Mr Abbott displayed a careless lack of judgement.

Over the past month, the Irish Echo has noted a number of negative references to Ireland and the Irish in Australia.

Representations of the Irish as stupid or as hopeless drunks  are, sadly, the slings and arrows that we must suffer from those who know no better. But when they turn up in one of Australia’s quality newspapers – The Sydney Morning Herald – and on the lips of Australia’s would-be prime minister, Tony Abbott, it is time to speak up and speak out.

We also saw last week a clumsy reference to Bloody Sunday by a Liberal frontbencher and, just recently, we heard a well-known senator chastise Irish-born head of Qantas Alan Joyce as “an Irish bomber”.

All of this might sound like England in the 1960s rather than Australia in 2011 but, sadly, it seems that a lack of sensitivity is still much in evidence.

It seems that it did not even occur to Tony Abbott that cracking a “stupid Irish” joke at the Liberal Party conference would cause offence. No malice intended, he, or rather someone in his office, evidently told the Irish Embassy after the ambassador issued a “please explain”.

But imagine if Labour’s Ed Milliband in Britain had said what Mr Abbott said.

It would not have occurred. Why? Because Irish jokes are simply no longer acceptable in British public life or commentary.

Years of putting up with Paddy and Mick put-downs from odious comedians like Bernard Manning and his ilk led to a backlash among the Irish in England. Enough was enough.

No British politician – perhaps except those belonging to the extreme right – would dare to enter this prejudicial minefield now.

The question of why the Irish are still considered fair game is one to reflect on and, perhaps, goes to the heart of the unique cultural circumstances of the Irish in Australia.

The concept of the Irish as ethnic is a source of hilarity to many Aussies who associate the term with those who arrived here after the second World War. The Irish are part of the Australian DNA so, as a community, we are supposed to be able to cop it sweet. You have to be prepared to put up with this sort of “banter” here. It’s the Australian way.

But those who decry political correctness are often those who believe it is also their right to be offensive.

Imagine if Tony Abbott had told a Jewish joke at the Liberal conference, or Senator Bill Heffernan had referred to someone of Arabic background as a “bomber” or if a frontbencher had made a clumsy reference to the Holocaust to describe a new tax.

There would be a political price to pay, or at least the perception of a political price to pay. No such inhibitions with Irish jokes.

Mr Abbott – who was born in England and is a dedicated monarchist – has shown not only a lack of sensitivity here. As someone who aspires to be prime minister, he has displayed a careless lack of judgement.

Perhaps he has Irish acquaintances who are content to take such slurs on the chin but every community has its Uncle Toms.

There are those who will dismiss this commentary as nothing more than over-sensitivity. What happened to the renowned Irish sense of humour, they might ask.

An underpinning of respect allows some latitude, but there is little evidence of respect here, only ham-fisted buffoonery.

Coming off the back of Mr Abbott’s peculiar, bumbling speech at the Lansdowne Club on St Patrick’s Day, it is clear that the Liberal leader needs to recalibrate his understanding of Irishness.

As a community, we should perhaps treat such idiocy with disdain as opposed to anger. Rise above it. But the message does not seem to be getting through that we don’t like it.

Representations of the Irish as idiots emerged from elements of the British press in the 18th century at a time when Westminster government policy was denying ordinary Irish people an education and creating the circumstances for a famine that would claim more than one million Irish lives. Apart from Britain, the only other country where Irish jokes endure is here in Australia.

It is time they stopped.

Ill-judged: Mr Abbott's remark was poorly received among the Irish community.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott has come under fire for telling an Irish joke during a recent speech.

Speaking to the Liberal Party faithful on June 25, Mr Abbott said that the Gillard Government “was a bit like the Irishman who lost 10 pounds betting on the Grand National and then lost 20 pounds on the action replay”.

The Embassy of Ireland in Canberra subsequently complained about the remark.

Following this, the Irish Echo understands that Mr Abbott’s office contacted the Embassy to express “regret”.

A spokesperson for Mr Abbott said the Opposition leader would not go into a discussion on the matter.

“The matter has been settled with the Embassy directly,” he told the Irish Echo.

But the remark is still up on Mr Abbott’s website.

Leading members of the Irish community in Australia have roundly criticised Mr Abbott’s words.

