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Hand-crafted books presented to President Obama today by Taoiseach Enda Kenny. Yeats2015

President Obama got quite a few gifts from Ireland today

He was presented with some very special books today by Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

PRESIDENT OBAMA DOES pretty well on St Patrick’s Day in terms of gifts.

Today he received a load of Irish food, a bowl of shamrock as well as some very special Yeatsian gifts.

Yeats2015 provides a special twist to the annual presentation by the Taoiseach of a Waterford Crystal bowl of shamrock (which will be almost immediately destroyed by the US Secret Service).

This year the bowl was engraved with lines from one of Yeats’ best-loved poems:

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven.

The president also received a specially crafted collection of Yeats poems, as part of the global celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the Irish poet’s birth.

Detail_Title Yeats2015 Yeats2015

Detail_Arab_Press2 Yeats2015 Yeats2015

President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden each received a hand-printed and hand-bound book of a selection of Yeats’ poems, produced in collaboration with the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland’s Irish Design 2015 initiative.

Two smaller books containing quotes from the life and works of Yeats were presented to the president’s daughters, Sasha and Malia.

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An Taoiseach Enda Kenny said:

This year, with Yeats2015, the Government marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of the great Irish poets, WB Yeats.
In this special year, I was delighted to be able to present President Obama with gifts that celebrate Yeats and his remarkable contribution to literary history.

The book was printed by Mary Plunkett of The Belgrave Private Press in Dublin. Mary is the grand niece of the 1916 leader Joseph Mary Plunket.

She said she was inspired by the work of the Yeats sisters Susan and Elizabeth, who set up and ran Cuala Press in Dublin, printing many of WB’s works.

MaryPlunkett_printing2 Yeats2015 Yeats2015

The book was bound in green leather at Ox Bindery Press in Tubbercurry, Co Sligo.

The work was done Benjamin van de Wetering, a master craftsman, printer and restorer of manuscripts and books.

10989210_828015420578639_1359282461644055332_o Enda Kenny / Facebook Enda Kenny / Facebook / Facebook

As well as giving him gifts, Kenny said he took the opportunity to continue to advocate for immigration reform to assist the many thousands of undocumented Irish in the US.

He said he discussed visa waivers that would allow illegal Irish immigrants to travel back and forth freely to Ireland and the US.

I would hope that at the end of the day that political leadership here in Washington can conclusively deal with this particular problem.

Read: YouTube absolutely mangled the subtitles on Michael D. Higgins’ Paddy’s Day address>

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34 Comments
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    Mute Cpm
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    Oct 4th 2011, 11:41 AM

    OK, well one rumour I heard, was that The Journal is obsessed, to the point of ridiculousness, with the iPhone.

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    Mute Tommy
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    Oct 4th 2011, 9:22 AM

    Jesus this is going to be one long day waiting….. I pray for a redesigned handset – come on Apple! Where on the net can the unveiling be watched live?

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    Mute angryzes
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    Oct 4th 2011, 9:34 AM
    11
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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Oct 4th 2011, 9:39 AM

    Hi Tommy,
    Apple doesn’t always stream its events live, but is likely to post a video of the presentation on its YouTube channel later: http://www.youtube.com/user/Apple
    Otherwise, people who are attending are bound to liveblog it if you want to follow the announcement as it happens. Engadget has its one ready to go here: http://engt.co/poVPms

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    Mute Mark McNulty
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    Oct 4th 2011, 12:18 PM

    Wish they would fix battery life and phone reception. Both are awful.

    17
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    Mute neuromancer
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    Oct 4th 2011, 9:41 AM

    I hate my white iPhone.

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    Mute Erica Cuthbertson
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    Oct 4th 2011, 6:58 PM

    Racist…

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    Mute Richard Evesson
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    Oct 4th 2011, 1:21 PM

    Isn’t it amazing how we’ve all become so obsessed with something as trivial as a phone !! But god damn you apple it’s a pretty cool phone at that

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    Mute Eddie Barrett
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    Oct 4th 2011, 9:21 AM

    Susan
    Is there some reason why this article is appearing TWICE on my iPhone 4 ?
    - Eddie

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Oct 4th 2011, 9:32 AM

    Eddie, not sure what the problem is, it looks fine in here. I’ll check with tech.

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    Mute Eddie Barrett
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    Oct 4th 2011, 9:39 AM

    What are the negatives for ? – the article is still appearing in duplicate on my iPhone – is mine the only one ?

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    Mute Brian Kelleher
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    Oct 4th 2011, 4:07 PM

    Looking fine on my Samsung Galaxy Ace :P

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    Mute Inda Kenny
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    Oct 4th 2011, 5:39 PM

    A bit of a humble brag there Eddie.

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    Mute Cpm
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    Oct 4th 2011, 12:14 PM

    I’m the same – had two iPhones, finally got sick of the company and their products so I switched to Android/Samsung, and within a day or two I knew I wouldn’t touch an iPhone again.

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    Mute jimmyobrien
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    Oct 4th 2011, 11:55 AM

    this is some marketing by Apple, its unreal the way they can get free advertising and marketing with nearly every single news/media outlet having some item on this in the last few days.

    Personally i had one for a while and i thought it was only ok, have a samsung android phone now and its so much better in many ways, expect it hasn’t got the cool factor.

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    Mute Danny D
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    Oct 4th 2011, 9:37 AM

    Picture says “The white iPhone 4 goes on sale in New York last year”. White iphone was not released until April of this year…

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    Mute Danny D
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    Oct 4th 2011, 12:38 PM

    Thanks for correcting this BTW :)

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    Mute Craig Harris
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    Oct 4th 2011, 10:52 AM

    The Iphone 4 was a terrible looking phone! I really do hope they do a complete redesign as i have been holding onto my beautiful 3GS for some time now. If they do release a 4S then im heading over to the ocmpetion as i can’t be bothered to wait another 8-9 months for a iphone 5! Come on Apple surprise us all and give us something fresh and new.

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    Mute Adam Beere
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    Oct 4th 2011, 11:20 AM

    The iPhone 3GS was the farthest thing from Apple’s familiar industrial design, the cheap plastic back felt just like something released by samsung. If you didn’t like the iPhone 4, I hope you enjoy android!

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    Mute Craig Harris
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    Oct 4th 2011, 4:09 PM

    Sorry but the 3Gs was a delicous looking phone who wants a crappy glass back that just gets scratched easily.

    The 4 looked bulky and had no sleak lines or curves. It looked like a skewed lego brick. Jonthan Ives needed a slap after designing the 4!

    A product designer i look upto has to wow us with something better than the dreay bulky looking 4.

    I won’t be going with Android as i have 3GS which does everything i need it to and it looks like a sexy phone. I’ll stick with that until they release a decent looking phone again.

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    Mute Blaine Ryan
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    Oct 4th 2011, 3:30 PM

    Think ill stick to my Galaxy S2!

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    Mute neuromancer
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    Oct 4th 2011, 11:52 AM

    Rumour or self-speculation.

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