For President of Ireland – San Jose's Ex-Mayor Tom McEnery

Abandoned housing - ghost estates - litter
the Irish landscape.

In two weeks nominations close and we'll know the final field for the October 27 election for President of Ireland. If ever there was a year for an Irish-American to give it a go this was it.

First of all, the field remains as it was on August 15 when I wrote that Ireland is seeking a half-way decent candidate for President. Michael D Higgins leads in the polls, but a third of the electorate is basically saying, "Can we have another choice, please?"

As we head towards the closing date for nominations - September 28 - it's becoming clearer that no political heavyweight is going to throw his hat in the ring.

So, as of now, there's no obvious candidate from Ireland, which opens the door for an Irish-American. But if a lack of star power from the candidates from Ireland has opened the door, the financial crisis in Europe and our own extremely serious economic crisis have forced it wide open.

This past few months the people of Ireland have learned an awful lot about our "friends" and "partners" in Europe. They are neither friends nor partners, not when the going gets tough. We may yet be hung out to dry by our European overlords before this crisis has played out.

Members of the Irish diaspora, especially Irish-Americans, are the only real friends the people of Ireland can count on. Irish-Americans' feelings for Ireland and the Irish are familial. For the past 150 years or more the wider Irish family has been willing to lend a hand when Ireland was down.

It's no different today. All Irish-Americans ask for is to be included, respected, to have that familial feeling returned. Electing an Irish-American would demonstrate that the people of Ireland understand this and reciprocate those familial feelings.

Another advantage of electing an Irish-American is that it would set the theme for the President's role for the next seven years. In Ireland the President doesn't deal with the day to day running of the government, the role is more symbolic as leader of the Irish people. Over the past 20 years the role of the President has evolved into something of a tone-setter for the nation. Mary Robinson was about 'change' and Mary McAleese was about 'reconciliation'. Well, right now Ireland needs 'renewal'.

Renewal. An Irish-American, especially one with strong business links, could help with the economic renewal the country needs. He (or she) would also signal a renewal of those somewhat atrophied family ties between Ireland and America, those ties that are at the root of so much of our tourism industry and that should rightly be a network that fosters an exchange of ideas and insights and even investment opportunities.

Mostly, however, an Irish-American, particularly one who is a little more American than Irish, would bring that 'glass is half full' optimism that would provide something of a renewal of the spirit. Definitely we don't need an Irish-American so Irish that he brings with him Irish melancholia. The 'ghost estates' and lengthy unemployment lines provide more than enough of that.

An Irish-American it is, but who?

McEnery (L) with ITLG execs
John Hartnett & Gordon Ciochon
 {Photo from IrishInnovationCenter.com}

Ideally the candidate should have relevant experience and a demonstrable affection for Ireland. I nominate Tom McEnery, whose political background and business acumen are exactly what Ireland needs right now.

McEnery served eight years as mayor of San Jose, CA, one of the largest cities in America. He's a successful businessman and former lecturer at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

It was thanks to McEnery that Dublin was twinned with San Jose and the great Silicon Vally-Silicon Bog link was born. McEnery helped get the Irish tech boom going by providing Ireland's Industrial Development Authority with office space in San Jose, which led to Intel, Seagate and a host of other IT companies setting up their EU headquarters in Ireland. McEnery is still helping build those ties today through his work with the Irish Technology Leadership Group and the Irish Innovation Center in San Jose.

McEnery's interest in Ireland is not just about business either. His impetus got the Bytes for Bullets program going in Belfast and Derry and he wrote the introduction to John Hume's book A New Ireland. He is well versed in Irish history - his Master's thesis was on Michael Collins - and is a regular visitor to these shores. He loves Ireland and he's done much for the country.

I have no idea if McEnery would want to be President of Ireland, but I'm sure he'd be a good one. Unfortunately, it may already be too late.

McEnery is not a household name here, although he should be, so he'd need a whirlwind of publicity and endorsements to be nominated by September 28. He'd need a great campaign to top the poll on election day a month later.

Still, given the smallness of the current crop of candidates, I don't think it's an impossibility. With the right campaign McEnery could go from relative unknown to President. At the very least he'd get the recognition in Ireland that's long overdue him.
____________
Read More:

Why running for President of Ireland brings out the best and worst ----not to mention the humor and hostility

Fianna Fail fails to find a nominee for the Irish presidential election

Ten non-Irish-born who could run for President of Ireland

____________

Wanted in Ireland: one half-way decent presidential candidate

Gay Byrne – not interested in being President

Candidate for the President of Ireland are falling like flies the past few days. First the leading candidate, according to the polls, David Norris withdrew after skeletons from his past came back to haunt him. Next up was Gay Byrne.