Prof Ronan McDonald, Chair in Modern Irish Studies at the University of New South Wales, said it was an an error of judgement.

“The ‘stupid Irish’ joke might get a laugh in a Bradford comedy club circa 1973, but seems astoundingly ill-judged coming from an aspiring world leader in 2011,” Prof McDonald said.

“Maybe Tony Abbott should employ some of the recent Irish arrivals to write some of his speeches in future. They could probably do with the work. And he could definitely do with the help,” he added.

Former Australian of the Year, Professor Patrick McGorry, was also critical of the joke. The Dublin-born mental health advocate said Mr Abbott’s remarks reflected poorly upon him.

“I grew up with Irish jokes. They always reflected poorly on the perpetrator. [It] weakens the core argument too,” he said.

In February, New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg apologised to the city’s Irish-American community after he told the American Irish Historical Society that when walking by its building he often sees “a bunch of people that are totally inebriated”.

Prime Minister Gillard with visiting Irish Minister Frances Fitzgerald. (Pic: Nadean Brennan)

The Prime Minister has paid tribute to the “empire of song and story” built by the Irish in Australia.

In what was the first appearance by a serving Australian Prime Minister at the Lansdowne Club’s St Patrick’s Day lunch – an annual gathering of over a thousand Irish Australians – Ms Gillard acknowledged Ireland had been “doing it tough” recently.

She told a crowd who had gathered to mark St Patrick’s Day, and the 25th anniversary of Australia’s largest Irish network, that Australia was looking forward to Fine Gael and Labour offering the country a fresh start.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, NSW Premier Kristina Keneally, NSW Liberal Leader Barry O’Farrell and Ireland’s Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald, also addressed the gathering.

Ms Gillard said that the real legacy of the Irish in Australia was characterised by education, hard work and respect.

“The Irish landed just a few miles east of here. They landed in chains. Yes, they brought a song and a smile and a tear, and “drinking, praying, fecklessness” – all that malarkey,” said the Prime Minister.

“But we know you a bit better than that. We know what really happened. Our Irish worked. And they taught their kids. And I don’t see too many chains in the room today.”

The Prime Minister also paid tribute to an “empire of song and story” and to the contribution the Irish had made to education in Australia.

“People have made the point before me – these kinds of Irish people and these kinds of Irish values were how Irish emigration created a kind of Irish empire.

“Not like the empire that the Romans or the British built, but an empire nevertheless – an empire of song and story; an empire of education.

“The Roman Empire’s strongholds were its legions. The British Empire’s strongholds were its ships. The Irish Empire’s strongholds are its schools, the thousands of them in Australia today; St Mary’s, St Joseph’s, St Edmund’s, St Pat’ – the strongholds of the Irish empire.”

In a speech that focused strongly on Irish Catholicism, Mr Abbott joked about the Coalition’s opposition to Labor’s planned price on carbon.

“I’m afraid my own ecclesiastical namesake, St Anthony Abbot, was a rich merchant who gave away all his worldly possessions to live on a desert mountain top, clad in skins and living on locusts and wild honey,” said Mr Abbott.

“According to St Athanasius, the devil fought with St Anthony by afflicting him with boredom, laziness and fantasies of women, and I thought to myself, this is what happens when you try to live with the lowest possible carbon footprint.”

The Lansdowne Club presented its chairman, Peter Brennan, with a specially made trophy to mark his 25-year involvement.

With a New South Wales State election just days away, the lunch hosted some verbal jousting between Ms Keneally and Mr O’Farrell

The NSW State Opposition Leader said politicians have always had an affinity with St Patrick’s Day.

“There’s a reason why St Pat’s Day and politicians go hand in hand.

“St Patrick had the first example of spin ever seen in the world. If you believe he drove the snakes from Ireland you would believe Labor’s election promises,” said Mr O’Farrell.

Mr O’Farrell’s Liberal Party is well ahead of Labor in polling for the New South Wales election, to take place on March 26.

Premier Kenneally, his opponent, told the crowd that “with a Keneally going up against an O’Farrell in this election, the only certain winner in New South Wales on March 26 will be the Irish.”

Read the Prime Minister’s full speech here and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s full speech here.

