Comment Central: O'Bama and Cowen: the new comedy duo

Brian Cowen's critics might say that they've heard all of his speeches before. Last night, they would have been right.

As the Irish Taoiseach delivered his St Patrick's Day speech at a White House dinner party, it emerged that he was accidentally reading off the teleprompter one made by President Obama only minutes earlier.

"We begin by welcoming today a strong friend of the United States," he began and continued in that vein for about 20 seconds before - realising he was experiencing more than the usual case of déjà vu - he looked back at the US President and said: "That's your speech!"

Gesturing at the teleprompter, he said: "Why don't these things work for me? Who said these things were idiot-proof?"

Mr Obama is becoming known as the 'teleprompter president' for his excessive use of the prompting screens, which retract when speeches are finished.

Although used for more than half a century, the device was previously employed mainly for set-piece speeches. The current President, however, often uses them for making small introductory statements at the beginning of press conferences.

On this occasion, as a laughing Mr Obama returned to the podium, the script was belatedly switched over to the Taoiseach's text – leaving Mr Obama inadvertently thanking himself for inviting everyone, to further laughter. "First, I'd like to say thank you to President Obama!" the President said.

The event was one of a series held both in the Republic of Ireland and in the United States, which has a big Irish community, to mark St Patrick's Day yesterday. In a move designed to mark the occasion, and the visit of the Irish delegation, the waters of the White House fountain were dyed green.

The President also met Northern Ireland’s First Minister, Peter Robinson, a Protestant, and his Catholic deputy, Martin McGuinness, in his National Security Adviser’s office.

Tensions are high in Northern Ireland after IRA splinter groups killed two soldiers and a police officer this month in the first attacks of their kind since 1998, when the landmark Good Friday Agreement was reached. In a speech designed to reassure those in favour of peace that the US stood behind them, Mr Obama said: "Not all Americans are Irish, but all Americans support those who stand on the side of peace and peace will prevail.

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