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WHILE THE PRESSURE is off Micheál Martin with his meeting with US President Donald Trump now in the rearview mirror, he won’t breathe a sigh of relief until all of his US engagements are done.
The Ireland Funds dinner takes place tonight, leaving one more chance of something to go wrong for the Taoiseach.
The event is pricey affair, commanding $1,000 a plate and has been an unlucky affair for some taoisigh in the past.
The Ireland Funds is a global philanthropic network established in 1976 with an aim to “harness the power of a global philanthropic network of friends of Ireland to promote and support peace”.
Every year, during the week’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Washington DC, the National Museum Building, a colossal space that fits 800 guests plays host to the sold-out fundraiser — which raises more than $1 million for Irish charities.
The room is packed to the rafters with Irish-American business people and politicians.
At the gala dinner, there are glittery green gúna’s galore, Irish shamrock biscuits, and plenty of Irish whiskey cocktails. In the past, the odd Irish celeb have among the crowds, such as U2′s Bono, dancer Michael Flatley or Irish rugby star Rob Kearney.
Events in the not so distant past have resulted in some believing the event is jinxed for some Irish leaders.
In 2023, when giving his speech at the event, Leo Varadkar recalled how the last time he was at the fundraiser dinner he had to leave the event early when he was called off to attend an emergency meeting of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).
“I was called away suddenly to receive the terrible news that an oncoming storm had hit Ireland, a pandemic that was about to engulf this country as well as the entire world,” he said in the opening lines of his address.
In 2020, Varadkar was whisked out of the room, and most believed it was due to Trump’s announcement that he was banning travel to the US for people from 26 European countries.
However, it later became known that the reason was things had escalated rapidly back home, and some tough decisions were going to have to be made by government.
In fact, it was this week five years ago that Varadkar held his early morning press conference outside Blair House where he informed the nation it was going into lockdown.
Varadkar returned to the dinner last year, where the focus was very much on how he would raise the issue of Gaza with a room full of Americans. He said Europeans and Americans have a “duty to do all that we can to bring peace and justice to the Holy Land”.
“As we sit here tonight in this wonderful building, Palestinian civilians who are not responsible for the crimes of Hamas are being subjected to humiliation and starvation. And that is wrong,” said Varadkar, which received a muted response from the audience.
In his engagements with Trump yesterday, Martin did not speak as bluntly as he would back home about Palestine and Gaza, instead making repeated references to the Middle East in general.
If Varadkar failed to hammer home the Irish message on the issue last year at the fundraiser event, it is unlikely that Martin will rock the boat this evening in his own speech.
Apart from Varadkar, Martin has had his own bad luck at the dinner.
In 2022, Micheál Martin was Taoiseach and was ready and primed for his first meeting in the White House for St Patrick’s Day.
However, he was dubbed the ‘unlucky Taoiseach’ that year when in dramatic fashion, he was whisked from the room (and away from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who he was sitting next to) having tested positive for Covid-19.
It was a big night for Martin, as then US President Joe Biden was in attendance (somewhat of a rarity for the event) and it was going to be a chance to have a chinwag with the president prior to their meeting in the White House the next day.
Martin managed to get a few minutes – seven minutes in all, the US President would later confirm. Biden took to the stage and gave a speech about his Irish roots and the deep ties between the US and Ireland.
Martin was due to receive the Ireland Funds 2022 International Leadership award that night, but it was Ireland’s Ambassador in the US at the time, Dan Mulhall, who broke the news to the crowd that Martin had tested positive for Covid and accepted the award on his behalf.
Everyone knew what the news meant: Martin’s hopes of making it to the White House that year were over. He ended up having to do a dreaded Zoom call into the Oval Office from across the street where he was quarantining in Blair House.
Tonight, Ireland’s very own Catríona Perry, formerly of RTÉ and now chief anchor of BBC News will MC the Ireland Funds dinner.
US Congressman Brendan Boyle of Philadelphia – the only member of US Congress with an Irish-born parent, will be honoured, along with David P. Joyce of the US House of Representatives and Dan Quinn, the head coach of the Washington Commanders.
Martin eventually made it to the White House this year and had his moment in the spotlight, though he might have preferred to have avoided the 50-minute ordeal in front of the press yesterday.
