In Ottawa, they’ve had a long, dry, hot summer, so needless to say it rained cats and dogs for the 19 hours that Taoiseach Micheál Martin visited Canada. Nobody minded.
It made for many (many!) quips about the Irish bringing the weather. And after the steam and noise of New York City, where Donald Trump turned the pressure cooker up on the entire world with a bombastic lecture at the United Nations, Canada felt like a different world. Cooler. Calmer. Kinder. Quieter. Extraordinarily friendly – but in a low-key way.
Canada has always been sufficiently secure in its sense of self to bat away the endless brickbats and jokes about its staid, dependable persona. “Like a loft apartment above a really great party,” Robin Williams said once, and with affection.
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