[caption id="attachment_70464" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="The taoiseach meets with Rep. Peter King, chairman of the house Homeland Security Committee. "]
This is an edited version of a pool report filed Tuesday by Lara Marlowe, Washington correspondent for the Irish Times
Vice President Joe Biden awaited the arrival of Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Mrs. Fionnuala Kenny on the porch of his residence at the Naval Observatory.
"Look, the media have come early for you!" he said as the Irish 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!" VPOTUS said.
Inside the dining room, Biden told guests, "You are proof of what my grandmother said, that Irishmen would rather talk than eat."
Guests included Senator Patrick Leahy who sat to the right of the Taoiseach with Biden to his left. Vicki Kennedy, the widow of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, sat next to Sen. Leahy.
Sitting at a table near biden was recently retired chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. The current chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, attended with his wife.
The former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley was seen leaving just before the breakfast started, though he may have returned. The President's counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan, whose parents were born in Ireland, was there.
Other guests included Senator Susan Collins from Maine, Senator Bob Casey and his wife Theresa, MSNBC journalists Lawrence O'Donnell, Chris Matthews and Mike Barnicle.
Vice President Biden said heoften says he left Scranton, Pennsylvania for Wilmington, Delaware, "because of hard times."
The real reason, he 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.
Biden 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."
Biden 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," Biden 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, Biden said,"The thing I love about you old buddy is you're always optimistic. You're always optimistic. That's the Irish."
The Taoiseach began by saying how much Ireland respects America "for what it does to keep our world a safer place."
General 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 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.
Vice President Biden 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 Biden 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."
Biden 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.
