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"Dead Irish Writers" is episode 59 of The West Wing.

Plot

As Abbey contemplates the likelihood that her medical license will be taken away the following day, she grumpily attends a big White House party for her birthday. Bartlet receives another visit from decorous British Ambassador Lord John Marbury, who argues against Bartlet's meeting with a member of Sinn Féin. Meanwhile, Sam meets with Senator Enlow, who is blocking the funding of a controversial scientific project that would cost billions, and is visited by his old college professor who harangues him to make peace with Enlow (whom Sam can't stand) to fund the project.

Donna discovers that the national border near her Minnesota birthplace has been redrawn slightly—making her officially a Canadian. Abbey, C.J. and Amy Gardner mischievously sneak out of Abbey's birthday party to gossip and get drunk. Donna joins them because her new citizenship status has kept her out of the party, and makes a pointed comment that brings the consequences of Abbey's actions home to her. Abbey then tells her husband that she will agree to surrender her license for as long as he is the President. Donna finds out she will be able to become a U.S. citizen again with a simple written test.

The title "Dead Irish Writers" comes from a discussion Toby and Lord John Marbury have regarding a controversial figure who has been invited to the White House. Marbury claims that the author is a member of the political wing of the Provisional IRA and repeatedly states that he "cannot come to the White House." Marbury then tells Toby that the conflict between Ireland and the UK is centuries old and the United States, because of its youth, cannot fully understand it. Marbury and Toby then exchange a series of quotes and loosely link them to the long-standing conflict involving Great Britain and Ireland. At the end, Marbury obliquely tells Toby that precisely because he is an enemy in the conflict, the IRA leader should come to the White House after all (though official policy remains opposed to such a meeting). Interestingly, of the three quoted authors—Rudyard Kipling, James Joyce, and Eugene O'Neill—only one of them, Joyce, was natively Irish. Kipling was born in Bombay, India to English parents, and O'Neill was born in New York, which has had a large Irish community since the Great Famine of 1848.

Notes

• When it comes to drinks two regions known for producing alcoholic beverages are mispronounced. First Bartlet stresses Willamette where the Pinot Noir served that night is from, on the third instead of the second syllable and later Lord John Marbury pronounces the island Islay, where his Whisky is from, as it is written and not ˈaɪlə what would be the correct name. This is a common mispronounciation in Southern England, however he also states that he is Earl of Croy, a town in Central Scotland, where the island's name would be well known.
• When Jed Bartlet challenges Abbey as to which organ of the body produces hydrochloric acid she answers "pancreas"; the answer, however, is the stomach.
• The version of "O Canada" played at the end of the episode is highly inaccurate. An over-extended introduction is played, the piece alternates between instrumental and vocal versions, and multiple incorrect repetitions are made.
• In conversation with Toby Ziegler, Lord John Marbury refers to himself as "England's Ambassador to the United States". An Ambassador would never actually refer to themselves in this way, since all British Ambassadors represent the United Kingdom, not England (which is only one of its four constituent nations).

External links

• The West Wing Episode Guide

Template:Navbox The West Wing episodes

• The West Wing (season 3) episodes
• 2002 television episodes