By Luke O’Neill

Speech by Federal Opposition leader Tony Abbott, MP, delivered at the Lansdowne Club Lunch, Sydney, on Thursday, March 17, 2011.

“Well ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much. Fittingly at this rugby-oriented dinner my only connection with Ireland is through sport. I was with the Sydney University rugby team and the lineout throw depended on the recognition of the letter ‘T’ at the start of the word called. ‘Tchaikovsky’, I called.

There was complete chaos in the lineout, complete chaos, and I think it was the Guinness that made me do it.

But ladies and gentlemen it is a real honour to attend this splendid feast honouring Saint Patrick and the contribution of Irish people and the Catholic faith to Australia.

I acknowledge my brother leader of the opposition Barry O’Farrell. I acknowledge the Premier and the Prime Minister, and it’s good to see the Prime Minister wearing green without any prompting from Bob Brown.

Last night in Adelaide the Prime Minister said of herself “I will put our nation first every time, no matter what the personal price. Faced with hurdles, I will always find a way through” and naturally I was reminded of our Catholic faith by this statement. She’s obviously drawn inspiration from Saint Julia, her ecclesiastical namesake.

The historians tell us that Saint Julia was a woman of faith who suffered defilement of the hair, flogging and crucifixion. But she never became a denier, she never became a denier of her Catholic faith that is.

And Saint Christina, the Premier’s ecclesiastical namesake, also did it tough. She was tortured, so the historians tell us, by iron hooks, grilling by fire, assaults by snakes and drowning tied to a millstone, which sounds easy enough compared with facing the wrath of voters here in New South Wales.

But ladies and gentlemen, I’m afraid my own ecclesiastical namesake, Saint Anthony Abbot, was a rich merchant who gave away all his worldly possessions to live on a desert mountain top, clad in skins and living on locusts and wild honey.

According to Saint Athanasius, the devil fought with Saint Anthony by afflicting him with boredom, laziness and fantasies of women, and I thought to myself this is what happens when you try to live with the lowest possible carbon footprint.

But turning now to the Leader of the Opposition, the other leader of the opposition. So far, I regret to say there has never been an acknowledged Saint Barry. Nowhere in the canon is there an acknowledged Saint Barry. But I can say this, Barry, canonisation awaits you, depending on the results of the 26^th of March.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a marvellous day. It’s a marvellous opportunity, as I said, to celebrate the contribution of Ireland and its faith to our education, to our health, to our politics and to our culture.

I think we should all enjoy St Patrick’s Day, celebrate all things Irish. But there is one thing we must remember on a day such as this — work is the curse of the drinking classes.

Thank you so much.”

Read Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s speech to the Lansdowne Club HERE.

Recent recommendations to the Government have suggested slashing the country's immigration intake.

With a federal election due in Australia before the year is out, immigration is shaping up as one of the major issues of the campaign as talk of massive cuts to the current scheme loom ominously on the horizon.

Currently, Australia takes in around 300,000 immigrants per year, but new advice given to the federal government recently recommends that this figure should be drastically reduced to 180,000 a year.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is on record as supporting what he termed a “big Australia”, but if the advice is followed it would likely lead to a huge drop in the number of Irish people allowed to emigrate to Australia.

The number coming from Ireland has steadily increased in recent years due to the recession there and the fact that Australia has escaped the worst ravages of the global financial crisis.

In the year to the end of June 2009, 2,501 Irish people got residence visas for Australia, up from 1,989 in the previous 12 months. Many of these are 457 visas issued for specific skills in demand, such as information technology and engineering.

The increase in one-year Working Holiday Visas in this period was even more dramatic. The number issued to Irish people aged 18 to 30 rose to 22,788, from 17,120 the previous year.

The Australian Financial Review has reported that the advice given to the Government is part of a push to exercise more control over the number of people coming to Australia outside the formal migration procedures. This includes 457 and student visas.

Liberal party leader Tony Abbott says he is opposed to the current situation in which Australia’s population is expected to reach 36 million by 2050. Australia’s current population is 22.3 million and is increasing by one person every 1 minute and 10 seconds.

The opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said that if the Liberals win the election later this year they will slash immigrant numbers.

There is support for this move from the public. A national survey taken by the Lowy Institute shows that while 72 per cent supported a rise in Australia’s population, 69 per cent want it limited to 30 million or fewer.