A week ago - who was it that said a week is a long time in politics - there were rumors that former television and radio talk show star Gay Byrne was going to enter the fray. "Uncle Gaybo" wanted to be President, we were told. For a few days there was a flurry of activity about a possible Byrne candidacy. Political analysts analyzed, commentators commented and one very foolish party political leader even endorsed Byrne, ignoring those in his party who wanted to run for the post themselves.

Mid-week Byrne tossed out a populist, anti-EU bombshell that had the analysts and commentators going into overdrive with their feverish speculation. Ireland was going to have a celebrity candidate.

Well, turns out the 77-year-old Byrne doesn't want to be President. That's two leading candidates out of the race in a matter of 10 days. That leaves us with four candidates, none of whom anyone seems to really want as President.

At this stage the Irish people are like that Little League coach looking down the bench wondering if there is anyone on his team who can simply throw strikes because those keenest to pitch cannot.

Thus, the search goes on for a suitable candidate and to that end we have two more possible "celebrity" candidates: former Gaelic football and hurling radio announcer Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh, who will be 81 next week!, and 71-year-old Martin Sheen. Yes, that Martin Sheen, the former American President Jed Bartlett.

If you don't know Ó Muircheartaigh think of him as Ireland's Vin Scully. I'm not sure what qualifies him to be President, but if we're looking for someone to return the Presidency to what it used to be, say back in the 1940s, then Ó Muircheartaigh is probably as good a bet as any. Seems a thoroughly decent man, but he's 81. He'll be 88 when his term is up.

As for President Bartlett, sorry Martin Sheen, I don't know that anyone has actually asked him if he wants to be President of Ireland, but I suspect that if he gets wind of the fact that nobody here seems all that interested he may start asking awkward questions. Those who are campaigning to draft him as a candidate say he'd "lift the nation's spirits and strengthen economic & social ties to the US / diaspora."

Again, I'm not sure he'd be the worst candidate for the job, but I'm skeptical that he would be all that great on matters related to the "diaspora" or Irish-America, although he probably would give the nation a "lift." I just can't take him seriously, though.

It appears as if there was ever going to be a real candidate from the "diaspora" - not just a Hollywood star - that the door is wide open right now. Would an Irish-American (or Irish-Canadian, Irish-Australian, whatever) want the job? Would the people of Ireland vote for him/her?

I'm more confident that we could get a 'Yes' to the first question than the second. I really doubt that the people would vote for an Irish-American, unless, maybe, he/she was a member of the Kennedy family. There's that celebrity thing again.

Still, like I said, if ever there was a moment this is it. It will take a candidate who can create a whirlwind, to generate interest, to fill the vacuum in the campaign with energy, vitality, spontaneity, positivity, and of course, integrity and ability. Such a candidate could very well overcome the substantial impediment of not being "Irish" (as in born/raised/living in Ireland). However, the question remains, why would such a person want the job if nobody here with even half those qualities is interested?

Tim Geithner helped sink Ireland

"France has no friends, only interests," said General Charles de Gaulle in response to a question from Winston Churchill. It's a telling reminder that in international relations it's one thing to talk about our "friends" in Europe or America or wherever, but quite another to believe such talk.

Saturday's Irish Times carried a column by economics professor Morgan Kelly in which he laid out the events that have led to our "economic ruin." If you've been following this story you already know that the Irish government and banks led us into an economic disaster and that the government then (& quite possibly now) didn't know what it was doing and made mistake after mistake.

Kelly not only points the finger of blame at Honohan for his "miscalculation," but also hints that Honohan undercut the Minister for Finance last November when he sided with his fellow Central Bankers on the European Central Bank Council rather than support the Minister who was refusing a bailout on onerous terms because he rightly understood that the goal of the ECB was to force us to take a bailout that they hoped would stop the panic spreading to other euro member countries.

Damning stuff. Arranged against Ireland were most of the power-brokers in the EU and ECB and, interestingly, US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner {photo}. Kelly says that Geithner torpedoed efforts by the IMF to help the Irish government rid itself of the massive bank debts. In fact, Kelly says that "only one to speak up for the Irish was UK chancellor George Osborne," which goes a long way to proving de Gaulle right.

Ireland's only friend in its hour of need last November was Britain, although not because they love us but because a collapse here was more damaging to Britain than was the collapse of the euro.

I'm not in a position to argue with Kelly's analysis, but I'd like more than he gives me on Geithner's rationale for forcing ruin on us. Kelly implies that it's simply ideological: taxpayers should bail out failed banks. I'd love to imagine someone asking President Obama about this when he comes to be cheered on O'Connell Street and in Moneygall.

Why did his Treasury Secretary veto a deal that could have prevented ruin here? My guess is that European subsidiaries of American banks were afraid of the losses their European off-shoots would incur if euro members were allowed to restructure their debts.

Regardless, Kelly says that it is only a matter of two years or so before Ireland is bankrupt, at which point our reputation will be shot. We cannot recover. Eventually, we will be EU protectorate, "Europe’s answer to Puerto Rico."

