It was President Clinton's last St Patrick's Day hurrah in Washington but he tried to be cheerful. He got shamrock from the Taoiseach and gave pep talks to the Northern politicians, begging them to get their show back on the road.
He threw the White House open to nearly 800 guests and summoned Seamus Heaney to play the bard. Other Nobel laureates who strolled the halls of Irishman James Hoban's White House as the Marine Band played plaintive Irish airs were John Hume and David Trimble.
For the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern it was an early start for a live interview on the CBS Early Show. He did his best to be optimistic but could hardly raise a smile. Sinn Fein's Mr Gerry Adams followed him later and was even more gloomy.
Mr Ahern, Mr Brian Cowen and Ms Liz O'Donnell had breakfast with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who was ready to do some breast-beating about US behaviour towards Iran.
Mr Ahern went to Mass, while UUP leader David Trimble faced the media at the National Press Club and George Mitchell got yet another award for his efforts towards peace on St Patrick's island. For the Mitchell breakfast Dawn Irish Gold from Newry provided the first sausages and rashers exported from Northern Ireland to the US "in over 30 years".
Whatever Mr Trimble told the scribes, it made his erstwhile DUP ministers froth from across the Atlantic. Mr Trimble was a "Putty Man", sneered Peter Robinson, "easily shaped by presidents, prime ministers and Provos" and "the arch-sucker of the current talks".
For the now traditional lunch at the British embassy, the usual suspects gathered. Mr Trimble pooh-poohed the idea that he had said anything new.
The British ambassador, Sir Christopher Meyer, said this could be a "very unruly lunch" as he tried to quieten the chattering VIPs so that the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Mandelson, could address them. Mr Adams did not appear for the lunch for the second year running. Other "no shows" were Ian Paisley jnr and his DUP colleague, Edwin Poots, who had risked being shot down by the Secret Service at the American-Ireland Fund dinner the night before when they tried to interrupt the Taoiseach and held up a banner saying "St Patrick says Keep Killers out of Government".
Mr Mandelson began talking about his new dog, Bobby.
He got Bobby so as to tell him what was really going on in Northern Ireland, where the dogs in the streets are notoriously well informed, he explained. "Have you started barking yet?" asked John Hume, who was sitting at his table.
Mr Mandelson ignored this and went on to praise St Patrick as a "working saint" and not "a superannuated spin doctor" - pause - "whatever one of those is", he added straight-faced. Mr Mandelson's message was that it was "not good enough" for the Irish to be coming back year after year to Washington without solving the Northern Ireland problem.
The Taoiseach lunched down the road in the Irish Embassy with the Irish-American Economic Advisory Board, where no doubt the jokes were even better.
Then he was off to the White House for an Oval Office session with the President about Northern Ireland, before presenting him with the bowl of shamrock.
Across the road in a swank hotel Hillary Clinton was at an Irish-American Democrats fund raiser for her New York Senate campaign. In a nearby hotel Senator Edward Kennedy was at another fundraiser, to get him reelected in Massachusetts.
Back at the White House, President Clinton was receiving the Northern politicians. The night before, in an emotional speech, he had begged them "to find a way to put this back on track".
"Whatever the differences, it's not worth another life, not one. It's not worth another's day delay, much less a year."
The 1,400 guests in the National Building Museum heard him say: "We have the chance of a lifetime", but the children of Northern Ireland "are still out there and they're still waiting".
As the visitors headed for the Irish Embassy party, Mr Clinton got ready for his trip to India and Pakistan, where again he is trying to make peace.