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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Ireland needs an honest man at the helm --They may have found it in Enda Kenny

Posted on Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 04:29 PM

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He is very likely the next Prime Minister of the Irish Republic and he would come to office at a critical time for a nation battered by an economic storm as vicious as the winter tempests that have swept through Ireland in recent weeks.

Yet Enda Kenny,59, displays a calm serenity in the face of such a monstrous challenge.

A youthful-looking former schoolteacher with no personal wealth or ever a hint of corruption, Kenny may be exactly what Ireland needs at this juncture, an honest man, ready to lead a reform government which will restore the badly battered image of the country abroad and at home.

It is amazing that what was previously held against Kenny, his small town rural roots, his plain spoken persona, are now the very attributes that may well propel him to power.

The Irish have had enough of self styled experts, economic gurus and whizz kids who have collectively led them to ruin.A plain spoken everyman with the zeal of a genuine reformer now fits the bill.

Sitting in his opposition leader's office in Dublin's parliament building you get the sense of a man ready and willing to face any challenge the future brings.

He is a man with no airs and graces, utterly at ease with himself. When we first meet there is no entourage or minders, just Kenny strolling alone through the halls of parliament, with a quiet word for everybody.

On the wall in his office is Michael Collins memorabilia, as befits the man who has inherited the leadership of the Fine Gael party which Michael Collins helped create before his untimely death.

Kenny is also taking nothing for granted, despite the opinion polls showing an imminent collapse in the vote of the governing party, Fianna Fail, and their coalition partners the Green Party.

But Fine Gael have been the Washington Generals, the team that plays the Harlem Globetrotters and almost always loses, in Irish politics.

Fianna Fail have been in power almost 22 years out of the last 24. This massive financial meltdown however, threatens to take them down once and for all.

Kenny has painstakingly built up his party for over a decade now, after they suffered another calamitous defeat and they have increased their vote in every election since.

His big moment will come sometime in the next twelve weeks or so when an election is called.

He knows Ireland needs a reforming, corruption free government that will tackle the massive economic issues head on.

He intends to do so quoting one of his favorite American politicians, 'Give 'em hell' Harry Truman.

Kenny is a keen student of American politics, an admirer of the Kennedys and the rich Irish legacy in American politics.

He has an instinctive feel for the U.S. because of his small town Mayo roots.

Emigration was a fact of life growing up and he has relatives scattered throughout America, including in Montana and Ohio.

He knows the emigrant trails that so many from County Mayo took, to Butte,Montana for mining, to upstate New York for canal digging and so on across the country.

This background means that he will have a knowledge and insight into the emigration issue that will serve him well if elected in dealing with the Irish Diaspora.

He makes it clear that if elected he will pay close attention to Diaspora issues and to focus on developing the links between Ireland and its 70 million family abroad.

The task will not be easy for whoever takes over Ireland's government after the next election but Enda Kenny is certainly ready to answer the call when the votes are counted.

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seanomelbourne | Dec 20, 2010, 11:56 PM EST

Fine Gael/Fianna Fail same old pot of alphabet soup. Mr.O'Dowd is no friend of the Irish workers or middle class if he promotes a right wing party like Fine Gael. Mr. O 'Dowd needs to wipe the frost from his periscope.

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pilib04 | Dec 20, 2010, 10:36 PM EST

woundedknee refers to the thuggish fine gael labor coalition of the 70's. shades of connor (fascist) cruise o'brien.

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pilib04 | Dec 20, 2010, 10:33 PM EST

niall o'dowd, shame on you for this puff piece. you are an excellent writer. this thing reads like a fine gael press release. by the way, niall,if enda kenny thinks that mayo folks emigrated to montana, he has lost touch with his family. try cleveland, ohio. mayo folks didn't show up until the famine, so there really wasn't a lot of canal digging to do in new york by 1850. how that slipped past your proofreaders, niall, i don't know. maybe too much christmas cheer. think railroads the next time you want to talk about post '47 irish immigrants. come on, who really wrote this and what did the "voice" do with niall o'dowd??? finally, our gerry, is in the race for real and we who are from mayo (and armagh) think gerry will be the kingmaker in this election. tiocfaidh ar la.

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kateomprint | Dec 17, 2010, 05:32 PM EST

Ok so Enda is not the most charismatic person under the sun but he is i think honest and that was what we need right now. Brian Cowen always struck me as being the playground bully if you didn't agree with him he made snide personal comments in the Dail and got a laugh but that is of no use now.

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seamusmoore | Dec 17, 2010, 09:20 AM EST

I would say that Kwame's crowd is from Cork city.

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Monsoonman | Dec 16, 2010, 07:30 PM EST

Yes America is awash in corrupt politicians, especially the big cities. Here is an American "Irish" politician that got caught with his hand in the cookie jar: Imprisoned ex-Detroit Mayor & democrat, Kwame Kilpatrick was indicted Wednesday on new corruption charges, and his father, Bernard Kilpatrick, also was implicated in what a federal prosecutor called a "pattern of extortion, bribery and fraud'' among some of the city's most prominent officials. Yes "Kwame" was a silver tongued lad, who must've kissed the Blaerneystone at some point in his life. But he had NO moral compass.

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glorybe1929 | Dec 16, 2010, 04:01 PM EST

Monsoonman doesn't want the Irish to have what the Americans got in Obama. Slick talking idealogue with a teleprompter in the oval office.

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Hannrick | Dec 16, 2010, 03:33 PM EST

An honest politician, WOW! next you'll be tellin us the bailout was just for fun.

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Monsoonman | Dec 16, 2010, 10:43 AM EST

I would prefer a leader with character and common sense, a sense of decency and a basic understanding of mathematics(can't spend more than you have) to lead a country, rather than a slick talking idealogue, who is like a fish out of water without his teleprompter.

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JimCork | Dec 16, 2010, 07:13 AM EST

Niall, Your picture here of Enda Kenny is a piece of journalistic hagiography. In the past I've seen you defend Ireland on BBC 2s Newsnight, you're better than this piece of utter party political rubbish. Ireland needs a statesman with intelligence, intellect and economic ability and know-how, not a party politico aparatchic who can find his way arpound bar room politics and do deals and who is in his Dail seat becasue of nepotism. God saves us we've had enough of that kind. Jim

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PolinDeB | Dec 16, 2010, 12:51 AM EST

Yeah.. I think Gilmore has more gumption.. People don't like Enda.. he's too bland and boring...

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tippboy | Dec 15, 2010, 05:15 PM EST

C'mon now, Enda may be a nice guy and an honest man but he has little to no personal following in Ireland. He'll be Taoiseach because he happens to be the leader of Fine Gael, which should win the next election by default, since FF is certain to suffer a gigantic defeat.

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paricaliswishes | Dec 15, 2010, 05:13 PM EST

I vote for a man because i like the cut of him i have'nt the patience nor the inclination to ask him what he believes in.If other people that i trust also believe in him then i'll vote for him.

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WoundedKnee | Dec 15, 2010, 04:24 PM EST

I am not sure I understand Loyal Citizen's point but he does well to remind those too young to remember that a Fine Gael/Labor Party coalition back in the 1970s produced the nearest thing to a fascist government that Ireland has known. Repression and brutality were rife throughout the country. If I were an Irish radical I would be quite worried if this thuggish combination comes together again. On the other hand, I'd be even more worried if Fianna fail came back to government. The Irish--they can't win, they've made such a mess of their country!

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ancavker | Dec 15, 2010, 03:17 PM EST

dublinjas: Fine Gael was not the party of the Big Fella.

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