Washington witnesses nation-building at the National Building

It’s an imperious, cavernous experience, the inside of the National Building Museum in Washington, with its marble pillars and a roof high enough to comfortably house an air traffic control tower. Nobody will ever accuse it of cosiness and even in its first guise, as a post-civil war pensions house, it had its detractors. Philip Sheridan, the Union general within whom resided the spirit of a cantankerous Cavan man, reputedly groused when asked his opinion: “It’s a pity the damn place is fireproof.”

Time and a modernist makeover have rendered it venerable, and it has hosted its share of auspicious moments, from presidential inaugurations to the time when Hillary Clinton acknowledged defeat to Barack Obama in her quest for the Democratic nomination in 2008 with the words: “If we can blast 50 women into space, we will someday launch a woman into the White House.”

Some echo of that sentiment bounced around the high walls on Wednesday night when eight hundred or so people sat for the annual Ireland Funds Gala and watched as two women from Northern Ireland spoke in a way that felt like a new departure from an old story.

One of Michelle O’Neill’s natural strengths as a public figure is that ineffable sunniness in her voice, and when she stood up to speak, in front of the well-heeled, high-heeled and tuxedoed, it helped to make the vast hall resize itself to a more human scale. This was a fundraiser in a week defined by interminable and necessarily forgettable speeches extolling Ireland in all her guises. But still, the night marked the first international engagement of the new First Minister and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. And it felt like a moment.

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Michelle O Neill is 47. Emma Little-Pengelly is 44. They arrive in Washington at a time when the US national political scene seems governed by the agenda of the aged

“Emma and I are very much looking toward the future,” O’Neill told the crowd. It would be wrong to depict a rapt silence. But the undercurrent of chatter did significantly slow.

“Always you have to keep your eye to the past, but we are very much about the future, about open opportunity, about the next 25 years and what that can bring to us all. And I am excited about that period.”

[ Little-Pengelly with a hurley makes a good photo, but such gestures need to be followed by action ]

Michelle O Neill is 47. Emma Little-Pengelly is 44. They arrive in Washington at a time when the US national political scene seems governed by the agenda of the aged, with constant snarking among members of Congress about the age and mental acuity of the two men who say they want to lead America into the future. For decades, the general storyline about Northern Ireland drifting across the Atlantic to Washington revolved around the decades of violence, the painful, complex untangling of that period through the Belfast Agreement and of the frustrating intransigence of recent years. With the North, it was the opposite of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. It was broke. And they couldn’t fix it.

Now here, all of a sudden, on an evening of small portions and large-scale fundraising, was a vivid refutation of that. The history of the Ireland Funds gala runs in neat parallel to the transformation of Northern Ireland. In a video tribute to the founder, Paul Quinn, who died last year, it was remembered how his idea of a modest dinner to raise money through the gala in 1993 made a slow-flip into a major annual fixture after Ted Kennedy advised him to change the date so it fell on the eve of the St Patrick’s shindig in the White House. Since its foundation in 1976, when Ireland was stony, the Ireland Funds has raised more than $600 million in philanthropic funds, parcelled out to thousands of causes across Ireland down the years. A cursory flick through the honours scroll of the Washington gala reads like a who’s who among the architects of the peace agreement and the statespeople of the day.

[ 'Emma Little-Pengelly is much more cross-culturally aware than any DUP people I know' ]

The restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive in February was accompanied by constant reference to the Belfast Agreement. It remains a potent touchstone even as 26 years have somehow slipped by. And now, the sudden brightness and sincere optimism of O’Neill and Little-Pengelly was a jolting invitation to look towards the future.

the Irish storming of Washington on St Patrick’s week is a slick confirmation of business and diplomatic ties. The shamrock and poetry quotations disguise the transactional nature of it all. Optics are everything

“Michelle and I have engaged in this journey determined to establish a mutual partnership positively and with respect,” Little-Pengelly said.

“And we stand here tonight Irish and Ulster Scot representing to the two great traditions of our respect.”

The applause was warm, respectful. The single reference to Gaza contained in the joint address was so watery that it would have been better not made at all. But the Irish storming of Washington on St Patrick’s week is a slick confirmation of business and diplomatic ties. The shamrock and poetry quotations disguise the transactional nature of it all. Optics are everything.

[ Taoiseach insists he will not dilute Government's criticism of Israel during US trip ]

And for those few minutes on Wednesday evening, the image of Northern Ireland was formed by the appearance of its First and Deputy First Ministers. It was a version of the North that Washington had not seen before: two women who grew up in the tremulous peace process years and who between them conveyed the impression that maybe the old room in Washington had at last witnessed the launch of something new and transformative.