We did this to ourselves, but we had help. Our European 'partners' and the European Central Bank were a big part of what went wrong here. And, as it turns out, the Obama administration played a role in twisting the knife when it was firmly planted in our backs. Et tu, Brute?

Carping over Osama's death - you've gotta laugh

It took longer than I expected, but the hand-wringing, breast-beating, someone-ran-over-my-puppy whining about the manner of Osama bin Laden's death has really kicked in over the last 36 hours.

I was waiting for it all day Monday. When I hadn't heard much I thought that perhaps the people of Ireland were so enamored of Barack Obama that somehow the 'usual suspects' would feel compelled to shut up about poor 'ol Osama meeting his untimely demise. I'm certain that if bin Laden's killing had happened under President Bush the "discomforted" would have taken to the airwaves instantly and been firing off op-ed pieces and letters to the Irish Times before bin Laden had had time to make friends with the fishes.

So there was a pause, but since yesterday morning the Irish Times letters page has been chock full of head-shaking tut-tutting about the "extra-judicial assassination" of bin Laden. Cry me a river.

Oh, and it's not just the letters to the editor either. High-profile political television programs, call-in radio shows, political cartoons {see above} and a number of newspaper columns have provided plenty of space for the "disquiet" to be expressed.

From what I can make out these people are scandalized that "the Americans" failed to politely ask Pakistan for permission to search Osama's compound, failed to get an internationally approved search warrant, sent armed men in to capture Osama and failed to acknowledge when he said, "Okay, copper you got me fair and square" all under the watchful gaze of President Obama.

And, yes, they're scandalized by "the Americans", but they're actually horrified that this has happened under President Obama and not the previous occupant of the White House. I get the feeling their little dreamworld is collapsing around them as they digest the image of the President sitting, watching as Osama bin Laden is killed, rather than captured, under the President's orders. Oh, and nobody should have been in any way happy to learn that Osama was dead. Oh no.

There are some Americans here - those who didn't like President Bush and who moved here since, say, 2004 - who are only now realizing it wasn't just Bush that this vociferous group disliked. They don't like the United States of America.

Actually, that's not quite fair. They don't dislike America, but the America they like doesn't exist, has never existed and will never exist. The America they like is one where 300m Americans never vote for a government that would act in the nation's own self interest.

As for me, I find this stuff amusing. I don't get angry, but there was a time when I did. I got angry back in the fall of 2001, but really I'd heard a lot of the same stuff during the 90s and when the rawness of September 11 wore off I was able to ignore it and laugh at it again.

Don't get me wrong. If you let them, these people will get under your skin. You have to ignore them or listen to them as if they're a bunch of 17-year-olds discussing the meaning of life in hushed, serious tones. You know they mean what they say, but you really just want to laugh in their faces.

By no means do these moaners don't represent a majority view among Irish people. I'd probably venture that not even a sizable minority are at all worried by the fact that Osama is no more.

The cry-babies are not a completely insignificant number of people either, though. What's really annoying is that they always seem to end up on the radio, on the television and in the newspapers. They create the effect of seeming to be everywhere, of their views being widely held.

What really has me curious right now is whether the usual rent-a-mob protesters will take their cue and be out in force protesting over the upcoming visit of President Obama. Will they wave placards denouncing him as a war criminal? Will they demand his arrest? As of now, I kind of doubt it.

It was one thing to oppose President Bush, but it will be another to be so vocal in opposition to President Obama, who is very popular here. If they're going to be consistent, however, they can't just moan today and let it lie in 18 days time. They have to be out there on May 23rd opposing President Obama's visit. If they are it will look bad if they're shown in any American news clips, but in a way I hope they are out there making a scene. It will be a really good chuckle.

Focus, Ireland, focus – 1990s not that important

Despite living in Ireland for 20 years, despite being Irish on both sides of my family, despite being married to an Irish woman and having Irish children and Irish in-laws and Irish friends, despite all that and more there are times when I'm completely dumbfounded by the Irish people. This is one of them.

Now first I should say that it may be that I'm misinterpreting the excessive focus of the Irish media and Irish Twitter users on the report of the Moriarty Tribunal. Yes, that again.

I hope I'm wrong and that the average Irish person is not really that exercised by the report's publication. I'd actually like to believe that for most people a bad result in Ireland's soccer game with Macedonia tomorrow night will actually cause them more distress. I hope that's how it is.

It's just that the radio and the Internet are still full of people fuming over the report, which is, after all, about a government tendering process that happened 15 years ago! And I haven't seen anything that says that the government got a bad deal. They wanted competition in the cellular phone market and they got it. Despite some of the more emotive claims, it bears no relationship to what happened at Enron.

Now maybe one of the losing consortia would have done a better job than eventual winners ESAT, but maybe not. What I remember of that time was how surprised I was at the speed with which the market was transformed. We went from one stodgy, overpriced, under-performing state-owned mobile phone company to a fully competitive market in next to no time. I don't think anyone could argue that ESAT didn't do what it was supposed to do.

