US President Barack Obama said on Saint Patrick’s Day he will visit Ireland in May and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny promised him 100,000 welcomes in a land to which he traces some ancestry.
Obama said on Thursday that he and Kenny, making the Irish leader’s traditional visit to the US on Ireland’s national holiday, had an excellent conversation about how Ireland would bounce back from its economic crisis.
“I wanted to say today that I intend to come to Ireland in May and I’m expecting to go not only to all the famous sites, but also to Donegal where my great, great, great, great, great, grandfather hails from,” Obama said.
Photo: EPA
Obama, wearing a green tie, joked that his Irish American vice president Joe Biden was “envious because he wants to go first.”
The US president is also due to travel on a state visit to Britain in May and is also expected to attend the G8 summit in France.
The president said in his meeting with Kenny, who has been in office just over a week, that he had been brought up to date with the new Irish government’s effort to revive its economy.
“We have had an excellent conversation about how Ireland is going to be bouncing back from the severe economic challenges that it’s experienced over the last several years,” Obama said.
“The Taoiseach shared with me his plans and his efforts to make sure that people are put back to work in Ireland, that the financial system is stabilized. And he exudes great confidence and I’m sure that we will be cooperating very closely with him and providing any assistance that we can on the economic front,” he said.
Later, Obama hosted a Saint Patrick’s Day party for Kenny at the White House, which was packed with prominent Irish Americans.
Kenny told him that news of his decision to visit Ireland had “reverberated around the world already and he would get 100,000 welcomes.”
“We’re glad, Mr President, that you will visit us in a short time. I hope, when you do so, your stay will symbolize the life-giving bond between Ireland and the United States of America. We are your gateway to Europe. And I say again this evening, that gateway is wide open and continues to be ready for business,” Kenny said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese