AND SO IT’S over for another year. 

Where once complaints over the Irish government’s ministerial missions to far-flung lands focused on the cost of the collective jaunt, these days the criticisms are a little bit more specific.

With the United States engaged in a deranged war in Iran, fuelling a genocide in Palestine, openly aggressing for regime change in South and Central American countries, and intermittently threatening Europe’s territorial and economic sovereignty, some are asking: ‘Might there be a chance that playing along with these people is wrong, stupid, or maybe even wrong and stupid?’

There appears to be nobody less troubled by this question than Taoiseach Micheál Martin who, for the second year running, handed that embarrassing bowl of shamrocks to Donald Trump — presumably after coating it with some kind of adhesive to prevent it from slipping out of the US president’s blood-slicked hands. 

While Big Bird was doing wheelies around Rush on his tiny quad bike, in the true spirit of St Patrick’s Day, the Fianna Fáil leader once again sought to cement Ireland’s status as an ally of a country that, a matter of weeks ago, blew up a primary school full of Iranian children. And by the unbelievably low standards to which we all now apparently subscribe, it went tremendously well. 

At breakfast with the Taoiseach, JD Vance once again broke out his shamrock socks, paying respect to that universally recognised symbol of our country. Somehow, these socks have become the sort of Punxsutawney Phil for whether or not we’re about to be ambushed. If Vance is wearing the shamrock socks, then Martin’s not getting the Zelenskyy treatment. Alas, socks with American symbols — such as innocent people illegally detained by ICE........

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