By Ray O’Hanlon
TransAtlantic pen pals Peter Mandelson and Alan Hevesi are in communication again. Hevesi wrote Mandy a somewhat stiff letter on March 27 in which he expressed his dismay over the suspension of the North power-sharing Executive. Presumably, that dismay has lifted given that the Executive is debating potholes again. Deeper into the Hevesi letter, however, the New York City comptroller took issue with a matter that has not been overtaken by recent developments. Hevesi stated that he had "serious doubts" that British government efforts to bring about reform in Northern Ireland were being enthusiastically received by civil servants in Belfast charged with implementing the reforms on the ground.
"From what I have heard," wrote Hevesi, "it appears that the very officials who have spent much of their careers in government resisting needed reforms have now, in many cases, been put in charge of implementing the reforms they have resisted."
Hevesi followed up with a bit of slap by suggesting that Mandelson’s predecessor, Mo Mowlam, had a better handle on the antics of the permanent bureaucracy at the Northern Ireland Office.
Mandelson, taking the term "snail mail" as literal, took his time in replying to Hevesi. Almost two months. In his reply, dated May 22, Mandelson took issue with Hevesi’s dismay and defended his decision to suspend the Executive back in February. The letter, written a few days before the pro-Executive Ulster Unionist Council vote, did express optimism that the Executive could be restored.
On the matter of the NIO mandarins, however, Mandelson raised his dukes: "I found your remarks that civil servants are resistant to change disappointing and wide of the mark. In a democracy, Ministers take decisions not officials. It is a clear duty of all civil servants to provide Ministers with clear and impartial advice and faithfully to implement the policies and decisions of Government without regard to their religious affiliation or any other personal considerations. We understand that under devolution, the NI civil service and, in particular, the senior staff served Ministers from all four parties represented in the Assembly Executive in precisely this way. A former Prime Minister once said ‘Advisers advise, and Ministers decide.’ I am sure there is a similar process in your own office."
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Ouch!
The ‘foreth’ green field
Reports of a planned golf course straddling the border between the wee North and wee Republic are indeed intriguing. Talk about new cross-border links. The idea is not as odd as it may seem to some, however. Indeed, it would be an entirely appropriate new symbol for a sport in Ireland that recognizes no border at all.
The Golfing Union of Ireland is one of several sports controlling bodies that is cross-border to begin with. Rugby and field hockey are other sports in the same category. Still, should Favor Royal, that swath of green sward in both counties Tyrone and Monaghan, secure the necessary planning permission, it could start a trend. The idea of hacking from one jurisdiction to another could take off all along the border. Indeed, it would be possible to bring three counties into the game in some areas.
Monaghan, Cavan and Fermanagh converge at one point near Redhills in County Cavan. Imagine asking a caddy here for the best line to the ninth green. "Well," he says, "aim straight for Cavan with a wee fade at the end. For God’s sake don’t hook into Monaghan, the rough is something fierce in that place."
Jeanie’s bow wave
The Jeanie Johnston is on the way, a few weeks late perhaps but better late, etc. One aspect of the ship’s design certain to attract the eye of visitors in the 30 or more U.S. and Canadian ports lined up for a possible call is the very well-endowed female figurine in the prow. Her dimensions are enough to, eh, cleave a path through any stormy sea the ship might encounter.
JZD’s heartbreak hotel
It’s been a legal battle spanning three decades but the saga that has been John Z. De Lorean against, well, the world, is drawing to a close. Bankruptcy proceedings against the motor company once owned by De Lorean are almost at an end with creditors likely to get most of what they wanted. As for De Lorean himself? He was recently evicted from his 434-acre estate in Bedminster, N.J., and, according to an Associated Press report, is now living in a New Jersey hotel.
De Lorean has long charged that he was the object of a vendetta on the part of the British government and has placed blame on the Thatcher administration in particular for much of the ills that beset his car factory outside Belfast back in the early 1980s.
Ten years ago, readers will recall, De Lorean ended a long silence and spoke to the Echo about his travails. It’s been a long road since then and living in a hotel doesn’t exactly sound like a happy ending for a man who was once the toast of the car design world.
At 75, De Lorean’s energy has to be sagging a bit, in contrast his famous stainless steel, rustproof, gull-winged auto, an object of some veneration on the part of car enthusiasts around the globe. C’est la vie, c’est la car.
Cheeky Charlie
Irish Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy is the man for any crisis. He has dubbed the recent jump in the Celtic Tiger’s inflation rate a mere "temporary blip." This must be comforting to all the Moggy residents with wads of inflating cash in brown bags under the mattress.
The "blip" line popped up in a recent Wall Street Journal assessment of the Moggy’s progress. The Journal is Ireland’s biggest fan in an economic sense and has long stated that all those welfare-bloated economies on the European continent should take a leaf out of Ireland’s book when it comes to corporate tax rates and so forth.
On that score, and despite McCreevy’s oozing confidence, the Journal’s view that "worrisome signs are showing" in the Moggy’s economic engine room is not to be dismissed lightly. Still and all, "IF" will go along with McCreevy for now. Sure wasn’t he yer only man that night in the Irish Consulate in New York a few years back when he denied himself the opportunity for a long-winded speech before a captive audience and instead urged all present to simply "enjoy the piss-up." If brevity is the soul of economic wit as well, the Moggy can sleep peacefully, for the time being anyway.