Of course there are aspects of the deal that stink, but there are a lot of smelly government tenders in every country. It's important that government tenders be as transparent and equitable as possible, but at least in this instance we got a decent company and a competitive marketplace.

I'm not saying that if it can be proven that a politician took money from a businessman that he shouldn't be prosecuted, but I gotta figure if that were possible it would have happened long before now. You have to bear in mind that Judge Moriarty's report represents a (2,000 page) summary of 14 years of public hearings and his conclusions.

Public hearings. As far as I can tell all the facts presented in this report were already in the public sphere, which is why I can't quite understand why people are getting so worked up about it now. (Probably because most of the irate Twitter users were only in grade school when these facts were revealed the first time.)

There are real problems facing this country right now. If corruption is one of them - and I suspect no more so than in America or other western democracies - then let's learn the lessons from the mobile phone license tender and move on. Anything more than that - such that might even cause our new government to lose focus - would be far worse than just burying the whole report. We're in a big economic-financial hole and beating ourselves and each other over something that happened in the mid 1990s is totally counterproductive.

{Photo: TD (MP) Michael Lowry, who was at the center of the Moriarty Tribunal's investigation.}

From little corrupt acts do big corrupt acts grow?

There is a fantastic story in today's Irish Times, one that I highly recommend you read. Basically, it's a story from the 1960s about an Irish missionary priest, a bottle of poitín (Irish moonshine), an elected member of the Dáil (parliament) and the gardaí (Irish police force).

As I read the story I realized that what I really enjoyed about it was the familiarity of it. Yes because it spoke volumes to a simpler, more stereotyped, and probably more enjoyable Ireland, but also because the story could easily have originated in New York or Boston or Philadelphia or Baltimore or Albany or wherever. Spencer Tracy's character in the Last Hurrah could have acted in exactly the same manner as this Irish politician (father of Prime Minister Enda Kenny, Henry Kenny).

It's a cute story of a bit of harmless corruption. You would have to be an anti-corruption zealot to be offended by the story.

Yet as I read the story in the same paper that today has pages dedicated to yesterday's publication of a report into corrupt dealings between politicians and businessmen I wondered if the bloodthirsty jail-is-too-good-for-them crowd would find the story amusing. There seems to be zero tolerance for corruption in Ireland today.

Maybe the zealots are right? Maybe tolerating these little incidents gradually escalates into the sort of corruption detailed in yesterday's report or other tribunals into misdeeds by politicians and the gardaí?

Does it start with a politician procuring a bottle of moonshine from the police for a missionary priest which morphs into jobs for the boys from the neighborhood which morphs into mobile phone licenses for the boys with the checkbooks, with a little kickback for the politician(s) making the decision? I don't know. The first case seems harmless, the second is legally dubious and possibly immoral, and the latter is plainly 100% wrong.

Today Twitter is aflame with calls for the columnist Sarah Carey to be dismissed by the Irish Times because she admitted lying to the Moriarty Tribunal about leaking material from the Tribunal to the press. Carey says there were many leaks and thought she was acting the public good. She later admitted to the Tribunal that she had lied earlier while testifying.

She leaked; she lied; she owned up. I can probably live with that. Maybe it's just that I'm older than most of those calling for blood on Twitter, but I'm more than willing to forgive Carey this transgression. Judge Moriarty said she was one of the few to own up to leaking, although that didn't change the fact that what she did was "irresponsible, in flagrant breach of the course of dealings that had been clearly conveyed to her."

She did wrong, but I don't think she should lose her job. I see her crime as closer to getting poitín for the priest than getting a big check in your back pocket for abusing public office.

{Photo: a poitín still from MuseumsOfMayo.com.}

Irish corruption tribunal: we were wronged and will have to pay

The Moriarty Tribunal report into corruption in Irish political life was published today. The Tribunal has spent 14 years to get today's publication day, 14 years and somewhere between €100-150m (that's $140-210m). And for all that money the Irish taxpayer got ...

Nothing. There will be no prosecutions because the report "has no legal standing." We got nothing, but a lot of lawyers made a ton of money from the Tribunal. At least it went to a good cause, right?

The Moriarty Tribunal was established to investigate the financial affairs of two elected officials - former Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Charles Haughey and TD (MP) Michael Lowry - and the links these men had to prominent businessmen and the influence these links had on government decisions.

The report is damning, but it wasn't worth it.

Today Haughey {photo} is dead. He got a big state funeral when he died. His family still lives well. Lowry is still a TD. He has been re-elected a few times since the first inkling of scandal touched him. A few businessmen may come out smelling a little less than rosy, but then again what tough-nosed businessman doesn't smell a little less than rosy?

