Taoiseach Micheál Martin has met with the US Vice President Kamala Harris as part of a series of St Patrick's Day virtual events.
The Taoiseach has also spoken with Leader of the House Nancy Pelosi, stressing the importance of America's support for the Good Friday Agreement.
Around now Micheál Martin is virtually exchanging a bowl of shamrock with President Joe Biden.
At the annual Friends of Ireland lunch the President said he wants to build strong relations between the two countries:
"I look forward to working together with you, as I have with a number of your predecessors, to write new chapters in the enduring friendship between our nations."
"I'm speaking to you today not just as the American President, but as a descendant of the Blewitts from Mayo and the Finnegans from County Louth."
"I'm speaking to you from a White House designed by an Irish hand, in a nation where Irish blood was spilled during the revolution, for independence and for unity and freedom through the years."
President Biden quotes Irish poet Seamus Heaney in virtual St. Patrick's Day celebration: "Once in a lifetime, a tidal wave of justice rises up, and hope and history rhyme" https://t.co/Nj065CIsxp pic.twitter.com/X2bLuPtyyr
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 17, 2021
Taoiseach Says 2019 Visit Made 'Real Difference'
While Taoiseach Micheál Martin stressed the importance of the US in protecting the Good Friday Agreement through Brexit:
"We've been determined always, that whatever other harm Brexit does cause, it cannot be allowed jeopardise the peace that so many worked so hard for."
"Your visit to Ireland and Britain in April 2019, and the clear message you conveyed about your commitment to protecting the peace process and preserving the seamless border in Ireland made a real difference."
Delighted to meet @VP @KamalaHarris. Good discussion on the issues facing our interconnected world and the need to work together - Covid 19, economic recovery, climate change and democracy. Ireland and the U.S. - partners as well as friends. 🇮🇪🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/vLZWZMgm7w
— Micheál Martin (@MichealMartinTD) March 17, 2021
Vice president Harris also recalled Douglass's time in Ireland and his meeting with Daniel O'Connell:
"There he crossed paths with the Irish abolitionist Daniel O'Connell."
"For the first time Frederick Douglass felt truly free."
"In his own words, in Ireland he was not treated as a colour, but as a man."
