There was a strong dairying theme to President Clinton's visit to the Gateway computer plant in Clonshaugh, north Dublin. This was only partly because the company logo uses the colour scheme of the Friesian cow, a reminder - as Mr Clinton said - of Gateway's pastoral origins in the American midwest.
The logo could equally be based on the Holstein cow, an even higher milk-yielding breed with the same black-and-white markings. President Clinton didn't go into that much detail, and may not be well versed on cows anyway. When it comes to milking, however, there's not much the boy from Arkansas doesn't know.
There was so much milk in the Gateway plant yesterday you could almost hear it moo. No teat was left unsqueezed as the President celebrated Irish-American success in the field of information technology, praising Ireland's "phenomenal" growth and, on a day when his grey suit matched the skies over Dublin, promising the 21st century would be "Ireland's day in the sun".
The audience of (mainly) young Gateway workers loved it. When the President told them: "The Celtic Tiger is roaring and you should be proud," the tiger cubs snarled their approval.
And Mr Clinton even got a response from the Irish Joycean community (normally a low-yielding breed) when he hailed Ulysses - set in Dublin, written in Trieste, Zurich and Paris, published in Paris and New York - as a "metaphor" of the modern world.
Turning to Ireland's peace-keeping role, he leafed through the State's UN personnel file and announced solemnly that this was "the only country which has never taken a single, solitary day off".
Speaking before Mr Clinton, the Taoiseach said the Irish "as a people can now truthfully say that we have crossed the Rubicon". This was probably more than the US President could truthfully say of himself yesterday. He may have crossed the Liffey and the Tolka on his way to the factory; but as for the Rubicon, he's only half way over and up to his neck in it, judging by the noises from the US.
None of which was betrayed in his performance. When he quoted Ulysses - "history is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake" - he might have been talking about the Lewinksy affair, which has left a Friesian-sized black spot on his presidential record. But by the time he left north Dublin yesterday, he had the Celtic Tiger roaring and the Gateway Cow mooing, and there wasn't a dry udder in the house.