One of those businessmen is Denis O'Brien, who the report found had help from Michael Lowry winning a mobile phone license for his company ESAT. O'Brien, through ESAT, made a fortune out of that decision and Lowry, in turn, was handsomely rewarded.

Ben Dunne of Dunnes Stores also features in the report. You might remember Dunne as the guy who was talked down off a Miami hotel ledge back in 1992, when he was high on cocaine and "in the company of a woman not his wife."

For that incident he was forced out of Dunnes Stores by his sister. He went into the property business and, the report claims, sought out the help of Lowry in an arbitration hearing on rent paid by a tenant of one of Dunne's buildings. In his defense, Dunne says he was "unbalanced and unwell" in the 1990s and using "mind altering substances" which affected his memory and behavior.

So a few smudges on reputations, but that's all.

However, there will be serious repercussions because there is at least one business that was shafted during the mobile phone licensing process and five will get you ten that they are are going to be suing the state for hundreds of millions of euros.

The Irish taxpayer is going to have to foot those bills. The voters were wronged and the taxpayers must pay. What a system!

Where's Enda? - new strategy in Irish campaign

There are still 18 days left until the people of Ireland vote for a new government, but as political campaigns go the one being run by the leader of the favorite party to lead the next government is unique. Unique to me, anyway.

Enda Kenny is the leader of the Fine Gael party and they are odds on favorites to lead the next coalition government. If they win as expected there will be volumes written about Kenny's "hide and seek" strategy.

You see, Kenny {photo} is almost unseen in this campaign. In the weeks before the election was called it was as if he'd taken a vow of silence and joined an order of cloistered monks so rarely was he seen or heard. Day after day those who serve under him were on the tv and the radio railing against the government, calling for an election and promoting Fine Gael's policies.

Kenny was nowhere. He spoke in the Dáil (parliament) on the day it was dissolved and then vanished again.

The more Kenny hid the more media sought him. They looked for him here and he was there. They looked for him there and he was here.

Last week one of Ireland's television channels - TV3 - announced that it was going to host a 3-way debate (tomorrow/Tuesday night) featuring Kenny and the leaders of the two other biggest parties. Kenny announced he was not going to take part, but he had a new excuse each day: (1) he wanted the other two smaller parties involved; (2) he didn't like that the moderator of the debate - Vincent Browne - had last year made a flippant remark about suicide when he implied Kenny should fall on his sword; (3) he was too busy.

Kenny did offer to take part in a 5-way debate next week, probably in the hope that nobody would notice if he said nothing as the other four competed to be heard above the cacophony.

Amazingly, Kenny's strategy may well be paying off. His party is up in the latest polls, which indicates the public is happy to vote for Kenny and his party so long as they are spared having to listen to him.

Kenny has a happy smiling face, one that goes on well on posters, newspaper front pages (babies a bonus) and still shots on tv. Why would he want to spoil that happy image by answering questions from the media, questions that are sure to be depressing.

Why would Kenny want to provide an answer to: "What would you do to get us out from under this overwhelming burden of bankers' debts that the last government and the EU/ECB have heaped upon Ireland's taxpayers?" No matter what the answer is, it can only be bad. Too much of a downer to say anything. Better to leave 'em guessing seems to be his ploy.

Of course all of this media avoidance has made Kenny something of a laughingstock. #WheresEnda has been a trending topic on Twitter for a week or more. Sightings of Kenny were reported breathlessly as if a Sasquatch was spotted in a suburban shopping mall.

Mark Twain once said, "It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." Enda Kenny seems to have adopted that as his campaign strategy. If Fine Gael romps home on February 25 Kenny may well have written a new chapter in the "How to campaign successfully" book.

We sure could use Gov. Christie in Ireland

I've read a bit about Governor Christie before, but until today I had never heard him speak on the issues facing New Jersey. I caught a CNBC segment of him talking jobs and money at lunch hour and all I can say is, "Governor, will you adopt us?"

Last week I argued that the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen shouldn't be hounded out of the job because he was a little groggy during a morning interview. That doesn't mean, however, that he should remain in the job.

The truth is he has to go as does his party.

In many ways Cowen is almost my ideal politician. I don't want to like my political leaders. In fact, I think some gruffness and some meanness combined with arrogance can be excellent character traits in a leader, particularly at a time like this when tough decisions have to be made and stakeholders in the status quo have to be told where to go.

If you read the newspapers you'll see many references to Cowen being angry or whatever, but mostly what I hear is waffle and conciliation. He needs to be tougher, but even that wouldn't matter because he is UP TO HIS NECK in responsibility for what brought us to our knees in the first place. He was the Minister for Finance when the country was run into the ground.

So, it's time for a new leader and a new government. Unfortunately, everyone in Ireland is already very familiar with what the alternative will look like and it ain't all that appealing. The leader of the opposition is not all that likable, but nor does he project the toughness necessary to shake up the nation, take the burden on his shoulders and lead us to safety.

