Any apprehension that Micheál Martin could find himself in the cauldron of Donald Trump dissipated very quickly.
The US President said it was a "great honour" to host the Taoiseach, adding he had "tremendous business relationships" with Ireland which would "only get stronger".
Mr Martin replied in kind, saying it was a "great honour" to be in the Oval Office and he commended his host for his "pursuit of peace".
It was clear very quickly that this would be no repeat of the extraordinary clashes when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington recently.
That said, a trade war is coming if President Trump's rhetoric is to be believed.
He repeated his view that the European Union was established to take advantage of the US; his country had been treated "very badly" and the EU had "not been fair" when it "sued our companies".
Mr Trump declared: "We have been abused for a long time as a country, and we will be abused no longer .... We are going to win that financial battle."
With EU reciprocal tarrifs to be introduced in April, the US leader warned that while he was flexible there will be "very little of that by April 2nd".
President Trump made it clear that he didn't blame Ireland for the large presence of US pharma companies - that lay with previous administrations who let it happen.
He described them as "stupid leaders who "didn't have a clue" and this led to "a beautiful country of five million people [which] has got the entire US pharmaceutical industry in its grips".
While President Trump said explicity that the US "wouldn't want to hurt Ireland", it's impossible for Ireland to escape the damage which a trade war will inevitably trigger.
The perilous nature of the political engagement was on show when the Taoiseach, in reply to a question, said that his Government's number one priority was housing: "We need to build more, build them faster."
The Taoiseach chuckled when President Trump added light-heartedly that this was a "good problem" - a reaction which opened the door to Opposition criticism back home in Ireland.
If there was a glimmer of hope, it came at the very end when he said: "We want fairness and he [the Taoiseach] understands that".
This was the key moment of Micheál Martin's trip to the United States, and it's likely that he will be relieved with the way it went.
His political opponents could well argue that he wasn't as forceful as he could have been on Ukraine and President Trump's plans for Gaza.
The Taoiseach didn't jump to the defence of the EU either, when it was being blamed for triggering a trade war.
But given the mission he had - described by one analyst as "getting out of Dodge" - he will probably feel that this was about as good as it gets.
The Taoiseach did get across his main speaking point about trade being a "two-way street with more than 700 Irish companies employing 200,000 people in the US.
He notably didn't take the opportunity to comment when President Trump riffed about Conor McGregor and Rosie O'Donnell.
Mr Martin will also have noticed that when the US leader was asked to say what the differences there are between his administration and the Irish Government - he just ignored it, and took another question.
This St Patrick's Day celebration wasn't going to get spoiled.
