Ben Lowry: The US visit was a minor triumph for the unionists who went to the American capital

It capped a triumphant visit by the DUP deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, Emma Little-Pengelly, and the party colleague, the Communities minister Gordon Lyons, as well as the Ulster Unionist Party leader Mike Nesbitt, who is also Stormont’s minister for health.

The absence of Sinn Fein reflected a rare mis-step by the republican party, which typically wrongfoots unionists in the US given the strength of their connections in Irish America. But their snub of President Trump was, both humiliatingly and predictably, not even noticed by him, and left the stage open for unionists.

It was the perfect year, with the British Open golf tournament returning to the north Antrim coast, for Ms Little-Pengelly to step forward and present the golf-loving US president with a pennant of Royal Portrush – one of the finest courses on the planet, and to issue an informal invitation for him to visit.

Mr Trump was speaking at the annual St Patrick’s Day event in Capitol Hill on Wednesday. The lunch is sandwiched (pun not intended, but appropriate) between an Oval Office morning meeting between the Irish prime minister, Micheal Martin, and a reception back at the nearby White House for everyone.

The newly returned to office United States commander-in-chief was addressing the lunch gathering of mostly Irish Americans when he turned to Micheal Martin, the Irish prime minister, and said that he had “done a fantastic job and we very much appreciate you being here”.

President Trump then turned back to the main room and said: “​And I also want to thank my new friends from Northern Ireland [his emphasis] for being here, who I just met, thank you very much, it is a great honour.”

The lunch guests applauded loudly, before Mr Trump, gesturing back to the Republic of Ireland delegation, said: “And I must say they spoke very well of you, so that’s good. And, great to be with you.”

The Northern Ireland friends to which Mr Trump referred was Ms Little-Pengelly, Mr Lyons, Mr Nesbitt – who had to leave for a pre-arranged visit to a hospital in Georgetown because Mr Trump was late after spending so long with Mr Martin after the shamrock ceremony – the DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley and the DUP Stormont speaker Edwin Poots.

For decades nationalist Ireland has dominated the St Patrick’s Day tradition in which the Taoiseach presents the US president with a bowl of shamrock. This is ironic because it began in the 1950s when the incumbent American leader was President Dwight S Eisenhower, a man who not only knew that Northern Ireland played a key part in the war against Hitler (he inspected troops in the province before D-Day), but like all such US military and political leaders of that era knew that the then Irish free state stayed out of that fight. They must have also all noticed that Eamon de Valera personally conveyed his condolences to the German legation in Dublin on the death of Hitler.

Americans can be so isolationist that they cab appear not to notice things such as the fact that this island is divided into two jurisdictions, but the American elite during the war would certainly have known. They would have revered, for example, Sir John Dill, the Lurgan-born field marshal who was the senior British representative who was the British representative to the combined chiefs of staff in Washington during that existential world war.

It was a clever touch for Ms Little-Pengelly and Mr Lyons to visit his statue in Arlington of Sir John with James Applegate, the US consul-general for Northern Ireland – as we show in the picture on page one. It is a measure of the high standing of Sir John that he is the only non American to have such a tribute in Arlington, a cemetery for US veterans.

I wondered if Mr Trump was part of that American isolationist tendency that he would know little about NI. I was surprised to learn recently that a man who loves golf so much that he actually owns world-class courses in both Ireland and Scotland had not visited the province to play our two renowned courses, Portrush and Royal Co Down. During his first presidency he rarely seemed to even notice the Northern Ireland border dispute that was so central to the post Brexit stalemate with the European Union. But Ian Paisley junior has pointed out that Mr Trump in that first 2017 to 2021 term singled out NI for mention on St Patrick’s Day.

"When he spoke at that reception he looked around the room and made a point of saying it was great to celebrate Ireland and Northern Ireland," Mr Paisley said.

"Apart from George Bush he was the only president to make that pointed reference."

And Mr Buckley will be telling us more next week about Mr Trump having joked mischievously about Irish unification when the two talked on Wednesday.

The Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt did attend the annual event at Capitol Hill, but left before Donald Trump arrived. The President had arrived later than expected and Mr Nesbitt had a commitment at a local cancer hospital, according to a party spokesperson.

Like Sinn Fein, the SDLP and Alliance Party did not attend the key Trump-St Patrick’s events, in shared protest at his approach to Gaza. Nualla McAllister of the latter party said that they always knew he would not notice, but in that case why carry on with the snub?

I have written my own criticisms of the US president, and am scathing about his pivot towards Russia, away from Ukraine. But NI politicians were invited to represent the province and Michelle O’Neill is never shy to tell us she is the first minister for all.

The party faces a challenge. Traditional Catholic Irish Americans are increasingly right wing, and many of them voted for Trump. Yet it was unionists who shone in that company this week.

Ben Lowry (@BenLowry2) is News Letter editor