VP Biden Hosts Breakfast For Taoiseach Kenny

"We should do this every year, celebrate St. Patrick's Day twice!"
Vice President Joe Biden hosted a breakfast for Ireland's Taoiseach Enda Kenny and his wife Mrs. Fionnuala Kenny at the Naval Observatory on Tuesday, an annual tradition to mark St. Patrick's Day. This year's celebration is three days late, but that didn't stop the fun, though the Taoiseach arrived in weather suitable for Ireland: A downpour had just stopped. The Taoiseach headed to the White House to meet with President Obama after the event. (Above: The Taoiseach, the Vice President, and US Ambassador Dan Rooney)

"Look, the media have come early for you!" The Vice President said as Kenny and his wife alighted from their black SUV, pointing across the flower beds towards the press pool.

"We should do this every year, celebrate St Patrick's Day twice!" Biden said.

Inside the dining room, as the guests mingled, the Vice President said "You are proof of what my Grandmother said, that Irishmen would rather talk than eat!"

On the breakfast menu: Omelette with spinach, mushrooms, Gruyere cheese and tomatoes; Vermont Bacon; Country Potatoes, and Fresh Fruit. A selection of teas and coffee was served.

Guests included notable Irish Americans: Sen. Patrick Leahy; Sen. Susan Collins; Sen. Bob Casey and his wife Theresa; retired chairman of the Joint chiefs of staff Admiral Mike Mullen; the current Chair, General Martin Dempsey, and his wife, Deanie Dempsey; White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley; the President's counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan; Vicki Kennedy, the widow of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy; MSNBC journalists Lawrence O'Donnell, Chris Matthews and Mike Barnicle. Performing the blessing before the breakfast was Monsignor Richard O'Keeffe.

More from the pool report:

VPOTUS said POTUS often says he left Scranton, Pennsylvania for Wilmington, Delaware, "because of hard times". The real reason, VPOTUS said, was "because I was raised four blocks from Bob Casey and I knew as a young man that only one of us would make it out of Scranton," referring to Bob Casey Sr., father of current U.S. Senator Bob Casey Jr.

VPOTUS seems to have an inexhaustible supply of Irish sayings. "They say a man's always fortunate to have Irish friends. They're never above you. They're never below you," he said. "They're always beside you."

VPOTUS then recounted an old New Yorker cartoon, showing Pat and Mike having a pint in New York. "Don't you wish you were in a pub in Dublin, wishing you were in a pub in New York?" Pat says to Mike. The guests laughed again.

"Taoiseach, that's all you need to know about us American Irish," VPOTUS said. "Our families told us that we Irish are bound together by common values of family, courage and hope, always hope. We found ourselves in situations many times of needing hope."

Turning to the Taoiseach, VPOTUS Said, "The thing I love about you old buddy is you're always optimistic. You're always optimistic. That's the Irish."

VPOTUS then offered a toast. ("You're not supposed to do this with water," he noted.) "May you all look back on your past with as much pleasure as you look to the future."

The Taoiseach began by saying how much Ireland respects America "for what it does to keep our world a safer place." Gen Dempsey's people "came from less than two miles from where I live myself. I know the villages. I can see the cattle in the fields," he said to laughter.

The Taoiseach pivoted to his real message:

"The situation in Ireland has changed from just a year ago. We have turned a new direction. By decisiveness and clarity the governmnet have given a definition to the horizon and the implementation of our plans to deal with the public finance problems, play our part as European Union members, make the economies of Europe grow."

Mr. Kenny used the Irish word uaisle (nobility) to describe "the threads of the connection" between Ireland and America. "We are pleased with the returning confidence in our country. The deposits flow back into the banks... And clarity has now returned," he said. His government wants to seize "the opportunity around the world to harness all the abilities and potential of our people and weld it into a force that by 2016 (the 100th anniversary of the rising against the British) we will demonstrate we are the best small country in the world. We intend to prove that."

The Taoiseach mentioned reading about FDR's failed attempts to move Washington's cherry trees in a book he found in the presidential guest house, where he and Mrs. Kenny are staying.

"I sat down in Blair House yesterday; believe you me, it's a long way from where I came," he said.

VPOTUS had spoken of the 18th century Irish revolutionary Wolfe Tone during past meetings, Mr. Kenny said. "You said he embodied the most noble virtues. He was a Protestant who founded the United Irishmen. He had nothing to gain, but he sought to relieve the oppression of the Catholics. He gave his life for the principles of civil rights."

Mr. Kenny presented VPOTUS with a green leather bound copy of a letter that Wolfe Tone wrote to the French minister of war in 1796, saying he was returning to Ireland "to fight for my country." In the present re-election campaign, the Taoiseach suggested, "If you want to draw inspiration, just put your hand on this letter."

VPOTUS asked Monsignor Richard O'Keeffe, an Irish priest who has worked as a missionary in Arizona for more than 50 years, to say grace. Msgr O'Keeffe thanked the Taoiseach for bringing "some of the Irish mist" with him.

"If the Irish were able to overcome Cromwell and the potato famine, they can overcome anything," the priest said. After the obligatory prayer involving St/ Patrick and the Holy Trinity, Msgr. O'Keeffe offered what he called an Irish Catholic toast:

"May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you're dead."

*Pool was Lara Marlow, The Irish Times

*White House photo