Vivienne Clarke
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that if he is invited to the White House to mark St Patrick's Day, he will go.
“If I am invited, I will go,” he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland. But an invitation had not yet been received, he said.
Mr Martin said that if he does travel to Washington DC, it is likely that he will have to be vaccinated. He said he was bemused by the debate about whether he would go, but he was relaxed about the issue.
The occasion would be marked in “some shape or form” as it was an opportunity to develop new areas of cooperation with the US.
The Taoiseach said he was pleased with US president Joe Biden's initiatives and he was confident that Ireland would have a good relationship with the US.
Last year’s visit by then taoiseach Leo Varadkar to former president Donald Trump was cut short amid the first coronavirus outbreak.
The tradition of the Irish taoiseach of the day presenting the US president with a bowl of shamrocks on St Patrick’s Day dates back to 1956, and the exchange will receive renewed vigour this year given the strong ancestral ties Mr Biden has to Ireland.
