Gavan Reilly: Biden our time, waiting for Joe

What they don’t tell you about jobs like this is how much waiting is involved. Having done the St Patrick’s Day trip to Washington six times, and been in the Oval Office five of those times, I know the security is tight anywhere the President goes, as the Secret Service ask you to be present outrageously early so that they can put the sniffer dogs on your kit. Still, though, there’s some amount of waiting. Reporters covering the arrival of Air Force One into Dublin Airport were told to present at the media centre at Dublin Castle for security screening from 10am, so that they could get a secure bus to the airport at 1pm, so that they could film (from a great distance) Biden getting off his plane at 3.15pm.

And so the standout memory is the waiting. Being asked to present to Dublin Castle at 10am for an event which was due to start at 3:45pm and ended up running two hours late. Nonetheless the security worked to schedule, so we were on the premises four hours ahead of the President - having to stay ringfenced in one corridor with security posted at the entrance, for fear we might go wandering around the building and speak to the same politicians we share the building with every day. Journalists who needed to visit the bathroom were escorted there by a member of An Garda Siochána. No disrespect to the nice fella placed on our security detail, but I can’t imagine ‘toilet queue banter’ is something they teach in Templemore.

Photography in the Dail chamber is technically forbidden, but nobody has the power to discipline members for breaching the rule, so some journalists spent the intervening time encouraging TDs to take surreptitious pictures of the press gallery.

And then, eventually, the sight of the President’s motorcade arriving. The momentary fear that The Beast would be unable to make the turn at the Merrion Lawn entrance. The Ceann Comhairle and the Cathaoirleach, proud as punch welcoming him up the stairs. The giggle in the chamber as TDs and Senators watched live footage of the external doors being shut in Biden’s face (albeit only so that the doors would serve as a photographic backdrop.) Enda Kenny holding court against the railings at the back of the Dáil chamber The worries of some that the President, hardly an agile 80-year-old, having to navigate the stairs up to the chamber.

And the sounds. Margot Roantree, the two-month-old daughter of Labour senator Rebecca Moynihan, obediently being introduced to Roderic O’Gorman and momentarily wondering if meeting the Minister for Children would be the highlight of her day. The voice of Noel Murphy, the gentlemanly outgoing superintendent of the Oireachtas, getting to announce the presence of Uachtarán na Stáit Aontaithe. The roar - the almighty roar - of clapping echoing on mahogany as Biden made his way down. The stark silence as he finished up with a mention of his late son Beau. The low-level whimper of Margot Roantree, who politely stifled her cries until the final sentence of Biden’s speech.

And, for those who asked TDs to take covert pictures, the later realisation that the Oireachtas’ own photographer had captured us all in the chamber sitting above the President of the United States anyway.