United States presidential visits to the United Kingdom and Ireland

An orthographic projection map featuring the United Kingdom and Ireland (highlighted in dark green)

Eleven United States presidents have made presidential visits to the United Kingdom and Ireland. The first visit by an incumbent president to the United Kingdom was made in December 1918 by Woodrow Wilson, and was an offshoot of American diplomatic interactions with the Principal Allied Powers at the conclusion of World War I prior to the Paris Peace Conference. The first visit by an incumbent president to Ireland was made in June 1963 by John F. Kennedy. To date, 33 visits have been made to the United Kingdom and nine to Ireland.

The United States is bound together with both Ireland and the United Kingdom by shared history, an overlap in religion and a common language and legal system, plus kinship ties that reach back hundreds of years, including kindred, ancestral lines among Cornish Americans, English Americans, Manx Americans, Irish Americans, Scotch-Irish Americans, Scottish Americans, Welsh Americans, and American Britons respectively.

Table of visits

President	Dates	Nation	Locations	Major events
Woodrow Wilson	December 26–28, 1918	United Kingdom	London, Carlisle, Manchester	Met with Prime Minister David Lloyd George and King George V.[1]
Harry S. Truman	August 2, 1945		Plymouth	Informal meeting with King George VI.[2]
Dwight D. Eisenhower	August 27 – September 2, 1959		London, Balmoral, Chequers	Informal visit. Met with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and Queen Elizabeth II.[3]
	September 4–7, 1959		Culzean Castle	Rested before returning to the United States.[3]
John F. Kennedy	June 4–5, 1961		London	Private visit. Met with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and Queen Elizabeth II.[4]
	June 26–29, 1963	Ireland	Dublin, Wexford, Cork, Galway, Limerick	Addressed Oireachtas. Visited ancestral home.[5]
	June 29–30, 1963	United Kingdom	Birch Grove	Informal visit with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan at his home.[4]
Richard Nixon	February 24–26, 1969		London	Informal visit. Delivered several public addresses.[6]
	August 3, 1969		RAF Mildenhall	Informal meeting with Prime Minister Harold Wilson.[6]
	October 3, 1970		Chequers	Met informally with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Edward Heath.[6]
	October 3–5, 1970	Ireland	Limerick, Timahoe, Dublin	State visit. Met with Prime Minister Jack Lynch.[6]
Jimmy Carter	May 5–11, 1977	United Kingdom	London, Newcastle, Sunderland	Attended the 3rd G7 summit. Also met with the Prime Ministers of Greece, Belgium, Turkey, Norway, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and with the President of Portugal. Addressed the NATO Ministers meeting.[7]
Ronald Reagan	June 7–9, 1982		London, Windsor Castle	State visit. Met with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Addressed Parliament.[8]
	June 1–4, 1984	Ireland	Shannon, Galway, Ballyporeen, Dublin	Met with President Patrick Hillery and Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald. Visited ancestral home. Addressed Parliament.[8]
	June 4–10, 1984	United Kingdom	London	Met with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Attended the 10th G7 summit.[8]
	June 2–3, 1988			Met with Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita.[8]
George H. W. Bush	May 31 – June 2, 1989			Met with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.[9]
	July 5–6, 1990			Attended NATO Summit Meeting.[9]
	July 14–18, 1991			Attended the 17th G7 summit. Also met with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.[9]
Bill Clinton	June 4–5, 1994		Cambridge, London, Portsmouth	Visited U.S. Military Cemetery. Met with Prime Minister John Major. Attended state dinner with Queen Elizabeth II and heads of state and government of Canada, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and Belgium. Attended D-Day commemorative ceremonies.[10]
	June 8, 1994		Oxford	Received honorary degree from Oxford University.[10]
	November 28 – December 1, 1995		London, Belfast, Derry	State visit. Met with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister John Major. Addressed Parliament. Delivered several public addresses in Northern Ireland.[10]
	December 1–2, 1995	Ireland	Dublin	Met with President Mary Robinson and Prime Minister John Bruton.[10]
	May 28–29, 1997	United Kingdom	London	Met with Prime Minister Tony Blair and attended a Cabinet meeting.[10]