However, following concerted criticism by business organisations, and from some within his own party, Morrison played down his earlier comments. “If there is an interpretation out there that this is a wholesale policy, it’s not a wholesale policy,” he said.

Heather Ridout of the Australian Industry Group said population growth does not need to be curbed. “If we are going to make that choice to restrict migrants, over the years we are going to have to pay higher taxes to support an ageing population,” she said.

The managing director of the Australian Tourism Export Council, Matthew Hingerty, said “the service economy would grind to a standstill without backpackers and 457s”.

by Pádraig Collins

Opposition leader Tony Abbott addresses the crowd at the QIA St Patrick's Eve Dinner on March 16.

The mood was celebratory but the tone was distinctly irreverent as the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the man who wants his job, Liberal leader Tony Abbott went head-to-head at the Queensland Irish Association’s St Patrick’s Eve Dinner.

Mr Rudd, clearly enjoying the boisterous mood at Australia’s oldest Irish function, flagged some new policies aimed at attracting the Irish vote at this year’s federal election.

“I asked my department to provide the Cabinet with some options for boosting St Patrick’s Day celebrations.

“They came up with three. Option one – making the new national anthem It’s A Long Way To Tipperary.

“Option two – replacing the AFL, and rugby league and rugby union with Gaelic Football as the national football code – or option three, my personal preference, opening up the Lodge to all Irish Australians for St Patrick’s Day, with an open bar and Guinness on tap. And so it shall be if we see the re-election of the Rudd Government.”

In a good-natured war of words with his political nemesis, Mr Rudd fired the first salvo when he revealed, tongue firmly in cheek, that his “Irish namesake” St Kevin of Glendalough was “an abbot”.

“He wasn’t a mad abbot,” the PM teased. “He was a run-of-the-mill abbot, given to long boring sermons and moral crusades against the lasciviously short loin cloths of the sixth century.

“His one great virtue was that he was attributed with many extravagant miracles – including steering his monastery through the global financial crisis of 578 AD.”

The remarks set the tone for a night of barbs and verbal potshots between Australia’s political heavyweights, each one cheered on by the 500 in attendance.

Mr Rudd reminded the gathering that his grandmother Hannah Cashin was born on the Tweed River in 1892, the daughter of Irish parents who had migrated from the small parish of Ballingarry in Co Tipperary.

His family, he said, “had  links to the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848 – having come from the town where the national tricolour of green, white and orange was first unfurled”.

“No,” the PM sneered, “I’m not asking Tony to discuss his views, as an ardent monarchist, on the actions of the British Crown against a nascent Irish republican movement.”

The point was not lost on the  mainly Irish Australian gathering which, ironically, toasted the Queen until a philosophical overhaul in the 1990s.

Mr Abbott took aim at the Prime Minister in response, claiming that he was trying to look “more Queensland and more Catholic” while he was trying to look “less Catholic”.

The new leader of the Opposition said that he admired St Patrick for his simple philosophy or “don’t worry, have faith and pray” which, he said was “very similar to the Coalition’s political strategy over the next 12 months.”

Mr Abbott said he always felt a “teensy weensy ambivalent about St Patrick because he got rid of the snakes from Ireland.

“If he ever showed up in Canberra, a lot of us would be out of a gig,” he said.

by Billy Cantwell

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd addresses the crowd at the Queensland Irish Association Dinner in Brisbane on March 16.

Speech by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, MP, delivered at the Queensland Irish Association St Patrick’s Eve Dinner, Brisbane, on Tuesday, March 16.

“[QIA club president] Eamon [Gaffney] said a couple of weeks ago that there’s no place for politics at a dinner like this. And of course he’s right.

But in my experience, packing 500 people of Irish extraction into a dining hall like this and offering to quench their thirst with a glass or seven of Guinness is the first step towards fomenting political insurrection.

Politics and the Irish go together like leprechauns and rainbows.

So in a warm spirit of non-partisan Irish hospitality, let me welcome my political opponent Tony Abbott to Queensland.

This time last year, I mentioned my namesake, St Kevin of Glendalough who lived in 6th century Ireland.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the works of this great saint, I can let you in on a little secret. St Kevin was in fact an abbott. He wasn’t a mad abbott.

