendums on vital issue’s like the bank bail out?
Well??
“give up the many trade missions the govt has undertaken. with logic like that ? ”
Why would we do that ?? Trade missions do bring in business to the state where did I say stuff like that……you cant be making up stuff Sebastian. If only we could make proper money off them by closing the tax loopholes and recouping all of the already more than generous 12.5% corporate tax rate.
What have you got against the Irish state making a decent tax income from these companies while they still make massive profits here. It looks like you care more about these corporations profits than our interests as a nation.
Poor DDI.
Died before it could get off the ground.
http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057066488/15
Not a word from new leader Spaceman Jaan yet unfortunately.
Alas, its all gone ‘Judean peoples front/Peoples Front of Judea’.
Predictably pathetic.
Jeremy Your far right people had their go in Germany in the 1930′s and 40′s what with the death camps and all that remember.?
Jaan was on Vincent Browne only last week !! …..Seriously Jeremy do you spend your days only watching Hitler documentaries on the history channel or something …ever hear of current affairs??
This government and its vested interests controls the media as everybody knows the last thing they want is DD giving the people real power over the politicians.
The Irish Far Right…. Predictably insane.
No Britain does not.
Ye sit has the city. But outside it is a low wage, low standard of living country.
Not appealing.
Remember these US companies pay wages in Ireland that the average family in the UK (surviving on £25, 000 per annum) can only dream about.
@Alan Moroney
“But britain is a low wage, low standard of living country. Not appealing”…….US companies love a low wage economy why would that concern them …and who can blame them business is business they are not charities I suppose Fine Gael’s main selling point on trade missions is that Ireland is now also a very low wage country thanks to them….. They are forcing people to fill county council workers positions for 20 euros a week you can’t get much lower than that.
@ Martin Byrne.
“US companies love a low wage economy why would that concern them” – that is mainly old school companies (maybe in Ireland just the Phama factories), but a lot of the newer companies that have located in Ireland do not need a low wage economy with the all the negatives it brings, they simply do not employ enough people to really benefit from it.
Ireland has the advantage, even bigger outside of Dublin, or being able to jump with joy when a new large company arrives employing 50 or 100 people. That would be a drop in the ocean in a country the size of the UK, particularly England.
Should be an interesting meeting, one is trying to takeover a country in Europe with the Germans and the other letting his country in Europe be taken over by Germany
What are you on about??!!
Mercury poisoning does terrible things to the mind.
Lead paint; delicious, but deadly!
@ Joe, lol for today.
Whatever your political view, only a fool would knock this yearly opportunity we get to sell our brand. These fools will bitch about the cost, the representatives, paddy whackery etc. And there’ll be no shortage of them on here. We’ve seen some already…
Generosity is its own form of power.
I wonder is Obama laughing with Enda or at Enda in the pic?????.
Can anyone explain to me why our Taoiseach travels to the US president every year? Wouldn’t it be more fitting for him to come to us?.. along with all the other visits our government are making around the world..
I genuinely don’t get it..it also kinda feels like we’re feeding into the Americans beliefs that they are the greatest nation in the world :\
It’s just 1 part of a net working trip. You can’t network with American interests & businesses sitting on your arse here. Though I suspect you do get it. It’s not that hard…
I understand networking yes, but is America our biggest fish to fry?
Maybe it might have something to do with the fact that the country has taken in millions of Irish since pre famine times and who have made it to the very top in business and politics,its a pretty good idea i would think.
Gels, the clue is in your original post. Government ministers are in the far east, Australia, Africa, south America. But yes, America would be one of the most important given the millions claiming ancestry and the power of the Irish American lobby. Especially in the fight to normalize the illegal Irish…
Or feeding into feeding into many Americans beliefs that Ireland is their closest friend.
And the fact that so many Americans have a genuine respect and affection for Ireland :)
You would never guess what they do with the bowl of shamrock after the presentation is over,its not allowed to be distributed around, they incinerate it to prevent desease entering the country.
Well perhaps they should incinerate that disease that carried it in as well!!
Barack Obama doesn’t give 2 sh*ts that it’s St Patrick’s Day. It’s probably even an inconvenience that he has to put up with Enda Kenny on the same date every year…and you all know it’s true
So you’re naive enough to think the Democratic Party don’t see any publicity-benefit from such an event to the 36m Americans who claim Irish ancestry (according to a 2008 census) ahead of the Presidential, Senate and Congressional elections? Welcome to the World of Political opportunism young man, and it works both ways in this case.
Deport the illegals.
Bad boys bad boys.
Great marketing, stomach churning puckering, a ridiculous day of alcohol gluttony in a country of alcoholic gluttons, don’t forget to fly the Chinese made flags & bunting..
Interesting thing, those bowls of shamrocks are immediately destroyed by the secret service after the photos for security reasons. Giving the US president any form of food, drink or plant goes against all the rules but they make an exception for this thing since it is a tradition.
Enda handing Obama a big bowl of weed. That’s why there laughing.
Limerick man,John Hartnett meets Obama any time he likes.
Now, THAT’S impressive.
No matter what you can’t beat Bill – Enda teaching the Muslim Obama about the divine trinity !!!
Perhaps the U S might show us some respect by appointing a ambassador as we have had none here since 2012
One of these men is the leader of the free world, the other is paid more by a country where waiting time at A&E Dept is nine hours to be admitted. Paddy’s day when the Irish worker can be drunk by 11am just like many in Dail Eireann are every working day. Are we also paying for political parties to fundraise for themselves while abroad.
Obama is a terrorist responsible for the death of thousands of innocent people. However we do need the Googles and the Intels for our economy. Let’s be nice. What’ll we get him. A bowl of shamrocks! Great stuff.
zzzzzzz……….
Educate yourself, start with Noam Chomsky on youtube.
I’m alright mate.
You can always leave this decadent west if the hypocrisy gets too much for you.
Its mad celebrating the day with them over there! Do they even know what the day is about? Actually about?? It’s an Irish holiday about Irish land and therefore should be celebrated in Ireland. If Obama want to join in, he ought to come over.
No, its about a welsh catholic saint.
Who has been Ireland’s closest ally over the years.
It is part of the real special relationship – maybe one of two.
USA and Ireland, and USA and Israel.
The ONLY reason successive administrations in the US have entertained a Taoiseach and others on St Patrick’s Day is the Irish Vote!!! Nothing else…they couldn’t give a continental f**k about Ireland or its people! But they do care about how many votes they can garner!!
Is anyone else, anywhere in the world, ever given a bowl of Shamrocks?
It seems to be a Taoiseach to US President only transaction.
What would you do with it?
I didn’t vote for Mr Kenny…. I dislike his politics, but, He is OUR Taoiseach and on this annual trek to the most powerful boardroom on the planet if all it takes is a symbolic bowl of shamrock (and the eyes of 36m American-Irish) he has my support.
Bla bla bla
Hahahaha, Gas.
All the problems going on all over the world, Obama must be up to his neck with all the different issues and he’s got Enda Kenny arriving with his needy grin with a flower pot full of Shamrocks. Hahaha.
“Just tell him I’m sick, Biden!”
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