Well, good morning, everybody. I don't think I need the microphone, but I guess I'm glad that I have it, and we're thrilled to welcome Taoiseach Martin, the leader of Ireland, and of course his lovely wife, and thank you both for being here. Uh, we're thrilled to be able to celebrate this moment of friendship between the United States and Ireland and really submit what is, I think, one of the great alliances and great friendships between nations in the world.
Uh, as I was telling the Taoiseach back in the library earlier -- earlier, Usha and I actually took a trip to Ireland in October of 2023. A bit on a -- on a lark, actually. Susan Collins, my dear friend from Maine, uh, from the United States Senate may remember that we were supposed to have a government shutdown.
We didn't have a government shutdown. And so, Usha and I actually had a week where we could go anywhere, and we decided to go to Ireland. And I just say, it's such a remarkable combination of incredible community as we were talking about earlier of beautiful landscape but also a lot of interesting technological growth.
And I think that one of the more robust areas for us to work on with our Irish friends in the years to come is going to be technology and particularly artificial intelligence as we I think really take the next stage in an important level of technological progress. Now, I want to give some acknowledgment of all the honored guests here.
I can't of course call everybody out. I have to say thank you to Ashley and Brett Kavanaugh, Justice of the Supreme Court and his wife for being here. Thank you to Mrs. Roberts for being here, Senator Sheehy and -- and of course the ambassador from Ireland who I've met with before but in a previous -- in a previous job.
And let me just say before I introduce the Taoiseach that, you know, one of the things that we try to do with this breakfast is just remind people of the important bonds of friendship between the United States and Ireland. And, you know, I think it's a great opportunity to do that. It's also a really great opportunity for Usha to wear her pair of green pants.
[Laughter] She's had these in the closet for years and finally gets to break them out. Um, but perhaps the most honored guest of course except for the Taoiseach and his wife is my dear friend from the United States Marine Corps, Cullen Tiernan. He brought his brother Joe. Good to see you, man.
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And here's -- here's -- here's the thing that -- that Cullen taught me when I was in the United States Senate.
He taught me about sock diplomacy, about the importance of gifting socks to my fellow Senators, something that had, you know -- I give Massachusetts socks to our friends from Massachusetts and Utah socks to our friend from -- from Utah. So, Cullen in your honor, I've worn these shamrocks. [Laughter] And I will say -- I will say, when we meet later in the Oval Office to -- to the Taoiseach, the president is a very big fan of conservative dress.
[Laughter] And so, if he notices these socks, you have to defend me in the Oval Office and say this is an important part of cementing the Irish-American relationship. [Laughter] And that's the only reason I'm wearing these socks. But we're thrilled to have you. Thank you and God bless you.