Posted on 03/17/2017 3:55:33 PM PDT by Jyotishi
Photo -- US President Donald Trump speaks alongside Taoiseach of Ireland Enda Kenny (L) during a St. Patricks Day Reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, March 16, 2017. (AFP)
Saint Patrick is believed to have been born somewhere in Britain.
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny caused a stir at the White House on the eve of Saint Patrick's day on Friday, pointedly telling President Donald Trump that the festival is in honor of an immigrant.
Before a sea of green-clad revelers in the East Room of the White House last night, Kenny made a pointed reference to controversies over Trump's immigration policies, as the president looked on. "It's fitting that we gather here each year to celebrate St Patrick and his legacy. He, too, of course, was an immigrant," Kenny said.
The saint is believed to have been born somewhere in Britain. "And though he is, of course, the patron saint of Ireland, for many people around the globe, he is also a symbol of, indeed, the patron of immigrants," Kenny said.
Around 35 million Americans claim Irish ancestry, ensuring that successive presidents have put on a green tie and greeted the Irish prime minister -- or Taoiseach -- to the White House on or around Saint Patrick's day. Trump praised Ireland as "a truly great country" and the Irish as "tough."
"I know a lot about the Irish -- they fight. They're tough," he joked.
This year Saint Patrick's falls on the day that Trump's ban on refugees and migrants from six majority Muslim countries was due to have gone into effect. The ban was halted by a federal judge, but Trump has vowed to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court.
Kenny, amid controversy in Ireland over whether he should have met Trump at all, pressed his point further. "The Irish have contributed to the economic, social, political and cultural life of this great country over the last 200 years," Kenny said.
The Irish "came to America because, deprived of liberty, deprived of opportunity, of safety, of even food itself, the Irish believed, four decades before Lady Liberty lifted her lamp, we were the 'wretched refuse on the teeming shore','" Kenny said. "We believed in the shelter of America, and the compassion of America, and the opportunity of America. We came, and we became Americans."
So was Hitler.
In high school the kids used to say Saint Patrick was half Italian and half English. The part of England (Britain) that his family lived in was under Roman rule. So there was no Italy and there was no Ireland and no England, but it makes a nice joke.
Lol.
Some people have canned responses.
“He was an involuntary immigrant, as were most of the early slaves in this country.”
Great point.
I tell you, the people who, after the major division that has occurred in our nation over this issue, continue to insult legal immigrants by saying they are the same as illegal criminals need to be slapped so hard body parts fly off.
Was he now? Did he land at Dublin or Shannon, do you suppose?
When I was younger I would do that, but now I just remember the places I've been on March 17th, the people I was with and the fun we had...
It was fun pulling a few ‘leprechaun’ jokes today...something my family always enjoyed doing...
...
The saint is believed to have been born somewhere in Britain. "And though he is, of course, the patron saint of Ireland, for many people around the globe, he is also a symbol of, indeed, the patron of immigrants," Kenny said.
Technically, St. Patrick wasn't an immigrant. He was taken from Britain and brought to Ireland as a slave to herd and tend sheep. (See: St. Patrick)
Liberals. They talk out of both sides of their mouths with such ease.
Doughty. Stop letting the leftists dictate the terms we use.
There is no such thing as an 'illegal immigrant', nor is there any such thing as an 'undocumented immigrant'.
An immigrant is someone who's gone through the legal process to become either a resident alien or a naturalized citizen.
Someone who is here in the U.S. without going through the immigration process is an illegal alien.
Enda Kennedy is a man.
Seems you applied the idiot label without the requisite accuracy.
Ah....another country begging to be invaded by Muslims.
I wonder how eager the Muslims will be to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?
Brought as a slave, wasn’t he?
My husband and I were fussing today - he was wondering how St. Patrick was supposed to have gotten rid of the snakes. I told him that there never were snakes in Ireland, and he said ‘No Way’. So I had to figure out why/where I had learned that there are no snakes in Ireland. Found this, won argument - I think...:
http://www.rte.ie/tv/scope/SCOPE4_show03_snakes.html
Technically, he first came to, what later became Ireland, as a slave. Now, once he escaped and later was ordained as a Bishop, he returned to Ireland as an immigrant. But, at first he was a slave.
I want every illegal immigrant in the United States deported.
Stop letting the leftists dictate the terms we use.
There is no such thing as an 'illegal immigrant', nor is there any such thing as an 'undocumented immigrant'. These are contradictions in terms.
An immigrant is someone who's gone through the legal process to become either a resident alien or a naturalized citizen.
Someone who is here in the U.S. without going through the immigration process is an illegal alien and should be called as such.
Ha ha ha ha ha. The Irish Prime Minister is a jackass.
St. Patrick kidnapped from his native Britain by Irish pirates and then sold into slavery. He was a forced Irish slave, not an immigrant.
Well, at least he agrees with Dr. Ben Carson.
So what has that got to do with anything? Grow up and act like an adult.
So Ireland doesn’t have its own heros for their own Day?
Islam is a war plan. Kenny is an idiot.
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