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President Donald Trump will receive the Shamrock Bowl again this year
St. Patrick’s Day is associated with a significant portion of the tradition, from wearing shamrock twigs to attend church services to a pint (or several pints) of stouts.
There is another annual tradition for Irish politicians. A visit to Washington, DC.
Every March, dozens of people live in the US capitals, including politicians, businessmen and lobbyists from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
This year, many Northern Irish politicians have refused to make a journey around Donald Trump’s policies.
But what are the key points for the weekly event that runs until St. Patrick’s Day? And if they didn’t happen, would someone coming home notice the difference?
The power of relationships
The two main things I would like to see governments in Dublin and Belfast, and businesses coming out of travel, are their strong trading relationships with US investment.
Two men who have traveled to Washington several times as part of the St. Patrick’s Day event say the trip is undoubtedly going to bring about consequences.
Steve Aiken took part in St. Patrick’s Day Trip as CEO of the British and Ireland Chamber of Commerce and later as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.
Members of Stormont Assembly said it is impossible to develop relationships and improve business-political relationships without meeting face to face.
“It’s all about the ability to speak to people you don’t normally get the chance to talk,” he said.
“As we learned from Covid, doing business on Zoom is not actually doing business.
“You need to be in the room to do that. If you want to make an impact, you have to be there to talk. You can’t do it from 3,500 miles away.”
Aiken said it wasn’t a “holiday,” despite what perception was.
“You need to be able to speak with authority beyond your outline, and you need to have the answers to those questions. And you will be asked a lot of questions, and you will be thrown a lot at you,” he said.
Travel rewards
Former Sinn Fein politician, Máirtínó Muilleoir knows both the benefits of being in the room and the disappointment he missed.
The Irish Echo publisher attended the White House twice in that role, but did not travel to Washington during his time as Northern Ireland’s finance minister after the fall of Stormont’s executives two months before the 2017 festival.
He said the US mood up to St. Patrick’s Day was an ideal time for Irish politicians and businesses to make their pitch.
“You’re thinking about the biggest companies in the US. They’ll all have promotions related to St. Patrick’s Day,” he said.
“You go to a US city where there are advertising everywhere.
“That means they’re already doing some of the work for you.”
He said he believes there will be a major financial services announcement in Belfast over the next few days.
Why does the President of the United States get a bowl of Shamrocks?
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Michelle Martin’s final visit to the White House came practically after he tested positive for Covid
A special relationship?
Apart from helping to develop positive relationships between the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the United States, it is a bit difficult to identify direct results from annual visits. After all, there is more to do with St. Patrick’s Day.
In particular, in the 1990s, visits were deemed important in the process of ultimately signing the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
In 1995, then Sinnfein leader Jerry Adams attended the White House a year after President Bill Clinton intervened and granted a US visa. This is a move the UK government opposes.
Five years later, and two years after the 1998 Belfast agreement, Adams took photos at the White House with President Clinton and subsequent UUP leader David Trimble.
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Jerry Adams (far left) took photos with SDLP leader John Hume, President Bill Clinton, and Ulster Union leader David Trimble during his 2000 White House visit.
Aiken and ÓMuilleoir say the visit is key to Northern Ireland’s investment and US employment.
In 2024, there were 285 US companies in Northern Ireland. In 2010, it employed 31,915 people from 140 companies and 21,270 employees.
But Esmond Barney, a senior economist at Ulster University, said he could not draw direct links.
“It is impossible to quantify whether these political visits actually lead to investment or sales, so we cannot prove it in any way,” he said.
“When you balance, the benefits can be smaller than basics like training, skills, innovation, and productivity.”
Dr. Bilney said that we are eager to invest due to factors such as Northern Ireland’s location in both the UK and European single markets, relatively low labor costs and relatively low levels of conservative regulations by continental European standards.
Keep people interested
There was a time when Irish-Americans were once prominent at the top of American politics, with figures like Senator Teddy Kennedy and House Speaker Hint O’Neill promoting Irish interests in the hallways of power.
This was part of the consequences of long-standing immigration from Ireland to the US. The 1930 US Census recorded 923,600 residents born on the island of Ireland.
By the turn of the century, when it fell to 169,600.
The end of the trouble meant there were fewer headlines about Northern Ireland.
“One of the problems that every politician or influencer on Ireland has – the north or south – is about getting people interested in what’s going on,” Aiken said.
“We’re well below the list as everything else is going on in the world.”
However, Muilleoir said Ireland still has a privileged position in the United States.
“I once met the Swiss consul in Manhattan and I was grieving the sense that we hadn’t had much of an impact in New York anymore,” he said.
“He said he was walking from Wall Street to Central Park, and he said it was all the blocks that he saw the Irish flag, but he didn’t see the Swiss flag.”
Is it worth a controversy?
Sinn Féin has boycotted an event this year surrounding President Donald Trump’s stance on the Israeli-Gaza conflict. In other words, Northern Ireland’s Minister Michelle O’Neill, the party’s deputy leader.
Social Democrats and Labour also said that if invited it would not attend, the Alliance Party has taken a similar stance.
Deputy Minister Emma Little Pengely, a Deputy Minister of the Democratic Union Party, said she would go to Washington, DC, that it was important to maintain a “long and rewarding” relationship with the United States.
ÓMuilleoir said politicians must put pressure on their strengths and weaknesses.
“This is probably the most difficult time to be in St. Patrick’s White House,” he said.
“We are not the only people with a moral dilemma. Everyone makes their own choices.”