	May 14–18, 1998		Birmingham, Weston-under-Lizard, London	Attended the 24th G8 summit and the U.S.-EU Summit Meeting.[10]
	September 3, 1998		Belfast, Armagh, Omagh	Met with Prime Minister Tony Blair and Northern Irish political leaders. Addressed the Northern Ireland Assembly.[10]
	September 3–5, 1998	Ireland	Dublin, Adare, Limerick, Ballybunion	Met with Prime Minister Bertie Ahern. Delivered several public addresses and played golf.[10]
	December 12, 2000		Dublin, Dundalk	Met with Prime Minister Bertie Ahern. Delivered several public addresses.[10]
	December 12–14, 2000	United Kingdom	Belfast, London, Coventry	Met with Prime Minister Tony Blair and Northern Irish political leaders in Belfast. Met with Queen Elizabeth II; made a speech at the University of Warwick.[10]
George W. Bush	July 18–20, 2001		London, Chequers, Halton, Brize Norton	Met with Prime Minister Tony Blair and Queen Elizabeth II.[11]
	April 7–8, 2003		Belfast, Hillsborough	Met with Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss the reconstruction of Iraq. Also met with the Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and Northern Irish political leaders.[11]
	November 18–21, 2003		London, Sedgefield	State visit. Met with Queen Elizabeth II and stayed at Buckingham Palace, where a formal state reception was held. In lieu of formal address to parliament, gave an address at Banqueting House. Later accompanied Prime Minister Blair on a tour of the latter's constituency in Sedgefield.[11]
	June 25–26, 2004	Ireland	Shannon, Dromoland Castle	Attended the U.S.-EU summit meeting. Met with Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.[11]
	July 6–8, 2005	United Kingdom	Gleneagles	Attended the 31st G8 summit.[11]
	February 28, 2006	Ireland	Shannon	Met with U.S. Marines who were en route to Iraq.[11]
	June 15–16, 2008	United Kingdom	London, Belfast	Met with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. Met with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Quartet Representative Tony Blair. In Belfast, met with the Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson and the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.[11]
Barack Obama	March 31 – April 3, 2009		London	Met with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Attended the G-20 summit meeting.[12][13]
	May 23, 2011	Ireland	Dublin, Moneygall	Met with President Mary McAleese and Prime Minister Enda Kenny. Visited ancestral home.
	May 23–26, 2011	United Kingdom	London	State visit. Met with Queen Elizabeth II and stayed at Buckingham Palace where a ceremonial welcome and state dinner was given. Laid a wreath at the Tomb of The Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey. Addressed a joint session of the British Parliament in Westminster Hall. Met with Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour Party leader Ed Miliband.[12]
	June 17–18, 2013		Belfast, Lough Erne	Attended the 39th G8 summit.[12]
	September 4–5, 2014		Newport	Attended the NATO Summit Meeting.[12]
	April 21–24, 2016		London, Windsor, Watford	Met with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. Met with Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

See also

• United Kingdom–United States relations
• Ireland–United States relations
• Foreign policy of the United States
• Foreign relations of the United States

References

1. "Travels of President Woodrow Wilson". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
2. "Travels of President Harry S. Truman". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
3. "Travels of President Dwight D. Eisenhower". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
4. "Travels of President John F. Kennedy". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
5. "1963: Warm welcome for JFK in Ireland". BBC News. June 27, 1963. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
6. "Travels of President Richard M. Nixon". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
7. "Travels of President Jimmy Carter". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
8. "Travels of President Ronald Reagan". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
9. "Travels of President George H. W. Bush". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
10. "Travels of President William J. Clinton". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
11. "Travels of President George W. Bush". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
12. "Travels of President Barack Obama". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
13. "London Summit".