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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Irish leader Enda Kenny's powerful eloquence in first White House visit --Obama remembers Frederick Douglass in Ireland

Posted on Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 11:01 PM

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The White House: President Obama looks older than a year ago when I saw him in the flesh last. There are more creases on his skin, more tiredness lurking around his eyes.

No occupant of the White House leaves office unscathed, the heavy burdens of the job drag down even the most vital of men.

This night Obama looks tired but is in fine spirits. Like most American politicians, especially those from Chicago he is comfortable in an Irish crowd and it shows.

His annual White House party has become the highlight of the Irish social year with tickets scarcer than a hen's teeth. On this night we had all crowded into the East Room to hear Obama, Vice President Biden and new Irish leader Enda Kenny proclaim a new era in Irish American relations.

Outside the White House fountain spurted deep green water and Obama joked that the White House workmen had done a proper job this year, unlike last when the watery green color had hardly done the job.

Obama began with a telling history lesson.

He described the voyage of the great African American leader Frederick Douglass to Ireland where he went to escape the slave catchers in 1845.

Douglass became heavily influenced by Daniel O'Connell, the 'Liberator' who led Irish Catholics to emancipation and detested slavery. O'Connell's embrace of non violence deeply impacted Douglass as Obama pointed out.

He talked about the upcoming visit to Ireland and what it would mean to him. Arguably He will be the first truly significant black figure since Douglass to visit Ireland.

The linkage between black and Irish was also on the mind of Enda Kenny.

In a soaring speech, among the finest I have heard by any Irish politician, he compared the slave trade in West Africa that brought millions in chains to America to the flight from death and starvation of the Irish who came on the coffin ships.

"Together we built America" he said.

He spoke about the importance of the upcoming visit by Obama coming at a time of great trial and challenge for Ireland.

He made it clear that Obama would get a hero's welcome in his ancestor's village in Offaly and that the plain people of Ireland would give him a wonderful reception.

Looking at Kenny so in command and coming across so powerfully I could not but think that cometh the hour cometh the man.

He certainly possesses that great ingredient for success which is sheer luck.

His predecessor Brian Cowen, a thoroughly decent man, was hit with a ton of bricks soon after taking office when the economic crisis hit. He never recovered

Kenny on contrast will host the American president the Queen of England and if reports are true the pope next year.

But Kenny gives the clear impression that high office will not daunt him, that he will remain rooted in the soil of his native County Mayo and not develop the arrogance so prevalent in the previous government.

He has certainly got off to a lightning start in America.

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eiriamach | Mar 18, 2011, 11:18 PM EDT

There was a disconnection between the Irish of Ireland and the Irish in America on the question of slavery. In 1863 Irish immigrants in NYC followed Archbishop Hughes, who called supporters of abolition "infidels and heretics." Protestant clergy preached abolition, and the Irish distrusted Protestants not only because of their experiences with the British at home, but also because NYC Protestant business owners exploited Irish labor and Protestant Nativists treated the Irish as racially inferior. I realize that some have tried recently to revise the history of the 1853 Draft Riots, but the documents (arrest records, diary accounts, court testimony, etc.) are clear: poor Irish targeted Protestant businesses and black laborers during the riots; Germans mostly abandoned the riots after the first couple of days while the Irish continued for a week. The Irish in Ireland treated Douglass well, as several newspaper articles of the era indicate, while the Irish of NYC lynched blacks and burned their homes and orphanage. Why this difference between Irish immigrants and Irish at home? Probably, as Albon P. Man suggested, because the Catholic Church was the one solid connection that Irish immigrants had with their homeland-- Irish priests, Irish parishes, and familiar rituals-- and with very few exceptions, Catholic clergy in America defended slavery and the slave trade.

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cillowen | Mar 18, 2011, 09:12 PM EDT

i better search for a clip of the great orator that is being claimed for end-a

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jacersagain | Mar 18, 2011, 06:26 PM EDT

@ haikued2, 12.51pm today... Like Searlit, I didn’t know Mr. Douglass visited Ireland, or that he met Daniel O’Connell. We in Ireland weren’t taught that kind of history when I was in school in Dublin. I looked up on Mr. ‘Douglas’ – apparently he visited Ireland via Liverpool ON THE ADVICE OF OTHER negro people who had already been to visit these isles on the edge of Europe. So Mr. Douglass was NOT the first to visit; his visit would have been an otherwise unreported event had history not shown it to be otherwise. Your dismissive attack on Searlit’s post is totally unwarranted.