No, we need Chris Christie {photo} and, apparently, he is three quarters Irish so that's not an issue. For years there was an argument in politics here as to whether Ireland was (or should be) 'closer to Berlin or Boston.' Right now I say the heck with Berlin and Boston, we need to move much closer to Trenton.

Revelations show politician to be a loving, honorable husband

News of the Al and Tipper Gore's separation came only two days after I watched an interview with Irish politician about his wife. The former leader of the Fine Gael party, Michael Noonan spoke movingly and lovingly about his wife Florence, who is now in a nursing home with Alzheimer's Disease. The contrast between Al Gore and Noonan is very stark, but at the same time both stories serve as a reminder that you don't really know what goes on in any politician's marriage.

Noonan {photo} was interviewed on TV about this side of his life that nobody - other than his family - knew about. Florence Noonan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's 12 years ago when she was 54. Michael Noonan decided to tell the story of his wife's illness and its impact on her, him and their children following an RTE investigation last week on Alzheimer's and the treatments and help available here.

{You might be able to view this interview here - go to around the 24" mark.}

I was amazed as I listened as I kept wondering how Noonan was able to carry on a normal life in politics while he was going through this traumatic experience. Even in Ireland politics is pretty high-pressure and carries a fair bit of media intrusion, although obviously nothing like what leading American politicians such as Gore have to endure.

Yet Noonan, with the help of their children, was looking after his wife as he assumed the role of leader of the party and fought the 2002 general election. How he managed to do this while nobody even in Fine Gael even seemed to know what he was going through is beyond me.

What I like about Noonan's desire to keep this private is that he must have been aware that one of his big problems was that he didn't have much charisma and his manner made him a fairly unsympathetic character. Basically he wasn't the kind of man who came across as likable on the television or radio.

On Monday night that all changed as I doubt there was a person in Ireland who didn't see him a new light. He came across as incredibly dignified and noble, two traits that would have helped him immeasurably in politics. Yet dignity was more important to him than a base attempt to use his wife's condition in a base attempt to win the voters' affections. Admirable.

St. Patrick's Day is a unique opportunity for a small country

St. Patrick's Day is tomorrow, which means that half the elected representatives of Ireland are outside the country today.

Government ministers have been dispatched to the four corners of the globe to meet and greet members of the Irish diaspora as well the political and business elite at each destination. This annual exodus of our government always elicits comments from the press about the waste of money, that these trips are all about the minsters' own pleasure and there's precious little in it for us taxpayers. They're on "jaunts" or "junkets", what have you. {Read this for an example of what I'm talking about.}

I'm all in favor of fiscal rectitude in government, especially because they're spending my money. To that end, the luxuries that the various cabinet ministers and their entourages have lavished upon themselves during these trips in previous years have rightly been reined in by Brian Cowen. However, to put an end to these trips as some would like would be wrong. It seems pretty obvious to me that overall that these trips are important and that this is money that should be spent.

St. Patrick's Day is unique. What other nation's national holiday is celebrated with such fervor around the world? What other nation of five million people can command the attention of the world's most powerful man and literally dozens and dozens of political, financial and industrial power-brokers? None.

Sure a lot of what our elected officials do at this time is schmoozing and, yes, boozing, but so what? That's what works. The attachment to Ireland among the tens of millions of Irish descent around the world is not built on the cold hard figures of economics or political calculation, but on the shared stories and cultural bonds that are more likely to be renewed over an after dinner drink than at a conference table.

Of course it isn't just government ministers who fan out around the world. Many TD's (parliamentarians) and local officials are also traveling to represent their towns and counties and Ireland, if unofficially, at smaller events.

These trips too are important, as I'm sure many of you appreciate. If only more people in Ireland could understand this.

Is every penny spent a penny spent wisely? Who knows? But the advertising world's old saying that "half of my advertising budget is wasted, but the problem is I don't know which half" equally applies to this outlay at St. Patrick's Day. Actually I would guess that far less than half is wasted, but again who can be sure?

So long as our elected representatives show restraint they should be out there strengthening the links that ties us all together, selling Ireland and ensuring that this small nation takes full advantage of this annual, but unique opportunity.

Ireland's health care example

On Monday the New York Times published a column by Paul Krugman that compared Ireland's and America's economic problems. Krugman is an economist and should know better than to omit the role played by the fact Ireland is in a monetary union with countries whose economies are not really in synch with our own. He should also know that comparing Ireland (GDP around $250bn) and the United States (GDP $14 trillion) is really of little value.

I didn't think much of Krugman's column, but he got me thinking, thinking about health care and if Ireland's experience was of any value to the American debate on the topic.

I haven't been following the ins and outs of America's health care debate. In fact, I don't really understand all that well how the Irish system works, even though I've lived here for nearly 20 years. Having said that, I can offer a couple of observations of the Irish system that may be of some use to you.

