It remains unclear whether Taoiseach Micheál Martin will travel to the US next month for the traditional St Patrick's Day trip to the White House as Covid-19 continues to cause havoc across the globe.
But the next meeting between the leaders of Ireland and the US is unlikely to be quite as awkward as former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's visit to Washington DC last year when then-US President Donald Trump made headlines after appearing to confuse Ireland with the UK.
Mr Varadkar's trip to the White House took place just days after Trump had announced a month-long ban on all travel from Europe to the United States in a bid to curb the further spread of coronavirus.
During his live speech on March 11 last year, Trump said: “To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days.
"These restrictions will also not apply to the United Kingdom.”
During his meeting with Mr Varadkar at the White House just two days later, Trump was asked to clarify if the Republic of Ireland was exempt from the travel ban.
But his response led to even more confusion as he claimed that Ireland was not included in the ban because they have “very strong borders”, seemingly forgetting that Ireland is not a part of the UK.
He said: “Well, they know, and I think it was made very clear last night who is and who isn’t [excluded in the travel ban]. "
Mr Varadkar interjected: "The president has excluded Ireland from the travel ban. And one of the things we have in Ireland is the CBP, American Border Security in Ireland.
"I went through it myself yesterday and they were asking the right questions, whether people had been to China and things like that so that puts it in a slightly different--"
Trump then interrupted Mr Varadkar to imply that Ireland and the UK are one and the same, telling reporters: "One of the reasons the UK, basically, has been.... it's got the border, it's got very strong borders, and they're doing a very good job.
"They don't have very much infection at this point and hopefully they'll keep it that way."
Last month, Micheál Martin said this year's trip to the White House for St Patrick’s Day is still on despite Covid-19.
In an interview with CNN, the Taoiseach said: "That’s an honoured tradition in the relationship between Ireland and the United States.
“Obviously Covid may have an impact on that, so our officials will engage and we’ll do what’s safe and what’s best, but I do think both of us are very keen to cement that very historic relationship between the United States of America and Ireland which goes back through the ages.”
