The Shamrock Summit (1985)

This Day in Esoteric Political History

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2024

⏱️ 17 minutes

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Summary

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! It’s March 16th. This day in 1985, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney met for what came to be known as “The Shamrock Summit,” which started to repair frayed relations between the two countries.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why a shared Irish heritage became the focal point for the meeting, and how a little singing and drinking probably helped as well.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.
0:07.0	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:11.0	This day, March 17, 1985, U.S. President Ronald Reagan arrives to meet Canadian Prime Minister
0:17.9	Brian Mulroney in Quebec City.
0:20.4	Now, this came to be known, this meeting between the two, as the Shamrock Summit.
0:25.0	They both had Irish backgrounds and they did start the meeting on St. Patrick's Day.
0:29.0	But before I continue with the intro, I just want to lodge a formal complaint with the historical
0:33.6	event naming committee because the Shamrock Summit is like really confusing to me.
0:38.6	It like should include something actually Irish or be in Ireland in some concrete way I do find it confusing
0:45.8	the Shamrock Summit was a meeting between the US president and the Canadian
0:49.3	Prime Minister in Canada that said it's a very interesting moment because they do meet at a moment when
0:55.1	relations between the two countries are a little shakier than they had been in the past,
1:00.0	and I will say that the whole Irish thing did kind of help with the vibes of the meeting which we will get into so
1:05.6	Let's go to Quebec City. It's St. Patrick's Day here we are at the shamrock summit and here as always
1:11.7	Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of
1:14.3	Wellesley hello there happy St. Patrick's Day hey there so I don't know do we
1:20.6	get to call this an Irish event everyone seems to just sort of take that on face value.
1:24.2	No.
1:25.2	No.
1:26.2	I mean, even in like a diaspora sense, I'm not convinced that Ronald Reagan is Irish.
1:34.0	No, I mean, listen, his, when you trace his ancestry,
1:38.0	his paternal great-grandfather was Irish Catholic.
	...

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