Lunchtime Live's Andrea Gilligan and guests discussed Trump's mistake during the Shamrock ceremony and why the Taoiseach didn't correct it.

During the annual St Patrick’s Day visit to the White House, US President Donald Trump called Irish President Catherine Connolly a man in an answer to a question on Iran.

Responding to President Catherine Connolly’s alleged comments on the unlawfulness of the US and Israel’s strikes in Iran, the US President said "he's lucky I exist".

This mistake is not the only reason this is in the news, people are wondering: why didn't the Taoiseach correct Catherine Connolly's misgendering?

The US President misgendered the current President Catherine Connolly and the Taoiseach looked on in silence. 

Newstalk reporter Jamie O’Hara who was present in the Oval Office said he heard someone issue a whispered correction to the president. 

On Lunchtime Live, Jamie O’Hara said he heard someone say “It’s a she”. 

“The surprise at the time was that President Trump didn’t know that Catherine Connolly was the President of Ireland,” he said. 

“It could have been [a slip of the tongue] because Catherine Connolly is kind of newly inaugurated compared to the length of time that Michael D. Higgins was president for.

“He could have potentially not been aware as well.”

Consultant in Pediatric Intensive Care, Dr Suzanne Crow said that gender assumptions were very common when women held titles like “Doctor, director, prescient.”

“The assumption is often made that that head, that holder of that title is male”, she said. 

“It happens particularly with emails and letters. They will be addressed to you as a man.”

She said Michéal Martin did the right thing by not making the event a catastrophe but was surprised to not see it be acknowledged at all. 

Catherine Connolly with members of her family. Photo by : Leah Farrell.

Historian and lecturer in Gender Studies at UCD, Dr Mary McAuliffe said she “wasn’t at all surprised” by Trump’s comments. 

“It’s the male default phenomenon”, she said. 

“If you don't know, you presume that the person is male, particularly if they're a senior politician or a senior professional or indeed a senior academic, cultural icon. 

“I think at that moment, Micheál Martin should have gently and blithely corrected him.

Catherine Connolly is our first citizen. She's President of this country.”

She added that the US President made misogynistic jibes all the time which shouldn’t stop the Taoiseach from doing the right thing. 

Tara Hammond of SLATED Ireland said there was a “presumption when it comes to certain careers that can only be held by a man”.

Hammond, who works in the stone business with her husband, said she had dealt with people assuming she was less qualified than she was. 

“People think I'm just kind of the marketing side of the business, that I would never be involved in actually producing our slate tableware.

“People just assume that you're in some kind of background role, you're not doing the same job.

Main Image: Trump and Michéal Martin.