As the Taoiseach prepares to meet US president Donald Trump for their annual St Patrick’s Day encounter, Irish-American relations are at their most strained since the State’s foundation.
The White House has levied tariffs against the European Union, lectured Europe about how its democracies are failing, while the Trump administration has actively supported right-wing movements throughout the Continent.
Political strategist Steve Bannon, an ally of Donald Trump and a senior White House aide from his first term in the White House, has even gone so far as to say he is plotting the emergence of an “Irish Trump”.
With Micheál Martin’s Oval Office visit approaching on Tuesday, in what camp does the Irish-American community find itself in – Bannon’s or the “home country’s”?
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And what role are Irish-American political leaders playing to maintain relations during this testing period?
“Irish Americans are more liberal than the image portrayed by Steve Bannon,” says Ted Smyth.
A former Irish diplomat and public relations specialist who lives in Manhattan, New York, Smyth is sceptical about the idea that there is an emerging gulf between the Irish American diaspora and the Irish mainstream.
“The Irish American vote is a classic swing vote. It’s not red or blue – but purple,” he says.
“That’s been the case really since Eisenhower and Kennedy. Most Irish voted for Eisenhower, the war hero, even though he was a Republican, and they probably also supported Nixon.”
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There is no doubt that many Irish Americans backed Donald Trump in the 2024 US presidential election. However, Smyth believes there has since been a shift within the community – and across American society in general – that now puts many Irish-American voters at odds with the current administration.
“There is a bipartisan position on the border now, a consensus that Ice [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is overdoing it,” he says of the federal agency responsible for enforcing Trump’s hardline immigration policies.
“A majority of people wanted a secure border and felt Biden had mishandled it. Obama quietly and efficiently deported more people than Trump has, but after saying he was going after the ‘bad guys’, Trump is going after ordinary people and really upsetting neighbourhoods.”
He says unhappiness with immigration policy and the tactics deployed by Ice has been reflected in statements by Irish American leaders.
Smyth has seen how the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), normally considered right-wing and Catholic, has distanced itself from the White House. It recently condemned the video shared on Trump’s Truth Social platform that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
The AOH said its stance was rooted in its “Irish history and Catholic faith”, stating: “As an organisation founded to combat attacks against Irish immigrants, we know intimately the weaponisation of simian imagery.”
Last year it also urged the administration to reconsider its approach to tariffs, proposing alternatives that would reduce the economic impact on Ireland.
Former minister for foreign affairs Dermot Ahern knows what it is like to travel to the Oval Office when the US is at odds with much of the world. He accompanied Bertie Ahern to Washington on several occasions during the presidency of George W Bush at a time when the US was at war in the Middle East and routing troops through Shannon Airport.
Ahern says this period is different, however. This administration is much more aggressive in its dealings with allies – and Ireland’s friends in DC don’t have the same sway as they once did.
“There was a time when I had Ted Kennedy’s number on my phone; I had John McCain’s number on my phone,” he says.
“We were literally able to ring these sort of figures. I’m not sure that’s the case any more – in fact, I very much doubt that it is.
“Then, we were talking with people who were reasonable to deal with. With the current administration it seems to be a case of ‘their way or the highway’.”
Ahern says Ireland should “not succumb” to the views of the Trump team.
“We are hearing lectures about how our democracy is imploding here in Europe – it’s a bit much coming from a society which is very divided,” he says.
“I don’t think we should take any lectures from America; we are lucky we have liberal democracies. We should be very strong in Europe and we should speak with a united voice.”
New York businessman Michael George, who was raised in Belfast and is from a unionist background, knows the Trump family and – at one point during Trump’s first term – was tipped as a potential US ambassador to Ireland.
He says that trying to get to the bottom of current relations between the US and Ireland “depends on who you’re talking to”.
“The Republican view of Ireland has shifted – but Ireland’s policy stance has shifted also. It’s not like Ireland has stood still,” he says.
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“Ireland is now quite vocal around its support for the Palestinians – and they’ve also got a quasi-open border arrangement. Those are the two issues that most Republicans would disagree with them on – but then again most Democrats wouldn’t have a problem with that.”
George says this may mean that the Irish diplomatic machine has a harder time talking to certain people within the administration.
While Trump still retains some affection for Ireland – helped by having a golf course and resort in Co Clare – he speculates that the likes of Trump’s political adviser Stephen Miller will have less time for Irish concerns.
“Some people – the culture war people – are a little bit more standoffish.”
George says for all the concerns in Dublin about how to approach the coming St Patrick’s Day events in Washington, there is very little coverage of Irish affairs or the Irish government’s positions in the US media.
“It doesn’t get a lot of press over here,” he says. “The Spanish reaction to Iran got a lot of press. Whatever the official Irish position is, I couldn’t tell you – because it doesn’t get the coverage”.
George is aware, however, of Sinn Féin’s decision to boycott the official interactions with Trump.
“Sinn Féin don’t do any favours for themselves,” he says. “It’s not going to move the needle for the administration – and what do they gain? What happens if they get into power and the pharma issue is still hanging out there?”
Belfast-based Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, the publisher of New York’s Irish Echo newspaper, spends much of his time at Irish-American events and functions stateside.
In a recent editorial, the paper argued that it was proper that the meeting between Trump and Martin go ahead as normal, urging the Taoiseach to raise matters of concern such as Gaza, tariffs and the actions of Ice.
“Ireland has a voice in this world, in recent years a more forceful one, and the Trump administration should be allowed an opportunity to hear it,” the piece said.
That leader column puts the paper at odds with Ó Muilleoir’s old political party. He served for a time as Sinn Féin’s Stormont minister for finance and lord mayor of Belfast. He has focused on business since retiring from politics in 2019.
Ó Muilleoir has watched the Irish diaspora in the US move its support towards the Republican Party and away from the Democrats. But he believes many who did vote for Trump are deeply unhappy with how his second term has played out.
“The friendships between Irish America and Ireland will outlast this terrible presidency,” he says. “While certainly at least 50 per cent of Irish Echo readers are Republican-leaning, only a small minority support the erratic actions of the White House.”
The common cause among many Irish Americans, he notes, still lies in their opposition to London – and their desire for a united Ireland.
“My view is that we shouldn’t let a small thing like politics get in the way of a big thing like friendship; the relationship between Irish America and Ireland will not only endure but [will] play a crucial role in ridding ourselves of this awful British government”.
This continued antipathy towards partition in Ireland shows up in polling data. Smyth was involved in a survey of Irish Americans in 2023. Asked what they thought the most important issue for US politicians to address on Ireland, 31 per cent said it was support for “peaceful Irish unification”.
This was deemed more important than trade and investment, which was selected by 29 per cent, and visas for new Irish immigrants and the “undocumented”.
The polling also tracked the decline of the Catholic Church within the community. While 47 per cent identified as Catholic, only 12 per cent said they regularly attended mass. Among younger Irish Americans, just 23 per cent under the age of 35 identified as Catholic.
Despite the disappearance from the national political scene of congressional heavy-hitters such as Ted Kennedy and Tip O’Neill, Smyth remains convinced that the Irish American caucus can “still be roused” when needed to influence policy.
He says Brexit showed that when politicians such as Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, who has family connections to Ireland, became involved, it quickly changed the negotiating dynamic with the British government.
“I have heard we don’t have the ‘four horsemen’ any more” – the senior congressional figures Kennedy, O’Neill, Patrick Moynihan and Hugh Carey – “but when Brexit came up as a major issue, Irish America mobilised just as they did in the old days,” he said.