First, having the government run your health care system is no panacea. I don't know if we'd be better off with less government involvement, but based on the volume of media coverage of all that's wrong with the Irish health care system, I can't imagine it could be much worse.

For what seems like the 10th time in the last two years a major scandal in one (maybe more) of our hospitals is unfolding. This scandal is totally dominating the news here. {Nobody seems to care much about the Jihad-Jane-Irish-al-Qaeda-cell story that broke on Tuesday.}

All three major broadsheets are full of coverage of this latest fiasco in the health system and are calling on the Minister for Health, Mary Harney {photo}, to resign.

That brings up a related point. Problems in the health care system have the potential to generate such emotion among the population and provide so much fodder for the opposition parties that the normal functioning of the government seems to grind to a halt every time health hits the headlines. Maybe something to bear in mind?

Ireland is a small country and maybe the health care issues here have nothing to do with the fact that the state is so heavily involved in running it. Maybe things will be completely different in whatever form an American state-funded / state-run system takes. Maybe.

Or maybe it will be a bureaucratic, systematic mess like we have here now.

The precious voices of Irish politics

First it was George Lee quitting on politics and his party and now we have another high profile resignation. Today the Green Party's Déirdre de Búrca resigned.

De Búrca was a Senator for the Greens, one of only eight party members in the two houses of the Irish parliament. She got her seat in the Senate when her party entered government in coalition with Fianna Fáil back in 2007.

De Búrca {photo with John Gormley} says she is quitting because she can no longer support a party that has "abandoned our political values and our integrity." She points the finger directly at party leader John Gormley saying he's "done a disservice to the Green Party" by tying the party too closely to their government coalition partners. De Búrca says Gormley has been "unable, or unwilling" to "take a stronger line with Brian Cowen and the Fianna Fáil party" and ignored Green Party principles because the party has become too attached to being in government.

Okay, she's frustrated I can understand that. She wants a stronger leadership from the head of her party, again understandable. What I can't understand is why she's quitting.

She could have led an effort to change leaders, but she chose not to. She could have stayed in, fighting for the party she clearly still believes in, but she chose not to. She chose to quit.

Believe me I'm just as happy because her views rarely matched mine, but I don't like all this quitting. What does it say about people that they'll quit rather than fight? What does it say about us as an electorate that we're represented by such people?

Lee & de Búrca both could have made simple statements that they were leaving politics because they've had a change of heart or decided that it wasn't for them or they wanted to spend more time with their families or whatever. That would have been fine, but instead what we have is people leaving because ... I don't really know ... because no one's listening to them? Gimme a break!

Good riddance I say to both of them. I find it embarrassing that such preciousness exists in the houses of parliament. I don't want to be represented by the type of people who, when angry, wince as they slap you halfheartedly and then turn and run away.

If you believe in what you're doing and in what you can do then fight your corner. But, if you're going to quit, then quit with dignity. Shaddup.

{Kudos to the Green Party for their quick web site fix. De Burca's page has already been purged. The government's own web site should be as quick to treat De Búrca and Lee as non-persons.}

Lee leaves Fine Gael looking like losers

Big doings here today, if you're one of those who is obsessed by the minutia of Ireland's politics. RTE's former Economics Editor and the nation's favorite merchant of doom, George Lee, announced today that he was quitting politics, quitting the Dáil and quitting the Fine Gael party less than a year after he quit RTE to "get off the fence" and work to "ensure the country got better Government."

That was in May of 2009 and now it looks like Lee (photo - right) will be looking to get back on the fence at RTE.

Undoubtedly this was a tough decision for Lee, but what of his former party and its leader Enda Kenny (photo - holding Lee's arm aloft)?

Fine Gael is Ireland's second biggest political party and was seen as pretty much shoo-ins for victory in the next election, even if that's still two years away. The country is on its knees and the biggest political party, Fianna Fáil, is generally regarded as responsible.

Right now there are over 400,000 unemployed, thousands of small businesses are on the rocks, the banks are still in a vegetative state and will probably need more taxpayer help. Recovery will be slow and painful, which should all but guarantee a mood for big change in the political sphere.

As far as the electorate is concerned Fianna Fáil turned a blind eye (at best) to shady practices in property development and neglected its responsibilities in regulating the banks who loaned the money to the property developers. In other words, this is a golden opportunity for Fine Gael to shine. All they have to do is prove they can manage things better than Fianna Fáil. That's not too much to ask, is it?

But they're Fine Gael.

Being Fine Gael means never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity. It means always a bridesmaid never a bride. It means you can use whatever cliche for LOSER you want to use because Fine Gael are losers.

Now for the most part they're likable losers. I'm sure the Fianna Fáil party loves them because it's always nice to have a loser as your main rival; someone you can count on to do something really stupid at the worst possible time. Or any other time as well. That's Fine Gael.

