US-Irish relations are creaking under the weight of the elephant in the room – the Middle East
Now you see it, now you don’t – Ireland’s opposition to President Joe Biden’s stance on the Middle East.
At the start of their bilateral meeting in the Oval Office, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar spoke of the need for an “immediate ceasefire” and “eventual two-state solution”.
“I agree,” President Biden whispered under his breath.
But within an hour, Ireland’s prime minister appeared to concede that his words hadn’t changed anything.
He said: “The president is very clear that the US will continue to support Israel and to defend itself.
“None of us like to see American weapons being used in the way that they are. The way they’re being used at the moment is not self-defence.”
Did that stop Ireland’s leader joining the president for the Speaker’s Lunch to mark St Patrick’s Day?
Of course not.
After lunch, President Biden lauded Northern Ireland’s new power-sharing duo – Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly.
They later posed for a photograph with him.
But Ms O’Neill, Ireland’s first minister and deputy leader of Sinn Fein, then posted a video from the steps of the Capitol.
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She said: “I put it directly to the president that what we need to see is an immediate end to the genocide of the people of Gaza.
“What we need to see is an end to the illegal settlements.
“What we need to see is humanitarian aid, and we need to see that immediate ceasefire.
“I put that directly to the president today as I said that I would.”
The Sinn Fein leader and would-be next Irish prime minister, Mary Lou McDonald, went further, insisting “words are not enough” from the US administration.
If there have been words from the president on the situation in the Middle East, they’ve been spoken behind closed doors.
The most Irish president since John F Kennedy has tried to avoid their differences overshadowing Ireland’s patron saint’s day, which is celebrated more in America than in Ireland.
“May the hinge of our friendship never grow rusty,” he told Mr Varadkar.
It may not be rusting, but it has been creaking a bit this week, under the weight of the elephant in the room.