When president George W Bush accepted a bowl of shamrock from the Taoiseach in the Roosevelt Room of the White House yesterday, he spoke of the pride Americans feel about their Irish heritage.
"The Census Bureau tells us there are more than 34 million Americans that claim Irish ancestry," Mr Bush said. "On St Patrick's Day, I suspect that number jumps a little bit."
The White House meeting was the culmination of three days of events in Washington that brought Irish affairs to the centre of the debate in America's capital.
Accustomed to watching politicians in the North struggling to find agreement, US legislators this week themselves fell out over Ireland.
Every year, the Friends of Ireland congressional caucus issues a St Patrick's Day statement celebrating the relationship between Ireland and America and commenting on political events in the North.
The statement is usually a joint declaration from members of the Senate and the House of Representatives but the two chambers split this year over a reference to the murder of Robert McCartney.
Edward Kennedy insisted that the statement should include the words: "All paramilitaries must end criminality and intimidation. Justice must also be done in the case of Robert McCartney."
Congressman Jim Walsh, who heads the Friends of Ireland in the House of Representatives, argued that mentioning specific crimes would distract from the statement's primary message that all parties should implement the Belfast Agreement and support the PSNI.
"We agreed to disagree," Mr Walsh told The Irish Times. The family of Robert McCartney was less sanguine, expressing "surprise" at Mr Walsh's refusal to sign the Kennedy statement.
"His decision to isolate himself from President Bush, Senator Kennedy and the overwhelming majority of the Irish people only serves as an encouragement to the unaccountable groups who seek to murder with impunity, and in no way furthers the cause of peace or justice in Ireland," the family said.
Such divisions were absent from most Irish events in Washington this week, starting with Ambassador Noel Fahey's party on Wednesday, which the Taoiseach described as "the best free bar" in town.
On Thursday evening, hundreds of the wealthiest Irish-Americans and their associates crowded into the magnificent National Building Museum for the American-Ireland Fund's annual dinner.
The neo-classical building with its massive Corinthian columns was once the place where American Civil War veterans came to verify their pensions, often camping out for days to get a hearing.
Irish university fundraisers and charity workers fell in with the building's tradition, waiting patiently until a potential benefactor became available for flattery and pleading.
The American Ireland Fund raised $35 million last year for projects in every county in Ireland but its focus has been on reconciliation and economic regeneration in the North.
Thursday's dinner honoured senators Joseph Biden and Susan Collins as well as Jack McConnell, an Irish-American entrepreneur who has given $1 million to integrated schools in the North.
Mr Biden made a speech that sounded mawkish to some native Irish ears, extolling the virtues of his mother, but the event underscored the extraordinary commitment of Irish-Americans to promoting peace and prosperity in Ireland.
American Ireland Fund president Kingsley Aiken said that the organisation's challenge now was to import American habits of philanthropy to Ireland, a process that has hitherto been slow.
The leaders of almost all the North's political parties were at the American Ireland Fund dinner, although Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams left ostentatiously early and the Democratic Unionist Party's Ian Paisley jnr appeared to hide behind television cameras during the speeches.
Mr Biden directed part of his speech to the North's politicians, urging them to make 2006 a historic year for the peace process.
"This is the 21st century. It's time to make a new chapter in Irish history," he said.