George Lee is leaving Fine Gael because, he says, he had no influence in shaping the party's economics policies. At the time he quit RTE to join Fine Gael Lee was easily the most well known and respected economist in the country. Having warned us for years that the sky was falling, he was almost a god in people's eyes when it did, in fact, fall.

And how did Fine Gael use this uniquely popular and intelligent and respected resource? Basically as a meet and greet guy, sort of a pretty face for a poster campaign, but not someone whose views you'd actually take seriously. It just seems so stupid that it's beyond comprehension. But they're Fine Gael.

Now Lee's gone, FG's lost their poster boy and, possibly, their best opportunity in a generation to actually win an election, which they haven't managed since 1982. They've managed to look worse than Fianna Fáil and that's hard work. Losers.

Ireland needs a 'Tea Party' movement

On Wednesday night BBC's "Newsnight" did a segment on the Tea Party movement in America. I'd heard about the Tea Party-ers, but only as a vague protest movement. The other night the BBC put a human face on them, interviewing a small gathering in someone's home in Washington, MO.

When it was over I thought to myself, "nothing like that would ever happen here." I don't know why, but the scene I was witnessing just seemed so American: people in a small town getting together to discuss what they could do to affect national politics. They seemed so determined to make a difference, to influence policy and - they stressed - to ensure that they weren't used and/or abused by one party of the other.

Ireland is only 1/100th the size of America, yet I think most Irish people feel a greater sense of frustration that there is nothing that can be done, that what 'they' (politicians) get up to is out of our control.

Ireland's issues and Irish voters are not the same as America's, so the Tea Party goals would not suit Ireland. Yet, the manner in which the Tea Party movement has channeled frustration with politicians among a segment of the electorate is a model that could be useful here.

The biggest source of anger in Ireland right now is the banks and the government's support for them. The Irish economy is on its knees, barely treading water. The NY Times recently mentioned Ireland as possibly having to default on its obligations, so great are the debts the government has taken on to shore up the banks.

Needless to say, many people are hopping mad that all of us taxpayers have to stump up to save the bankers, all of whom seemed to be coining it during the Celtic Tiger years.

This past week the government announced that they were going to hold an inquiry into what happened with the banks, but the inquiry is going to be held in secret. No tv cameras, no press, no nobody other than those who the government appointed inquiry head asks. The inquiry is expected to be complete by year's end.

There's a general cry out 'whitewash' across the country as everyone knows that the banking problem was a result of bankers' greed (and/or stupidity), developers' greed, regulatory bodies ineptitude and government indifference (or worse) until it was too late. Despite the frustration at the banks, politicians and developers the closest we've come to a protest movement here was when, in a widely applauded move, a man threw eggs at the chairman and chief executive of Allied Irish Banks last May.

If there was a Tea Party type movement Irish people might be able to use that anger to better effect, instead of simply stewing or calling and texting talk radio programs.They might just, perhaps, get the public inquiry and maybe even a banker or two on trial.

Cabinet members should worry about lone nuts in tough times

Posted by TheYank at 9/28/2009 5:20 AM EDT

Last night someone tried to burn down the Department of Finance building, according to RTE. No mention of who might have thrown the petrol bomb into the building, but I guess we can let our imaginations run wild to the extent that we accept it's someone with a grudge against the government and not just a random act of vandalism.

That reminds me of something that crossed my mind the other day when I was walking by the Department of Finance. I stopped to take a picture of the Lisbon Treaty referendum posters and just as I snapped the picture I realized that the Minister for Finance was in my shot. He was with one other man and heading for his car parked right outside.


The Minister for Finance is the man in the dark suit jacket.

If I'd been an angry nut I could have thrown something at him or worse. A real lunatic could even have filed away the information that the parked car means the Minister will be out shortly and planned an act to do the Minister some serious harm.

Obviously, for the most part Irish politics doesn't engender that sort of passion, but these are not normal times. The economy has taken a serious beating and there are a lot of people who have lost just about everything: job, savings, car, house, credit rating, marriage, self-respect, perspective. There is a constant media barrage of blaming the government for all our ills - and they are greatly to blame - but that sort of talk can unhinge people who have lost so much, especially self-respect and perspective.

Obviously political violence is not unknown in Ireland, but I don't anticipate any group planning and carrying out violent actions against the government due to the economy. Still, I can see no reason why the government should make it easy for that lone nut to carry out a rash act of violence. At a minimum the garda driver should escort the Minister into the waiting car. What else is he there for if not to protect the man?
---------------
Comments:

jacersisityourself wrote:
Bejaysus you're right! People like Brian Lenihan think they are among "The Untouchables". What a rude awakening awaits. Not from me, I hasten to add! I'm just a voter.
9/29/2009 6:58 PM EDT

Candidate for our 'time'

Joe Higgins won a seat in the European Parliament. Joe was late entering the campaign, sort of reluctant, but he won. Now I'm not really excited by his win other than I figure his posters went a long way towards putting him over the top.