Irish Times columnist Miriam Lord this week delivered a scathing verdict about Vice President Mike Pence's visit to her country.
In her latest column, Lord slammed Pence for heaping praise upon British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and for delivering a strong endorsement of the U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union that is putting peace agreements in Northern Ireland in jeopardy.
All told, Lord described Pence's visit as being "like pulling out all the stops for a much-anticipated visitor to your home and thinking it has been a great success until somebody discovers he shat on the new carpet in the spare room, the one you bought specially for him."
Lord then gleefully recounted the reactions of President Michael D. Higgins and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who were forced to sit through Pence's full-throated endorsement of Brexit with pained smiles on their faces.
"Varadkar’s expression didn’t change," she wrote. "He stood on the platform beside the vice-president and hardly flinched, smiling politely. Even when Pence made it worse by not only mentioning 'good faith' and 'Boris Johnson' in the same context but by also requesting his hosts to have 'respect for the UK’s sovereignty,' Varadkar maintained a stoic courtesy... But for all that, Michael D’s sprayed-on smile when the US vice-president came to visit him in Áras an Uachtaráin was a joy to behold."
