Yahoo – AFP,
March 17, 2017
US President Donald Trump receives a traditional bowl of shamrock from Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny at the White House on March 16, 2017 (AFP Photo/SAUL LOEB) |
Washington
(AFP) - Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny caused a stir at the White House on the
eve of Saint Patrick's day Friday, pointedly telling President Donald Trump
that the festival is in honor of an immigrant.
Before a
sea of green-clad revelers in the East Room of the White House Thursday night,
Kenny made a pointed reference to controversies over Trump's immigration
policies, as the president looked on.
"It's
fitting that we gather here each year to celebrate St. Patrick and his legacy.
He, too, of course, was an immigrant," Kenny said.
The saint
is believed to have been born somewhere in Britain.
"And
though he is, of course, the patron saint of Ireland, for many people around
the globe, he is also a symbol of, indeed, the patron of immigrants,"
Kenny said.
Around 35
million Americans claim Irish ancestry, ensuring that successive presidents
have put on a green tie and greeted the Irish prime minister -- or Taoiseach --
to the White House on or around Saint Patrick's day.
Trump
praised Ireland as "a truly great country" and the Irish as
"tough." "I know a lot about the Irish -- they fight. They're
tough," he joked.
This year
Saint Patrick's falls on the day that Trump's ban on refugees and migrants from
six majority Muslim countries was due to have gone into effect.
The ban was
halted by a federal judge, but Trump has vowed to take the case all the way to
the Supreme Court.
Kenny, amid
controversy in Ireland over whether he should have met Trump at all, pressed
his point further.
"The
Irish have contributed to the economic, social, political and cultural life of
this great country over the last 200 years," Kenny said.
The Irish
"came to America because, deprived of liberty, deprived of opportunity, of
safety, of even food itself, the Irish believed, four decades before Lady
Liberty lifted her lamp, we were the 'wretched refuse on the teeming
shore','" Kenny said.
"We
believed in the shelter of America, and the compassion of America, and the
opportunity of America. We came, and we became Americans."
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