All the right boxes ticked despite cheesy chat-up lines
For Barack Obama it was another year, another exchange of pleasantries and the bowl of shamrock. Another handshake with the Taoiseach from a small island which has envied access to the White House.
He and Enda Kenny grinned at each other as they sat back into the comfortable armchairs of the Oval Office, and it was clear that it wasn’t just the emerald tie that the President had dusted down for the occasion. Ireland was a country that “punched above its weight” internationally, he said, as he reaffirmed the “strong ties” and — just as he said in 2011 — the “incredible bond” between both countries.
