It was on St Patrick's Day, 1959, 45 years ago, that an Irish President was entertained for the first time in the White House. President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave a state dinner in honour of President Sean T. O'Kelly and his entourage, writes Joe Carroll.
Sean T., as he was popularly known in Ireland, was a big hit. He flirted with Mamie Eisenhower and charmed his host with Irish jokes which Eisenhower told around Washington for weeks. After the White House, Sean T. was to attend the traditional dinners in Washington of the Friendly Sons of St Patrick and the Ancient Order of Hibernians. To everyone's amazement, Eisenhower insisted on going with him.
Retirement was drawing near for the two presidents. Sean T.'s second term of office would end in less than three months and Ike was in his last full year in the White House. Efforts had been made on the Irish-American side to have Sean T. invited to the US on a state visit since 1951. The White House was keen for one in 1956, which was an election year for Ike, but Fianna Fáil was out of power. The Fine Gael-Labour coalition was not keen to have Sean T., with his impeccable Fianna Fáil credentials fêted in the US.
With Fianna Fail back in power, the ambassador was told by the Minister for External Affairs, Frank Aiken, to get working on an invitation before Sean T. left the Áras. Hearne had excellent contacts and the White House gave the go-ahead at the end of January 1959. It was a huge rush for Irish officials to prepare the presidential visit which would include an address to Congress, thousands of miles of travel inside the US, about 30 speeches and numerous gifts. When the flight out was booked with Aer Lingus, a note said that Sean T. was "on the wagon" and would need only orange juice. Ditto for Mrs O'Kelly, but there should be "Jameson for the aides and brandy would be useful". Sean T.'s height (5'5") hat size and chest measurements had to be supplied for the fussy Americans.
As the news spread among Irish-Americans, invitations poured in for Sean T. to visit Irish groups all over the country. Everett Dirksen, a senior Democrat who would later be Speaker of the House of Representatives, insisted Sean T. should come to his home town of Peoria in Illinois. Aiken, who was stage-managing the visit through his Department, laid down that, outside Washington, the President would visit only New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and Minneapolis, where Sean T. had some distant cousins. But the White House, which did not want Dirksen offended, insisted Peoria and a visit to nearby Abraham Lincoln's tomb should stay on the programme.
The White House was supplying a Presidential plane for travel around the US but it was a propeller aircraft so the flight times were long. Sean T. wanted to return to Ireland by liner to get a rest after what would be an exhausting schedule. After passage was booked and paid for with French Lines, the company offered a free trip but the Irish reluctantly decided it would be infra dig to get money back. Instead they unsuccessfully tried to get the liner to call at Cobh, which was not on the usual route.
In New York, Sean T. got a ticker-tape reception as he drove up Broadway with Mayor Wagner but the Irish consulate was billed for the paper. The consulate and the Irish mission at the UN threw a huge reception at the Waldorf Astoria. The IRA was conducting its Border campaign at the time back in Ireland and there were protest pickets by the IRA's American supporters outside the hotel as the President left.
Sean T. had annoyed them by describing the IRA as "unwise young men who show bad judgment." Aiken had wanted to exclude Mayo man Paul O'Dwyer, brother of the former mayor of New York, and a distinguished human rights activist, from the reception because of his "extreme attitudes", meaning his support for the IRA, but the consulate advised against it. The consulate complained later in a report that Mayor Gannon of Sligo, who happened to be in New York at the time, was causing problems with gatecrashers from his entourage.
The further the party got from Washington, the more fun there was as Sean T. relaxed although Aiken was annoyed there was no subsistence allowance for himself and the consulate had to supply him with a $500 "imprest" for his expenses. Aiken caused a headache for officials when he demanded that an important dinner in New York be brought forward so that the party could go on to a performance of My Fair Lady, which was a huge success at the time on Broadway. When the exhausted officials nodded off at a performance of a German opera, Aiken "chivvied them awake", according to the report of Freddie Boland, Irish ambassador at the UN at the time.
In Chicago, the press greeted Sean T. with headlines urging readers to "make way for Sean T. O'Kelly, a little man with a big heart who spent his youth twisting the tail of the British lion", and welcoming "the little giant of Erin".
The gossip columnist for Woman's World reported how Sean T. treated the ladies at a reception depending on their looks. "Every woman got one kiss, so-so ones a kiss on the cheek, pretty ones a kiss on the mouth, real beauties two kisses." For the report of the visit to Lincoln's tomb, the local paper headline was "Chipper Irish Chief Lauds Abe", a miracle of compression.
The Minneapolis Tribune reported that "the frail five-foot-four-inch man grew bigger as he talked about Irish independence". Local reporters were warned that Sean T. could not comment on current affairs because of his constitutional position. When he was asked about the Berlin crisis he replied: "I don't take part in politics. I'm in the same position as the Queen of England. I sign on the dotted line and do as I am told."
The visit helped restore to official relations the warmth that had been missing since Aiken angered the US the previous year by voting in the UN to discuss the admission of Communist China. As Sean T. put it in a letter to Ambassador Hearne, the visit resulted in the "softening of certain asperities which had become manifest in our diplomatic relations during the previous year or so".