"The list of potential tripwires to disaster was lengthy and, to Martin’s officials, terrifying.
I have never seen such obvious stress as I saw on the faces of Geraldine Byrne-Nason, the Irish Ambassador in Washington; John Callinan, Martin’s most senior civil servant; and Deirdre Gillane, his chief of staff, as they sat on the Oval Office couch praying for the ordeal to end. I have never seen such relief afterwards."
These words, penned by Pat Leahy in the Irish Times, pretty much summed up the March 12 Oval Office meeting between Taoiseach Micheál Martin and President Trump.
That was then, this is now, and April is just days away. The third month of the year is an annual opportunity for Ireland to stand up and stand out.
The fourth month of 2025 will be a month for Ireland to lie as low as possible.
But try as Ireland might, it likely won't be low enough.
As Leahy wrote in a separate article: "US secretary of commerce Howard Lutnick has renewed his attack on Ireland, calling the country his favourite 'tax scam.'
"Mr Lutnick said Ireland has all of the US multinational technological and pharmaceutical intellectual property (IP) rights and this deprives the United States of tax revenue.
“'That’s gotta end,' he told the All-In podcast, aimed at venture capitalists in Washington DC.
"Mr Lutnick erroneously claimed that Ireland had a $60 billion (€55.4 billion) surplus last year. In fact the budget surplus was €25 billion ($27 billion), which included a once-off €14 billion Apple payment."
Oh well, never let facts get in the way of a good rant.
Regardless, the opening days of April might well be remembered less for the arrival of a true Irish spring than as the first signs of an economic winter.
April 2 is the designated day for the imposition of widespread tariffs though the Trump adimintration, at the beginning of this week, seemed to be hedging a bit on what it might impose.
The administration has identified a so-called "dirty 15" - a group of countries which it feels has dealt especially unfairly with the U.S. when it comes to trade.
Ireland, it is widely felt, is on this list. Lutnick, former chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, has pointed his finger at what he calls the Irish "tax scam."
Sure, Irish corporate tax policies have been widely viewed in recent years as leaning heavily towards attracting corporations, mostly American ones, to set up operations in Ireland and use the Republic as an entry point into the European Union, an entity which President Trump states was set up to screw the United States.
But these corporations were not kidnapped by fast talking Irish politicians.
They made their own decisions, and from their perspectives, smart ones. In another context President Trump would probably admire these moves.
But that would be Trump the businessman. In the political sphere, Trump is a master of grievance politics, both in the domestic sense and, in this instance, the international.
So America the victim will be right up there in lights as the expected trade tariffs are slapped down on the offending nations in those opening days of April.
One can only imagine what the financial advice being offered by Cantor Fitzgerald to its clients will be in the face of this impending assault on the Irish economy.
That would be the Cantor Fitzgerald office in Dublin.
