"Now that the Windsor Framework has been announced, I sincerely hope it clears the way for the DUP to join Sinn Féin in a power-sharing Executive. I say to all parties in the north but especially to the DUP, let's get down to the people's business, the business of power-sharing and self government."
So spoke Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer at a St Patrick's Day event in Washington DC.
As appeals go it's fairly tame. Mr Schumer is a distinguished politician with national and international experience. He graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Schumer isn't from the usual Irish caucus. His background is Jewish. On Capitol Hill, he is recognised as a consensus builder in a very fractious Senate.
The faux but unsurprising outrage at his remarks from the DUP was petulant and so unnecessary. The distinguished Senator was advised by the DUP leader "to go and read a history book".
Sir Jeffrey is not by nature impolite or an angry head. It was an off-the-cuff remark which probably sounded more clever at the time than it came across. On mature reflection it should be withdrawn. There is an unofficial rule for politicians when abroad that they do not insult or offend their hosts. Even Trump managed that much.
(Though in fairness to Donaldson, his loose tongue incident was minor compared to the calamitous attempt at a joke – apparently at the expense of the Clintons – to Washington interns by An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar).
That said, the Donaldson gaffe is unlikely to have troubled Senator Schumer. He, like the British government, has bigger fish to fry than dealing with sardines who leapt into their own tins.
As for the advice, there is hardly a history book ever written about the conflict in Ireland which would lead Mr Schumer to change his remarks. Anyhow, Mr Schumer was speaking of the here and now, not the then and how.
Let's face it – the elephant in the room is the DUP absence from Stormont and power-sharing.
In the scheme of world affairs, the DUP is simply a very small, undistinguished and fringe UK regional political party in a remote part of Europe. Their take on international matters is weak. The DUP are more used to navigating the still waters of the Northern Ireland goldfish bowl rather than the stormy seas of global geopolitics.
Even when they had an opportunity to grasp a 'national' opportunity gifted by former prime minister Theresa May, the DUP overplayed their hand. After that they were – to borrow an expression from Seamus Mallon – played like a 3lb trout by Johnson and his ERG ilk.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is trying to mend the broken international relationships caused by Brexit which are limiting the potential of his misnomered Global Britain.
Despite the domestic difficulties (which he seemingly has out-sourced to his Chancellor), Sunak is determined to make the UK internationally relevant, not marginalised. More than ever Britain needs multinational allies.
To achieve this, Sunak needs a more diplomatic approach with the EU and more importantly he requires a strong stable relationship with the US administration both for a trade deal and security. Thus the high profile tripartite San Diego announcement on strengthening American-Anglo influence in the Pacific.
The DUP delegation will return home to Northern Ireland as brazen as ever. Their belligerence in Washington DC was on full view and will only serve to make Sinn Féin look even more reasonable and statesmanlike.
A quip from the French diplomat Talleyrand about the stubbornness of Bourbon royalists could also be said of DUP loyalists: "They learned nothing and they forgot nothing."
Next month, President Joe Biden will visit Ireland. He is no plastic paddy. Biden's sense of Irishness has travelled through and with him. In a futile pitch for attention, some fringe loyalists may try to disrupt the goodwill surrounding the presidential visit.
Increasingly, the hardline stance of political unionism is to diplomacy what myxomatosis is to rabbits.
