In Photos: US Presidents Celebrate St Patrick’s Day

Ronald Reagan accepts a bouquet of shamrocks from the Irish prime minister, Garret Fitzgerald, as he presents the taoiseach with a hat during a luncheon at the White House in 1984
Photograph: Scott Stewart/AP

Jimmy Carter stands on the North Portico of the White House in 1980 while being serenaded by the Saffron Kilts Irish Pipe Band from Babylon, New York
Photograph: Ira Schwarz/AP

The Irish ambassador, William Patrick Fay, pins a cluster of shamrocks on Richard Nixon’s lapel in 1969
Photograph: Anonymous/AP