He was a run-of-the-mill abbott, given to long boring sermons and moral crusades against the lasciviously short loin cloths of the sixth century.

St Kevin in fact lived in a cave as a hermit for seven years – nothing compared to my ten long years in opposition.

His one great virtue was that he was attributed with many extravagant miracles – including steering his monastery through the global financial crisis of 578 AD.

He also held back wave after wave of unauthorised people movements of the latter 6th century, otherwise known as the Anglo-Saxons and Jutes.
St Anthony, on the other hand, was not Irish.

He was born in Portugal, lived in Italy and preached throughout Europe.
He was a seriously multicultural 13th century type.

St Anthony was trained as an Augustinian. Be careful, Tony – Martin Luther also began life as an Augustinian.

In fact St Anthony was a man of shifting allegiances – later becoming a Franciscan.

St Anthony is now best known as the patron saint of lost things. To be theologically correct, lost things probably doesn’t extend to lost causes.

For that we must turn to St Jude. And to be equally correct, St Anthony was canonised in record time – a mere 12 months after his passing, a testament to his virtue.

St Kevin on the other hand had to wait 1300 years. Whether that says something about their namesakes in 21st century Australian politics, I’ll leave you to judge. But I digress.

One year ago, when I spoke to this gathering, I mentioned my Irish grandmother.

Hannah Cashin was born on the Tweed River in 1892.

She was the daughter of Irish parents who had migrated from the small parish of Ballingarry in County Tipperary. I confessed to a few family secrets.

Like my family’s links to the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848 – having come from the town where the national tricolour of green, white and orange was first unfurled.

And I owned up to my family’s involvement in a long-running factional fight that raged across Tipperary in the 19th century, between the Shanavests and the Caravets.

There’s even a whisper that Hannah Cashin’s grandfather may have been the same William Cashin killed by the blow of a stone to his forehead in the great factional fight of 1838.

Which is probably why my forebears felt at home in the Australian Labor Party after they arrived on these shores.

But now that I’ve come clean about my own past – there’s a matter of history that Tony needs to clear up.

No, I’m not asking Tony to discuss his views, as an ardent monarchist, on the actions of the British Crown against a nascent Irish republican movement.

I’m referring to an historic document that I have with me on the podium tonight.

It lists the names of the men and women transported to Australia on the Second Fleet in 1790.

It inscribes the name of my paternal forebear Thomas Rudd – from the thieving English side of my ancestry, as opposed to the revolutionary Irish side.

Thomas nicked a pair of shoes and got seven years in Australia. He served his time.

He then returned to England – only to reoffend in 1799, and get transported to Australia for a second time, and for another seven years.

Getting transported to Australia twice for thieving reflected a prodigious talent. And a worthy professional preparation for politics.

But I digress. The question raised by this Second Fleet passenger list concerns another passenger.

On the same vessel to Australia that transported Thomas Rudd was another passenger by the name of: William Abbott – from Norfolk. The question I have is, does Billy Abbott bear any ancestral relationship to Tony Abbott? And what was his offence?

And did the forebears of Rudd and Abbott ever cross each other on the high seas – burdening future generations of Rudds and Abbotts with a score to be settled that would finally be fought out on the national stage more than two centuries later?

But as Eamon has said, a Queensland Irish Association event like tonight’s is no time for politics. Especially not in an election year. So I won’t be making any policy announcements tonight.

Although, this being an election year I asked my department to provide the Cabinet with some options for boosting St Patrick’s Day celebrations.
They came up with three.

Option one – making the new national anthem It’s A Long Way to Tipperary.

Option two – replacing the AFL, and rugby league and rugby union with Gaelic Football as the national football code.

Option three – my personal preference – opening up the Lodge to all Irish  Australians for St Patrick’s Day, with an open bar and Guinness on tap.

And so it shall be if we see the re-election of the Rudd Government. A few comments of a more serious nature.

As we know, Ireland isn’t exactly the world’s largest nation. But it’s hard to think of a national day celebrated with such spirit and enthusiasm anywhere in the world.

And two million of our 22 million Australians claim Irish ancestry. This reflects the vast reach of the Irish diaspora. And the enduring power of Irish culture and identity.

