**WASHINGTON**
President Donald Trump heaped praise Wednesday on the "long and unique friendship" shared by the US and Ireland and hailed the contributions of Irish Americans to the country.
Speaking at a St. Patrick's Day reception in the East Room, Trump said the nations would "always have that friendship, just like we have a great friendship," addressing Ireland's prime minister, known locally as the Taoiseach, Micheal Martin.
"This wonderful tradition dates back to 1952, when the first Irish ambassador to the United States sent President (Harry S.) Truman a box of shamrocks as a gesture of goodwill," said Trump. "The bond between our nations is as old as America itself,” he said.
“So many Irish volunteers risked their lives in the American Revolution that George Washington described Ireland as 'the friend of my country in my country's most friendless day.'"
Trump said 50% of all recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor were Irish and highlighted the contributions of famous Irish Americans, including Presidents Andrew Jackson and Ronald Reagan, entertainment icon Walt Disney, novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald and automotive industry titan Henry Ford.
Addressing the crowd after Trump concluded, Martin lauded Trump's "search for peace in Ukraine and the Middle East," expressing Dublin's readiness to work with Washington and the international community "to end conflict, especially to bring a just, lasting and sustainable peace to the people of Ukraine, and the people of the Middle East."
"There is nothing more noble than the pursuit of peace, and this is what you are doing," he said. "Conflict and war hurt the most vulnerable. Too many children have died in Gaza, in Israel, in Sudan, and too many children have been abducted in Ukraine."
Martin continued the time-honored tradition of presenting the president with a bowl of shamrocks and posed for a picture with Trump as the ceremony concluded.
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