Shamrock Summit
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The Shamrock Summit was a name given to the 1985 meeting between Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada and President Ronald Reagan of the United States. Held in Quebec City it was so named because of the Irish background of the two leaders and because it was held on St. Patrick's Day.
The meeting saw Mulroney being very deferential to the President, showing none of the confrontational approach towards the Americans that Pierre Trudeau had long maintained. Mulroney declared his support for Reagan's Star Wars missile defence system and promised to boost military spending to please the Americans.
The most famous event of the summit was when Reagan and Mulroney, who both had Irish heritage, engaged in a duet of When Irish Eyes are Smiling. Canadian historian Jack Granatstein said that this "public display of sucking up to Reagan may have been the single most demeaning moment in the entire political history of Canada's relations with the United States."
As well, at one point during the summit, Reagan is rumoured to have mistakenly referred to Mulroney as "Byron Muldoon". This became Mulroney's regular nickname in Frank Magazine for the remainder of his term in office.
The meeting was prelude to Mulroney's efforts to create far closer links between Canada and the United States culminating in the 1988 Canadian-American Free Trade Agreement.