But that’s Ireland – small nation, with big hearts and a grand character. The course of our nation’s history was profoundly influenced by Irish migrants and their progeny – the Ned Kellys, James Scullins, Ben Chifleys and Paul Keatings.

Including those who, in the words of Chifley, shone their light on a hill. As well as by less well-known Australians of Irish descent.

Those who we might say, followed the old Irish folk custom of putting a candle in a darkened window, to guide the way of strangers.

People who, one by one, helped build our national character as Australians. The larrikin humour. The rebellious character. The deep suspicion of authority. The warm hospitality. What became for us mateship.

And the deep, deep instinct to defend the underdog. Great Irish traits – traits that we can all celebrate.

That’s why I’m delighted to announce a very special celebration.

On St Patrick’s Day next year, the National Museum of Australia will open the most comprehensive exhibition ever on the Irish in Australia.

It will celebrate all aspects of the Irish contribution to Australia.

Its time span will extend from the Irish who came on the First Fleet, to the thousands of Irish backpackers who visit Australia every year.

It will be a generous and scholarly exhibition, with hundreds of exhibits from every state in Australia and from Ireland and the United States.

Many of those items have never been on display before.

The National Museum tells me that no country has ever had an exhibition on this scale, celebrating the contribution of the Irish diaspora.

The exhibition should attract interest from all across the world, and I expect it to be seen by tens of thousands of Australians before the National Museum takes the exhibition to Ireland later in 2011.

And in June this year, ahead of next year’s exhibition, the National Museum of Australia will be publishing a book to celebrate the stories of Irish Australians – suitably titled Sinners, Saints and Settlers.

Friends, the first occasion when the Queensland Irish Association’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations were held here in Tara House was 1928.
The Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, James Duhig, great friend of Labor Premiers T.J. Ryan and Red Ted Theodore – spoke on that occasion of his great pride as an Irish Australian.

His pride in the history, the culture and the values that came with being Australian of Irish descent.

But more than all of that, he spoke of his belief that God had given a diversity of gifts to different peoples throughout the world. And he spoke of Australia’s special opportunity.

‘Never in the history of the world’, Archbishop Duhig said, ‘had any nation had such a great opportunity for combining these diverse gifts of different cultures’.

He spoke of the combination of the Irish, the English, the Welsh, the French, the Germans, Italians and the Danes.

Eighty years and three generations later, Archbishop Duhig’s words still ring true.

Ours is a culture today more greatly enriched by the gifts of cultures from every part of the world.

And no nation has a greater opportunity than does Australia, to bring together, in harmony, those different cultures – to build something far greater than the sum of its parts. Australia is a young nation.

Our future offers extraordinary opportunity. And no people have made a greater contribution to our history, character and identity than the children of St Patrick.

So on the eve of St Patrick’s Day, we celebrate Ireland.

And we celebrate Ireland’s contribution to the great nation that we all cherish – Australia.

So tonight I propose a toast – to Australia.”

See also Victorian Premier John Brumby’s IACC Breakfast speech :: Wednesday, March 17

And NSW Premier Kristina Keneally’s Lansdowne Club speech :: March 19, 2010

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, pictured at least year's St Patrick's Eve Dinner in Brisbane with QIA president Eamon Gaffney and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, will appear again at this year's dinner on March 16 along with opposition leader Tony Abbott.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and opposition leader Tony Abbott will be the guests of honour at the Queensland Irish Association’s (QIA) St Patrick’s Eve Dinner in Brisbane on Tuesday, March 16, it has been revealed.

The country’s two leading politicians will attend the event in what is a major coup for the club, while visiting Irish Government minister Billy Kelleher will also be on hand.

This will be the second year in a row that Mr Rudd will appear at the QIA dinner, having spoken at length about his own Irish background at last year’s event.

QIA president Eamon Gaffney told the Echo that the club is delighted to be playing host to both Mr Rudd and leader of the opposition Mr Abbott.

“It really is a feather in the Irish community’s cap to have the Prime Minister come to us two years in a row,” Mr Gaffney said.

“And to have Tony Abbott come too is really great. This is the first time in quite some time that we will have both sides from national politics at the event.

“It’s a bit like America really – the Irish vote is quite important to them. Not that this will be a political venue for either of them – we keep politics out of it at the St Patrick’s Eve dinner.”

by Isabel Hayes