In New York yesterday, for the second time in two days, Enda Kenny found himself with the mayor of a major American city who wouldn't go the St Patrick's Day parade because gay groups were excluded.
The Taoiseach's schedule meant he was elsewhere in the Boston area during its parade on Sunday. Not so in New York, where he resolutely took the road untaken by newly installed mayor Bill de Blasio.
After the highs of his Washington visit last week, Kenny's arrival in Manhattan brought him right into the middle of a big local row over gay representation in the parade. Following similar moves by Heineken and the Boston Beer Company, Guinness abruptly pulled its sponsorship of the event in Sunday.
The tabloid New York Post ran inevitable headlines about the "Draught Dodge" and the brewer's move to get "Stoutta Here". Suffice to say the balance in the argument must be clear enough when the beer business moves to claim the high moral ground. But Kenny had agreed to participate, this he duly did and did so proudly.
There would be no turn back. In Government circles, the view is that to do otherwise would be to deliver a huge snub to the vast Irish American community on its big day.
'A real opportunity'
"180,000 people march in this parade. I have been invited here. It is a real opportunity to continue to express the solidarity that we have with Irish America," the Taoiseach said. "Many of those people in the parade today are also members of the gay community and they are marching proudly in the St Patrick's Day parade as I will myself on behalf of my country."
The Taoiseach left the parade before it passed a noisy but not particularly large gay rights protest at the junction of Fifth Avenue and 56th Street. “Exclusion gives the Irish a black eye,” read one of the less forthright placards.
In the biting cold, the whole thing served to cast a bit of a cloud on the proceedings.
Since leaving home last Wednesday, the Taoiseach and his party have been on a carousel of non-stop engagements. Kenny’s message is universally upbeat and there have been many ovations, but it’s not all sweetness.
On Sunday night in the lobby of Fitzpatrick’s Hotel on Lexington Avenue, there appeared to be something of an altercation between two high-level members of the Irish entourage. They were observed in open disagreement with each other. Efforts to establish why were not successful.
Extraordinary
Then there is the long, fruitless search for a new American ambassador to Ireland. In spite of weekend talk about an imminent White House move to send an envoy to Dublin, nothing at all transpired. Despite America's extraordinary welcome for Ireland at this time of year, this has left the Irish community feeling more than a little bereft.
The same goes in New York for de Blasio’s move to ban horse-drawn carriages from Central Park, which has angered the predominantly Irish carriage drivers.
De Blasio made no direct reference to any of this at a special breakfast early yesterday in Gracie Mansion, his ornate official residence. Yet he was at pains to emphasise his proximity to the Irish as a child in Boston and his respect for their culture.
When Kenny presented the new mayor with a coffee table book about Ireland titled Island of Shadows , de Blasio went to reciprocate with a gift of a crystal apple to symbolise New York. But the mayor dropped the ornament, prompting Kenny to describe the "bouncing apple" on the floor.
No damage was done, however. “The apple is whole. The apple has landed,” said the mayor.
