Irish Premier Uses St. Patrick’s Day Ritual to Lecture Trump on Immigration -
By MARK LANDLERMARCH 16, 2017
WASHINGTON — On a calendar of foreign visitors that includes President Xi Jinping of China
and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, the annual visit by the taoiseach of Ireland to mark St. Patrick’s Day should have been a delightful distraction for President Trump.
“Always remember to forget the friends that proved untrue,” Mr. Trump said, “But never forget to remember those who have stuck by you.”
A version of this article appears in print on March 17, 2017, on Page A16 of the New York edition
with the headline: Irish Premier Uses St. Patrick’s Day Ritual to Lecture Trump on Immigration.
He stuck to the issue that has long preoccupied Irish officials: the estimated 50,000 Irish who are living in the United States illegally,
and who are at risk of being deported if Mr. Trump delivers on his campaign pledge to round up undocumented immigrants.
Yet on Thursday, Mr. Trump found himself in a roomful of kelly-green-clad lawmakers in the Capitol for the Friends of Ireland luncheon, being lectured by Enda Kenny, the Irish prime minister, or taoiseach (pronounced THEE-shakh), about the virtues of America’s immigrant legacy
and the contributions that immigrants had made to the country.
During the presidential campaign, he referred to Mr. Trump’s language as “racist and dangerous.”
Nigel Farage, the British populist leader who is a staunch ally of Mr. Trump, demanded in an interview on Wednesday with RTE, the Irish national broadcaster,
that Mr. Kenny apologize to the president for his remarks.