NEW YORK BOSTON |#Popular: Irish Celebrity Gossip Irish in US Politics Irish Festivals Irish Roots Irish Entertainment Offbeat Irish

Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Bill Clinton invades a tiny Irish village and the locals go gaga - A serious message for Ireland amid all the fun and celebration

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Bill Clinton invades a tiny Irish village and the locals go gaga - A serious message for Ireland amid all the fun and celebration

Posted on Saturday, June 23, 2012 at 08:30 AM

Larger Text

E-mail

32 Comments

RSS

Archives

Bill Clinton came to a little village in East Cork last night and the locals loved it.

It was early evening when the tiny village of Shanagarry gathered to witness the arrival of the 42nd president.

Sleepy hamlets in East Cork do not get many days like this.

Clinton was guest speaker at the Worldwide Ireland Fund dinner attended by over 200 delegates from 12 countries.

It was held at Ballymaloe House, the epicenter of the slow food revolution in Ireland where the Darina Allen family has established a worldwide reputation for fine cuisine.

The little meeting center where the event was held was more used I’m sure, to local parish functions and the occasional wedding.

Alongside the president was Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny making it a spectacular night for the East Cork speck on the map.

Throw in Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney who accepted a lifetime achievement award and dance legend Michael Flatley and you have a perfect alignment of stars.

The buzz all day at the Ireland Fund event was the decision by Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness to meet with Queen Elizabeth in Belfast next week.

Bill Clinton called it a “terrific” moment in his speech and there is no question that we may witness the last great historic moment of the Irish peace process next week.

As Ireland Funds CE0 Kieran McLaughlin noted, the process that has become so mundane would never have happened without Clinton’s intervention.

As he is wont to, Clinton’ s remarks weaved across many tapestries, his time in office, the upcoming election, but mostly the Irish economy and how to get out of the mess they are in.

“Creative cooperation” is Clinton’s buzzword these days and he points to the US states that are doing best as examples of it, where opposing parties get together for the good of the state.

Unspoken was the reality that there is no creative cooperation in Europe at the present over the Euro which has led to the mess to begin with.

Come to think of it it was exactly creative cooperation which got Queen Elizabeth and Martin McGuiness to agree to meet next week. As Clinton noted, Elizabeth is long enough on the throne to make her own decisions and obviously she wants it as part of her legacy.

Enda Kenny was also in rare form. Clinton gets every politician alive to up their game, though as Kenny remarked appearing after Clinton and before a
Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, is a tough business indeed.

Heaney was introduced by Ireland Fund chairman Loretta Brennan Glucksman who recited a wonderful poem Heaney had written for her after her husband’s passing.

Heaney got the largest ovation of the day and deservedly so. He is one of Ireland’s greatest national treasures, one of a handful who bestrides the world with no equal.

Once he wrote “no glass of mine was ever raised to toast a British queen.”
I’d bet he, like so many Irish these days, would say that is in the past now.

And indeed it is. As he flew out from Ireland last night, Bill Clinton knows that his work on Ireland is the gift that keeps on giving, as peace continues to break out and a former top IRA commander meets a British queen.

As a Shanagarry local has likely never said “Who wudda thunk it”?

E-mail

32 comments

Next Previous Page 2 of 3 pages

brianmack | Jun 23, 2012, 06:57 PM EDT

When I was a small lad and cared for by my Grandmother from Tralee, I remember her saying that the North/South solution would not occur in my lifetime. That was the mid 1950's and Bill Clinton got that started. I would say nothing short of a miracle. Stellar job and surely the USA was in better shape when he was at the helm.

Report abuse

RedBranch | Jun 23, 2012, 05:53 PM EDT

Ireland, the gift that keeps on giving and just what was your 'consideration' Mr.President, $50,000, $100,000 more?

Report abuse

casualMBA | Jun 23, 2012, 03:23 PM EDT

To the Tower! with the chalices and the manuscripts!! Hurry!

Report abuse

BrianO | Jun 23, 2012, 02:17 PM EDT

@casualMBA, that one was mine, didn't log in properly I suppose. A random thought as I re read the headline, How would Clinton look in Viking garb?

Report abuse

casualMBA | Jun 23, 2012, 02:16 PM EDT

Good news from southwest Ireland, for a change. Ireland and America’s statesmen, philanthropic-minded, and arts icons have gathered at a small village in Cork and Michael Flatley’s tasteful rendition of lordly ambiance to celebrate the recent $100 million raised for worthy causes. I trust, beyond the buzz of Queen meets (IRA) Commander, there was “creative cooperation” at the gathering to……. 1.) fund an improved version of Mitchell Scholarships – perhaps under a Clinton Foundation Fellowship program tailored to needed research for the historical (i.e., vertical) cohesion of Ireland’s sovereign collateral in its confiscated lands (see fitzgeraldsforequity.com for further details)……. and, 2.) “creative cooperation” to insure this sovereign collateral of Ireland (i.e., lands in southwest Ireland et al.) is not “misallocated” in floating (in the teeth of Europe’s economic challenge) new infrastructure expenditures, additional debt service, or petrochemical launches, and, instead, a mechanism is established to reach a “collateral resolution” of “just recompense.”

Report abuse

densonone | Jun 23, 2012, 02:10 PM EDT

O'Dowd, I wish I had a bridge leading to nowhere I could sell you, if you really believe what you wrote glorifying Bill Clinton. He's a politician turned public speaker whose card should read, "Have Speech, Will Travel for the Right Price." I seriously doubt the residents of Shanagarry did anything more than show traditional Irish grace and hospitality. And as for your comment about Ballymaloe House, "The little meeting center where the event was held was more used I’m sure, to local parish functions and the occasional wedding" right after you said it had gained worldwide reputation for fine cuisine -- in the words of my friend's teenage daughter, complete with rolling eyes, "Oh, come on, get real."

Report abuse

hooligan6a | Jun 23, 2012, 01:25 PM EDT

Love him or hate him, Billy is the slickest politician to come down the pike. I have to give him credit, but would never vote for him.

Report abuse

BippyBellito | Jun 23, 2012, 01:04 PM EDT

If Broadway ever does a remake of The Music Man, Bill Clinton would be the perfect casting. A First Class Charletan in a small Irish town

Report abuse

casualMBA | Jun 23, 2012, 11:05 AM EDT

The comment reference President Clinton and re election campaign has been attributed in error to casualMBA (He is a shrewd, well meaning politician nevertheless)

Report abuse

casualMBA | Jun 23, 2012, 10:36 AM EDT

Reference Commanders and Queens, may I point out Shane O'Neill once strode into the Queen's court (with battle ax toting companions)and declared, simultaneously, his guilt and innocence. She, being a Queen, graciously acknowledged both, and proceeded to confiscate, eventually, virtually all the O'Neill lands in Ulster (a la the Fitzgeralds in southwest Ireland; and the would be rescuers - ODonnells and others - of nearby Kinsale)

Report abuse

casualMBA | Jun 23, 2012, 10:11 AM EDT

Clinton is and always will be a master politician. Ireland gives him good cover away from the demoncract that is running for re election.

Report abuse

pounder | Jun 23, 2012, 10:09 AM EDT

Clinton, the last American President.

Report abuse

Portia777 | Jun 23, 2012, 10:07 AM EDT

Clinton under the guise of peace. No sovereign Irish man or woman would fall for this con man.

Report abuse

GaelMcC | Jun 23, 2012, 10:04 AM EDT

Did the village really go ga-ga over the aging serial mysogynist who does not know the meaning of the word "is"? Really?