Tone down the St. Patrick’s Day ‘stage Irish,’ PM tells Australia’s Abbott

It’s a day when political leaders the world over don green and get in the Irish spirit – but Ireland’s Prime Minister thinks his Australian counterpart might be overdoing it a little.

In his St. Patrick’s Day message, posted to YouTube two weeks ago, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, waving his green tie for the camera, spoke about how he was “sorry I can’t be there to share a Guinness, or two, or maybe even three.”

Mr. Abbott’s Defence Minister, Kevin Andrews, doubled down on the Guinness references with a tweet on Monday.

But Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, speaking in Washington ahead of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations there, was not amused by the implied connection between Irishness and alcoholism and criticized “stage Irish” stereotypes abroad.

“I’ve heard the prime minister’s comments. He made them. I don’t agree with that,” the Irish Independent quoted Mr. Kenny as saying. “I think that it is perfectly in order for so many Irish people in Australia to have an enjoyable celebration of St Patrick’s Day and St Patrick’s week, and to do so in a thoroughly responsible fashion.”

In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama played host to Mr. Kenny, known in Ireland as the Taoiseach, on Tuesday for their yearly St. Patrick’s Day meeting, then accompanied him to the annual Friends of Ireland luncheon at the Capitol. Mr. Obama donned green for the occasion.

What’s tinted green today

Few eyes are smiling in Belfast

While Mr. Kenny and his cabinet have travelled abroad for days promoting Ireland ahead of its national holiday, their Northern Irish counterparts are staying at home to stave off a political crisis – one that threatens the eight-year-old governing coalition of British Protestants and Irish Catholics.

First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness spent Monday leading their parties in Belfast negotiations. Mr. Robinson’s Democratic Unionists represent most Protestants, Mr. McGuinness’s Sinn Fein most Catholics. Both parties said they were making unspecified progress in a process that, should it fail, would likely trigger early elections.

The crisis stems from a surprise policy U-turn from Sinn Fein, which just before Christmas backed a compromise plan to cut welfare benefits, ending a budget dispute that had eroded the Northern Ireland government’s ability to function. Publicly supportive of that deal, Sinn Fein last week stunned the Protestant side of the house by withdrawing support hours before a critical legislative vote on the cuts.

While the White House has been hosting Northern Ireland leaders each St. Patrick’s Day since the mid-1990s heyday of peacemaking, this time officials in the Obama administration sent a stern message to Belfast: Mr. Robinson and Mr. McGuinness should stay home unless they could come to Washington with a firm new agreement in place.

Sinn Fein under fire

Mr. Kenny, while travelling over the weekend in Georgia and Texas, called on Sinn Fein to come clean about its involvement in shielding scores of perpetrators of rape and other crimes, including those committed during decades of IRA violence.

Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams, also on the White House guest list for Tuesday, has accused Kenny of seeking to smear his reputation in advance of Republic of Ireland elections expected in 2016. Mr. Adams today is an opposition lawmaker in the Republic of Ireland where his party is rising high in opinion polls and aiming to take part in the next government.

Adams had sharp words Monday for the U.S. government after his plans to meet State Department officials fell through in disputed circumstances. Adams, in New York, said he wanted a meeting but was being denied one and called the State Department decision “bizarre.”

His criticism appeared to get results as, hours later, Sinn Fein announced that Adams would meet a senior State Department official Tuesday.