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Morninghours | Mar 18, 2011, 06:12 PM EDT

BallinaLass, you can find Obama's and Kenny's speeches on the White House website. Look under Photos & Video and then find the one for St. Pat's Day. (I'd post a link, but I don't believe IC allows links to external websites.)

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nicgearailt | Mar 18, 2011, 05:34 PM EDT

I have followed politics in this country for as long as I can remember. I find myself believing that President Obama is an outstanding President,and exactly who we need at this time in history. I believe that Enda Kenny is exactly the leader that Ireland needs at this time,as well. You need leaders with integrity to deal with reality,and also have a caring side. Both countries have been victims of years of fraud greed..you name it..at the hands of it's own citizenry. Moving forward.both seem exactly right for our times.Both are smart, eloquent ,with strong abilities to connect with their people. It just feels right.

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antoman | Mar 18, 2011, 03:49 PM EDT

@woundedbolix-kindly use your georgedillon account when you are addressing me.For continuitys sake.Plus I'm unfamiliar with schizophrenia and would rather respond to your accounts one at a time.Thank you.

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sirpeter | Mar 18, 2011, 02:50 PM EDT

Woundedbolix..The Idiot's Guide to Irish History!!!You recommend that book do you? Was it the idiot part of the title that caught your eye,when you brought it?

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sirpeter | Mar 18, 2011, 02:36 PM EDT

For those who don't know this...Frederick Douglass was treated with great respect by everyone in Ireland.Quote"I gaze around in vain for one who will question my equal humanity, claim me as his slave, or offer me an insult. I employ a cab - I am seated beside white people - I reach the hotel - I enter the same door - I am shown into the same parlour - I dine at the same table - and no one is offended... I find myself regarded and treated at every turn with the kindness and deference paid to white people. When I go to church, I am met by no upturned nose and scornful lip to tell me, 'We don't allow nigg*rs in here!'"Unquoet

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WoundedKnee | Mar 18, 2011, 02:15 PM EDT

A figure who has unfortunately been forgotten in Ireland is Richard Madden, who played an important role in ending the slave trade in the Caribbean. He also testified in favor of the Africans at the Amistad trial.

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WoundedKnee | Mar 18, 2011, 02:13 PM EDT

antoman: Sad to see you admit to knowing so little about the history of your country. Why don't you start reading some books? Maybe you could begin with The Idiot's Guide to Irish History.

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bunkerhill | Mar 18, 2011, 02:05 PM EDT

The Irish were not rioting against blacks in NYC during the civil war. They were rioting because news was coming back from the front of how they were being slaughtered and how the rich were able to buy their way out. That was also common in England. I don't know what is wrong with Irish historians. They never mention how Irish land was confiscated by the royals and given out to their English idle buddies. They never mention that there was plenty of food in Ireland but that it was shipped to England while the Irish starved. It was not famine it was genocide. Also, why was the British Army allowed to kill 13 people in a peaceful civil rights demonstration in Northern "Ireland" in the 1970, including elderly and a thirteen year old boy. We go after everyone else in the world for that type of murder, but if they are English that's okay. I think all the fighting English are dead. Why are the Israelis allowed to reclaim their ancient homeland but the Irish cannot reclaim Northern which they never left?

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Whitepark | Mar 18, 2011, 01:54 PM EDT

I met Enda Kenny 18 months at a Birthday Party for a friend in a Village Pub in Ballyglass Co.Mayo "The Squeling Pig"I was impressed with what he had to say but never thinking that he would become Prime Minister some day, I wish him every sucess in his endevour to turn the Country around,

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bunkerhill | Mar 18, 2011, 01:52 PM EDT

Good for Kenny. My wife thinks he is also a very handsome man, never a bad thing to be. Not happy about the queen's visit however. Hope she and her idle brood are not getting ready to move back in either in Ireland or the USA. These people didn't come by their idle lives of luxury by not being sly and crafty.

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mylesie | Mar 18, 2011, 01:21 PM EDT

Read it a second time - still looking for all this eloguence!

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mylesie | Mar 18, 2011, 01:19 PM EDT

Good Lord - have you found another Bono?

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