Paul Hosford: Taoiseach emerges as EU’s unlikely hero

After his success navigating the Donald Trump Show, Micheál Martin arrived in Brussels as a potential bridge-builder between the EU and US

US president Donald Trump and Taoiseach Micheál Martin during the St Patrick's Day visit to the US. Martin's successful navigation of the Oval Office summit contrasts with Friedrich Merz's similar meeting a fortnight ago. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

With the Donald Trump Show navigated successfully, Micheál Martin boarded the Government’s brand-new jet and headed for another international engagement — albeit one which should be somewhat less difficult to navigate.

The Government’s new twin-jet liner touched down in the Belgian capital last night, as the Taoiseach prepared for a European Council meeting which will address the military escalation in the Middle East, including “its consequences on the EU in terms of energy prices and energy security”.

Mr Martin arrived as an unexpected leader in defending the values of the EU, following an unexpected and fairly robust intervention during his meeting with Mr Trump in the Oval Office on St Patrick's Day.

Having seen German chancellor Friedrich Merz openly show his frustrations with the EU in a similar meeting with Mr Trump just a fortnight ago — an event during which Mr Trump threatened to “embargo” Spain — Mr Martin was able to command the room for what must have been a record for a foreign leader: Some two minutes.

While the US president held court on all things Iran, energy, and China’s use of windfarms, Mr Martin sat largely as a bystander.

Pushing back at Trump

But as Mr Trump took aim at Europe over immigration and energy policy, Mr Martin interjected, keeping the excitable press packs from both sides of the Atlantic silent. 

“I would say Europe is a great place,” the Taoiseach opened, with Mr Trump saying he was “glad to hear it”, oddly enough.

“We have to have robust and fair rules around migration,” Mr Martin said.

“But, on the other hand, a lot of people within the European Union have free mobility. And in Ireland, our population is growing but in a very positive way, our economy is going well because we’re attracting a lot of people from Europe and beyond into work legally and validly into our country.”

Sensing a lack of pushback from the US president, Mr Martin continued to defend Europe while accepting some US criticisms of regulation. 

“Fundamentally, I think sometimes Europe gets characterised wrongly in terms of being 'overrun'. It’s much more robust now, a much stronger mechanism in place to facilitate legal migration. 

"And I think it’s important; understanding that we need more economic growth in Europe. And it doesn’t have the same focus on innovation as you do here in the US.”

Contrast with Merz's White House meeting

While Mr Merz’s meeting had been a study in tactical silence, Mr Martin chose something of a different path.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had a fraught meeting with US president Donald Trump in the Oval Office on March 3. Picture: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

Mr Martin timed his challenging of Mr Trump and relied on his diplomacy to thread the needle, a mission which was largely successful, though he did allow a misgendering of Catherine Connolly sail by and was seen to be overly sympathetic to Winston Churchill, of all people.

He also over-egged the pudding by plámásing Mr Trump’s work in the Middle East, two issues for which he has taken criticism at home.

Whether the overall strategy of Mr Martin and Ireland being the bridge between the EU and US is one which is sustainable depends on a vast array of inputs which are far outside the control of the Taoiseach: The length of the war in Iran; Mr Trump’s attempts to reinstate tariffs; and the vagaries of Mr Trump’s mood on a given day. 

However, it is a strategy which Mr Martin and his team seems to have identified as a potential winner.

Ireland as bridge between EU and US

If Ireland and the US are, as the Taoiseach said on Tuesday, “foundationally” linked and if Ireland is almost guaranteed the attention of America’s top decision-makers for a week every year, who better to act as the conduit between two sides whose trading relationship is the largest of all time, but whose leadership seems far apart?

As Mr Martin headed to Brussels, he did so as the European leader who has most stridently argued the bloc’s case to Mr Trump’s face, at least publicly, having launched a robust defence of British prime minister Keir Starmer along the way.

It is perhaps not what anyone expected this week to look like, but then much of what happens in Mr Trump’s orbit tends to surprise.

Surviving a visit to Trump

In 2024, following the successful visit of then US president Joe Biden to Ireland and Leo Varadkar’s second trip to DC in as many years, relations between Ireland and the US were hailed as being at an all-time high. 

That within 24 months the Irish side is talking about leaving the Oval Office in one piece speaks volumes about the current holder of the office’s temperament and outlook.

For now, Mr Martin will be pleased with his performance within the parameters he and the Irish diplomatic corps will have set. 

Now all eyes turn to Europe, where a response to spiralling oil prices and energy security are awaited today.

• Paul Hosford, Acting Political Editor