He will be hoping for better luck at tonight’s event. Fingers crossed.
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They pay $1,000 a plate no wonder they think €1,950 a month is cheap rent in the private sector
@Housing Hunger Games: we pay it don’t forget the taxpayer pay thank you very much to us for their fantastic dinner
@Housing Hunger Games: The 2025 $1,000 donation all goes to an Ireland charity. Unlike the usual SF €1,000 plate fundraisers, which goes to the West Belfast lads.
@D Farrell: this has nothing to do with SF why would you mention them ???
@Bernard Connolly: Bitterness
@Bren: the Irish taxpayer don’t pay for our politicians or officials to attend this event. They are the guests of honour.
Of course it does as the government think it’s monopoly money as they don’t actually work for it
@Bren: yes they do
Jonny 40 accounts has an opinion for sure. Let him know you hate him, Chutes / rian / joe willis / mary / sweet cian / kevin byrne / linda ;)
@Electro Box: every one hates you, don’t they?
@Rian O’Callaghan: see how many people hate you and your 40 accounts? Everyone :) Ha
@Rian O’Callaghan: yet it’s YOU that have pulled the journal down to cesspit level with your incessant, in fan tile multi trolling. Get yourself a life. We all keep telling you but you love the attention even at the expense as being labelled classroom klown.
@j m m: “You have chosen to mute Rian O’Callaghan comments”. The only response.
@Dolly Mounted – Norside Drag Queen: yeahhh. you’re only right.
@Rian O’Callaghan: pot calling the kettle black, springs to mind !
Do ya remember Enda Kenny, what an inept clown.
Una Healy robbed again. Perfect MC for this event. The waft of carvery gravy off the punters is something. Mulch!
I’ve never been a fan of the annual Irish Funds dinner. Firstly, the fact that it costs $1,000 a plate just screams of the level of elitism that goes on there. Secondly, it’s always just been an opportunity for whatever failed Taoiseach is currently in office to gloat about what meaningless achievements that they have done in office while the primarily American crowd laps it up because they’re not on the ground in Ireland to actually understand the economic damage that has been caused. I’ve always said that secretive dealings should never be welcomed but that’s precisely what seems to go on at this dinner. I’m all for strengthening relations between Ireland and America but not in a manner that’s snobby out-of-touch like the Irish Funds dinner is. There should be some transparency in it.
@William Jennings: As soon as you typed “whatever failed Taoiseach” is currently in office, you lost any sense of rational debate. You’re dismissing any Taoiseach because they happen to be Taoiseach. That just betrays your capacity to argue/debate on any rational level.
@Eoin Garvey: Well it’s the truth. Ireland has had very few people that have been worthy of the position of Taoiseach. I can’t remember when we’ve had a Taoiseach that I’ve been proud of. In the last 50 years, all of them have either been crooks, adulterers or have destroyed the Irish economy. I invite you to please name who you seriously think has been a good Taoiseach in recent history. I’m not dismissing someone just because they are Taoiseach, I am dismissing them because all of the people who have been Taoiseach in the last 50 years have been terrible. The Irish Funds dinner began in 1976.
@William Jennings: actually you are dismissing all of the by refusing to name any you admire, respect or did a good job. By asking others to name some, you are looking for targets.
Nobel peace prize incoming for President Trump. Best President in history. Hero. Legend. Makes the far-left pull their (unkempt) grey hair out and spit blood! Happy happy days! MAGA
@Kieran Conroy: a bit premature there aren’t you…nothing has happened yet! words are just words…
@Clare Power: That’s why I said ‘incoming’. Anyway. What have the woke mob got to say about creepy Joe allowing Ukraine to send U.S. made missiles into Russia risking WW3? Very quiet on that front…Hmmmm…
@Chutes Idiot: would you disown one of your sons? Ask
@Chutes Idiot: ask, ASK
@Chutes Idiot: I’m giving you SO many clues! So many!!! Will you hate it?
Can we save lots and lots of time and just get the ICJ(Irish Club of Journalists) to write Martins speeches and declare what the Irish people think.
Probably better off robbing northern banks or involving yourself in fraud
What is a ‘taioisigh” while we are at it? Are they hiring dyslexic monkeys at the Journo.
have your say