Minister for Justice John O'Donoghue had no sooner returned from the world racism conference in Durban, followed by a tour of a township and an Ireland Aid project in Cape Town, than he was back to the realities of national politics. He chaired the FF selection convention in Rathkeale on Monday night last, where Michael Collins and John Cregan were chosen as Dβil candidates for Limerick West.
O'Donoghue, as he urged the delegates to go out and get the second seat, got his usual laugh from his audience by taking a swipe at the opposition. The only reason John Bruton was leader of FG for so long was because the contestants were Micheal Noonan and Nora Owen, he said, and the only reason Noonan became leader was because Ivan Yates saw the writing on the wall and resigned from politics altogether.
Taking swipes
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, was on the road to Gaza when he heard the dreadful news from New York on Tuesday. When word came on his mobile phone, Cowen had the limo stop and the rest of the motorcade, mostly jeeps carrying officials, media and security, followed suit and pulled in at the side of the highway. He spent some 15 minutes contacting Irish diplomats around the world before deciding to proceed. It was touch and go at one stage but the swift condemnation of the attacks by Yasser Arafat clinched the matter.
Accompanied by the Irish representative to Palestine, Isolde Moylan, Cowen met Arafat for about 10 minutes and held a press conference before returning to Jerusalem. By this time, Israel had shut down its air space but the Irish managed to negotiate a departure for their private jet and so Cowen, instead of proceeding to Syria and Beirut, as scheduled, made it to Brussels for the foreign ministers' emergency meeting.
Whiter Hillary
When Hillary Clinton was in Ireland last year, she suggested the holding of a special conference of women parliamentarians to share experiences and generate ideas. The increased female participation in politics, with the creation of the new assemblies in the north, Scotland and Wales, encouraged the Vital Voices Global Partnership, the non-profit body devoted to supporting and accelerating the economic, social and political progress of women, to pursue the idea. The Scottish Parliament offered to host the event and participants, including members of the House of Commons and the Dβil, will gather in Edinburgh on September 28th. TDs due to attend include FG's Nora Owen, Monica Barnes and Frances Fitzgerald and FF's Cecilia Keaveney.
The problem now is that the new Senator for New York, who set the ball rolling, may not be able to come given the catastrophe this week. Clinton may also miss the Dublin Chamber of Commerce dinner in the Shelbourne Hotel on September 27th, where she is due to address 1,300 guests, paying £150 a head.She is such a popular speaker that there are already 900 on the waiting list.
Bertie's big day
Bertie Ahern was 50 on Wednesday but there was little celebration because of events in the US. A small drinks party planned for Tuesday evening with staff from Government offices and FF headquarters was cancelled, as was the drinks arranged in his private office the next day. The Cabinet, however, had a whip around, organised by chief whip Seamus Brennan, and presented him with a painting of flower-sellers outside the GPO by Armagh artist, Joe Hynes. Tβnaiste Mary Harney did the honours.
The next painting the Taoiseach may see is one of himself. Artist James Hanley, who has already had Cardinal Connell, Maureen Potter and Ronnie Delaney as subjects, has been commissioned by the OPW to do the official portrait which will hang, after his retirement from public life, in Leinster House.
Viking apology
Denmark's Prof Poul Harremoδs raised chuckles this week at the UCD conference on developments since the Rio Earth Summit. He began his lecture by telling the audience he had arrived in Dublin the previous day and this was his first visit to the Republic.
He had gone to TCD to look at the exhibitions and learn about the city's history, including, of course, the invasion of the Vikings. He then made an announcement, to much laughter: "As it seems to be fashionable at the moment, I wish to apologise for the behaviour of the Vikings".
Impasse in the North
Amid the devastation in the US this week, the problems on this island seem small, open and solvable. Nonetheless, the efforts of politicians on both islands have yet again concluded in another impasse - the September 23rd deadline when the Northern Ireland Secretary, John Reid, has to decide whether to suspend the assembly or dissolve it and hold fresh elections.
The latest crisis point was much in the minds of the top people on the Anglo-Irish scene as they gathered at Newnham College, Cambridge, for the annual meeting last weekend of the British Irish Association. The keynote speakers were Reid and A. G. Michael McDowell who came straight from a legal conference in Australia and raised a few Irish hackles by referring frequently to the Dublin, as opposed to the Irish, Government. The main business, however, took place at the many workshops and in the informal contacts around the bars.
The atmosphere was one of gloom. Normally, it is the British who are so afflicted and the Irish who talk the situation up with a "one day at a time" attitude but last weekend the feeling was general. No-one had any new initiative or proposal, and the two sovereign governments kept impressing on the Northerners that they had done all they could and given all they had.
It was now up to them. It's not a new refrain but somehow it seemed more definite this time.
Sinn FΘin was criticised by all and sundry over the debacle in Colombia, and the unionists were so incensed about it that even FG leader Michael Noonan, who it was felt was repositioning the party in a greener slot, suffered a great tirade from David Trimble for not being forceful enough in condemnation. The Irish Government and the SDLP stood shoulder to shoulder in determination to keep Britain to its commitments on police reform and away from any further concessions to either the unionists or Sinn FΘin.
After taking quiet a hammering, the Shinners' spirits lifted a bit at the end, and so did others, when the white South African peace negotiator, Roelf Meyer, in a heated lecture told the unionists they had to move forward, that they could not preside over a regime of apartheid and that in any case they hadn't had real power for the last 20 years. Any comparison with white supremacists, be they in South Africa or Alabama, is like a red rag to a bull to the unionists, and thus it was on this occasion.
Security 1953-style
Veteran Shannon reporter Arthur Quinlan recalled this week how 48 years ago the airport played a key role in helping the US guard against the kind of attack that became a horrifying reality this week. At the time it was stated that the security operation was intended "to prevent another Pearl Harbour".
It was July, 1953, and the Pentagon had received a warning that Eastern European or Middle Eastern interests were planning a possible air attack on the east coast. This was before the jet age and all aircraft from Europe had to stop for refuelling at Shannon before crossing the Atlantic. A team of senior US security officials, with the permission of the Irish Government, set up in Room 91 at the far end of the old wooden Shannon terminal buildings.
Pilots of all US and Allied civilian aircraft arriving from Europe, the Middle or Far East checked in at Room 91 before leaving Shannon and were given secret instructions in a sealed envelope to be opened halfway across the Atlantic. Inside were details of a route that led through a special air corridor to the US coast, the exact point on the coast which must be crossed and a password.
The instructions were changed each day and pilots were warned that failure to give the correct code meant they could be shot down. In 1953, there were less than 3,000 west-bound landings at Shannon with about 40 passengers each. The procedure was eventually relaxed.
Jinx on 'Fame and Fortune'
Is there a jinx on Marty Whelan's Fame and Fortune lottery game show on RT╔? Last year, the show was offering a prize of a flight on Concorde. This year, it was a trip to New York with dinner in the famous Windows on the World restaurant at the World Trade Centre tomorrow.