Are the great days of Irish influence in the White House over, asks Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent, who attended this week's St Patrick's Day ceremony in the US.
The tales surrounding the Irish parties in the White House to celebrate St Patrick's Day are legendary in the fiercely competitive world of Washington politics. Hundreds of dress-suited Irish and friends of Ireland gathered in the East Wing in 1995, in the joyous months after the IRA's first ceasefire. Decorum was quickly pushed aside as all engaged in an old-fashioned knees up.
In subsequent years of the Clinton administration, the dress suits were left at home, but the open house policy towards the Emerald Isle continued as then president Clinton immersed himself in Northern Ireland.
During celebrations a couple of years ago, Clinton, having listened to Seamus Heaney quote from his translation of Beowulf, delivered a hilarious, and intellectually gifted, critique of the Nobel Literature Prize winner's work.
Less interested in poetry, perhaps, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern did not even try to copy the Clinton style in his reply. Instead, he brought the house down telling tales of previous White House parties. "Look what happened. They let the Irish in. He gives us the run of the place and we wreck the joint. What are we going to do for a party after he's gone?" joked Ahern, as Clinton chortled.
For years, other foreign diplomats fumed. Even the British embassy, equipped with hundreds of staff, felt outgunned by the tiny Irish outpost on Massachusetts Avenue run by Dermot Gallagher, later by Seán Ó hUiginn, and currently by Noel Fahey.
Now, there are signs of change. But the Irish currency, though facing tougher competition, is still good, judging by the welcome offered by US President George Bush this week.
Struggling to achieve a United Nations mandate to invade Iraq, the Republican president has a lot on his mind. Nevertheless, he made time to celebrate the Day of the Irish.
On Thursday, he devoted several hours to welcoming the Taoiseach and meeting privately with him, before spending 20 minutes greeting guests at a mid-morning function going on elsewhere in the building.
Passion, however, was lacking, at least compared with the Clinton days. Not seen on television since last Saturday, Bush used the opportunity offered by the shamrock presentation ceremony to drive home his message on Iraq.
Laying down some markers for the future, perhaps, Bush reminded his Roosevelt Room audience, which included US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, of the past times when Ireland and the US have "stood together". Listing Afghanistan, Kosovo and Bosnia, the clear subtext taken by most was that Bush expects the same to happen again.
"The responsibilities of freedom are not always easy to bear," he declared.
Describing Ireland as "a valued member of the coalition against terror", he said Ireland and the United States are joined by "a common commitment to freedom's defence against tyranny and terror".
Shortly after noon, however, his plan to attend the annual Congressional lunch hosted by the US Speaker of the House of Representatives, J. Dennis Hasbert, was cancelled with just 10 minutes notice. Shrugging off Bush's absence, the Taoiseach said he appreciated that he had other things to do. "We had a great deal of time from him today, and we appreciate all of it," he told journalists.
Rubbishing suggestions that the great days of Irish influence in Washington are fading, one senior Irish civil servant commented: "Look, nobody else would have got this kind of attention, bar us. Nobody." However, there is a sense that Ireland is a duty for Bush, a legacy left over by the Clinton administration which cannot be excised by him from the landscape like so many of his predecessor's pet projects.
"You have to remember that Bush doesn't care about Ireland in the same way that Clinton did. For Clinton, it was personal," said one informed Congressional source on Capitol Hill.
"Bush knows that he has to acknowledge the Irish/American vote. But he has other problems to be worrying about other than Northern Ireland, though he would like to see things move forward.
"You have to bear in mind that this president knew nothing about foreign affairs until he became president, and now he finds that his presidency is entirely dominated by them," the source told The Irish Times.
However, Northern Ireland is at a different phase of its passage than it was under Clinton, less needful of the late-night encouraging telephone call from the ever-enthusiastic Arkansan.
Despite the problems encountered in Hillsborough earlier this month, there is a sense shared by nearly all now that progress in the negotiations may be slow and halting, but it is inevitable.
"Clinton liked to get into the detail of problems. It worked in Northern Ireland. But it didn't work in the Middle East where he tried and it blew up in his face. Northern Ireland doesn't need that kind of intervention now," said a Congressional source.
Nevertheless, a White House-approved message carries clout. The approving tones of Bush towards the PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde and his two recruits delivered a powerful message to Sinn Féin to join the Policing Board. And yet, it was balanced by Bush's decision to single out Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams in his short speech to Thursday's reception, after Adams had missed the group photo because he got stuck in traffic.
The reception, besides being held for two hours in the morning, rather than late into the night, was notable both for the fact that it was off-limits to journalists and for its small size. Despite suggestions that a couple of hundred people had been invited, only between 60 and 80 finally received the prized invitation cards - and few of them were Irish, bar Northern politicians.
"I could be wrong, but it seemed that most of the people in there were people who will be useful to the Republicans in the next round of elections here," one guest told The Irish Times.
The media's exclusion from the reception had more to do with the administration's desire not to see the White House pictured as a house of fun at a time when US servicemen are preparing to go into battle, than anything to do with Ireland.
Though pleasant, and politically influential indications of Ireland's "street cred" in the Washington political market, the high-profile parties of the Clinton era may simply be less necessary now, at least in terms of Northern Ireland. Instead, the more mundane, but, nevertheless, important issues, such as money for the International Fund for Ireland, can still be progressed if Irish diplomats and politicians continue to have quiet access to influential ears.
Early this year, Bush announced the biggest US military build-up in two decades when he pressed Congress to raise spending by $45 billion this year, and by $120 billion over the next five years, to $451 billion by 2007. The impact of the decision has trickled down everywhere in the US government's budget. The opening contribution offer this year for the International Fund for Ireland stands at $8.5 million, rather than $25 million. So far, the Irish have not been getting publicly too worried, though a steady round of Capitol Hill meetings have been held to get the figure increased.
"The final figure will be closer to $25 million than it will be to $8 million," said one Irish official.
Concentrating, perhaps, more on the present, than the future, Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble was effusive in his praise of the access afforded this year by the president.
"With the present international crisis and the way he is devoting his time almost entirely to Iraq and to the United Nations, I am told that the Washington Press Corps are absolutely astonished that the president cleared, as he did this morning, hours of his time in order to deal with, in an American perspective, a small problem affecting a couple of million people which is not directly affecting US national interests.
"That in itself shows the extent of the commitment and showsthat they will do what they can. Clearly he did today \, and you could not ask for more than that," said Trimble, speaking in The Mayflower Hotel.
Quietly realistic, SDLP leader Mark Durkan, who is spending a week in Washington, probably best summed up the likely future: "I don't think it is a bad thing if increasingly we find ourselves at home on St Patrick's Day.
"I don't see it is a bad thing if increasingly we find ourselves about our business and about the things that we can do together. We have a habit at home of thinking that the eyes of the world are upon us.
"The reality is that the eyes are rolling up to heaven each time we create problems and yet more difficulties for ourselves. So for us to be normal and boring and to get on with normal politics and things that we can achieve ourselves is no bad thing."