The Green & White House

- Blurb -

The links between Ireland and the Presidents of the United States of America go a lot further and deeper than JFK. From President Andrew Jackson in 1829 to President Joe Biden in 2021, Ireland has had a hugely significant influence in the White House. Some of that influence has been direct, some more oblique, but the story of this continuing bond between these two nations is both fascinating and entertaining. THE GREEN & WHITE HOUSE takes an affectionate and wry look at the special relationship this tiny nation of less than six million people has with the greatest superpower in the world. The diplomatic bromance between the US and Ireland has seen a steady stream of American commanders-in-chief touching down in military helicopters in remote Irish villages over the last century. Their long-lost relatives crossed the Atlantic by boat but their Presidential descendants returned in Air Force One and armoured limousines flanked by secret servicemen. And these visits have produced a wealth of brilliant stories, like the high-tech phones installed in a cemetery, the Aran jumper knitted for President Reagan which was treated like a hostile device, and the FBI anti-personnel nets in the Mayo river that failed to catch any would-be assassins but produced a bumper catch of salmon for the locals. Then there' s the US secret serviceman who mislaid his machine gun and found it being passed around an excited crowd, and Henry Kissinger' s high-level Vietnam peace talks in a Limerick dairy farm. Each Presidential visit has had the world' s media in a frenzy and turned local people into media darlings. The homecomings of the prodigal Presidents are all conducted with a twinkle in the eyes of both parties. And this cross-Atlantic courtship, forged over family trees, has helped secure Ireland the status as the only country in the world with a standing annual invitation to the White House - something no other nation on Earth can rival.