IRELAND’S AMBASSADOR to the US has paid tribute to incoming US President Joe Biden with an emotional reading of a classic WB Yeats poem.
Daniel Mulhall will be in attendance as Biden in sworn-in as the 46th President of the United States.
Biden boasts the strongest Irish background of any US President since John F Kennedy.
And Mulhall believes his inauguration will be a “career highlight” from his time in America and a unique chance to see someone so incredibly proud of their Irish American heritage sworn in.
Ahead of the big day, the Irish Ambassador got together with Irish concert violinist Patricia Treacy to perform a special tribute.
Biden is a huge fan of Yeats’s work so Mulhall could think of no better poet to draw from as part of a special performance to commemorate his inauguration.
The president-elect famously used to recite Yeats poems in the mirror to help tackle his stutter.
Mulhall chose the Yeats poem Down by the Sally Gardens, which he dedicated to the President as part of a unique reading accompanied by the music of Treacy.
Irish violinist Patricia Treacy came to the Embassy yesterday and we recorded this W.B. #Yeats poem, ‘Down by the Sally Gardens’ which we dedicate to President @JoeBiden, a fan of Yeats’s work. Patricia will play the violin at today’s #inauguration. @culture_ireland pic.twitter.com/UvBb2Yas4V
— Daniel Mulhall (@DanMulhall) January 20, 2021
Biden is a huge fan of Treacy, who was drafted in to perform at the Biden family’s inauguration mass.
The poem reads:
Down by the salley gardens
my love and I did meet;
She passed the salley gardens
with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy,
as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish,
with her would not agree.
In a field by the river
my love and I did stand,
And on my leaning shoulder
she laid her snow-white hand.
She bid me take life easy,
as the grass grows on the weirs;
But I was young and foolish,
and now am full of tears.
In a further show of appreciation, Mulhall also performed Inauguration Day, a poem by Paddy Bushe that was written for the inauguration of President Mary Robinson in 1990.
Despite being written as a tribute to Robinson, Mulhall felt it was "entirely apt" for Biden's arrival in office.
Paddy Bushe’s poem, ‘Inauguration Day’ was written for the inauguration of #Ireland’s President Mary Robinson in 1990, but it seems entirely apt today:-
“.. concluding
that a change indeed is no bad thing,
that all the signs are for an early spring” @dfatirl @poetryireland pic.twitter.com/2frBFEkWhq— Daniel Mulhall (@DanMulhall) January 20, 2021
Bushe’s Inauguration Day cane be read below:
Now hedges danced a little where a robin sang
high above the year’s dead leaves,in utter
delight affirming that history’s plan
for the future was being redrawn
..concluding
that a change indeed is no bad thing,
that all the signs are for an early spring
