Suzanne Harrington: Pragmatic diplomacy, or appeasing a fascist?

Ireland may be small and not terribly important to a megalomaniac monster, but we have core values. We have core principles. We don’t like bullies. We don’t need to appease a rogue regime out of fear, or out of tradition, or out of anything

Taoiseach Micheál Martin (left) with US president Donald Trump in the White House at last year's St Patrick's Day reception. While it may be seen as pragmatic diplomacy to go, how will it seem from a future perspective?

I know it was Valentine’s on Saturday, and yay for love, even if it comes in cliches of red and pink and sold back to us for profit — we all need all the love we can get, in these unlovely times of unfiltered hate. Yay for love, in all glorious guises.

But it’s next month’s shamrocks-are-green celebration which holds considerably more cultural heft than roses-are-red or violets-are-blue.