Inside File Your move, Al!

By Ray O’Hanlon

The GOP managed to embrace the Irish peace process without making mention of the man largely responsible for it, President Clinton. But that’s politics in an election year for you. It’s also a pointer for Al Gore.

Any time Ireland comes up during the campaign in the coming weeks Gore will face a choice. He can emphasize the obvious Clinton aspect of U.S. involvement in the search for a lasting settlement in Ireland, or he can move to break free from the Clinton legacy and tell the world how he himself intends to formulate a distinct, all-Al Gore, Irish policy. That will not be easy and will demand a particularly delicate blend of tact, tribute and tenacity. Still, Gore can rightly lay claim to a pedigree on Ireland exceeding even that of his mentor. He is the veteran of no fewer than three Irish-American presidential forums stretching back to 1988, a time when Bubba’s world ended at the Texas line and Dubya thought Arkansas was almost foreign.

Gore, of course, could really break out. For example, he could pledge to scrap all deportation cases while urging the British to back off the extradition cases still pending against the California extraditees. And, of course, he could take a purely political tack and label the newly adopted GOP platform position on Ireland as a ripoff of Clinton’s – and, of course, his own – long-running attachment to the issues that concern Irish Americans.

For the record

So you can pin this on the fridge, here’s the full text of the GOP Platform statement on Ireland:

"Republicans welcome the historic reconciliation in Northern Ireland that is slowly bringing peace and a representative local assembly to this beautiful land that means so much to Americans. We congratulate the people of Northern Ireland for their approval of the Good Friday Agreement, and we call for the full and fastest possible implementation of its terms. In the spirit of that healing document, we call for a review of issues of deportation and extradition arising prior to the accord. We applaud the work of the Patten Commission to reform the police authorities in Northern Ireland and urge complete implementation of the Commission’s recommendations. The sufferings of the people on the island of Ireland have been our sorrow too, and the new hope for peace and reconciliation is the answer to America’s prayers. We continue to support this progress toward peace with justice and, accordingly, we encourage private U.S. investment in the North, with care to ensure fair employment and better opportunities for all. Though the burdens of history weigh heavily upon this land, we cheer its people for taking the lead in building for themselves and for their children a future of peace and understanding. The next president will use the prestige and influence of the United States to help the parties achieve a lasting peace. If necessary, he will appoint a special envoy to help facilitate the search for a lasting peace, justice and reconciliation."

Moynihan’s ideal home

"That is the most beautiful house in the whole inventory of the State Department. It’s absolutely exquisite." Daniel Patrick Moynihan was referring to the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. He had just been asked during a recent interview with the Echo if he would like to be America’s man in Dublin when he retires from the Senate next year. Moynihan was coy about the job possibility but there was a gleam in his eye when his mind focused on the pile currently occupied by Mike Sullivan.

Moynihan would certainly be well qualified for the Dublin post. He already has diplomatic experience, having been U.S. ambassador to India in the 1970s. Asked again if he would like the job, Moynihan stuck to his guns: "I will not be offered it, don’t you have the least doubt, but I just want to record that it’s the finest house in our inventory, anywhere."

Dev’s star defender

Turns out that Irish actor Patrick Bergin was up for the role of Eamon de Valera in Neil Jordan’s Michael Collins movie a while back. Bergin, however, was unhappy with the way Jordan was going to play Dev, so the two never struck a deal. In a recent interview in Hot Press magazine in Ireland, the Carlow-born star is quite candid in his criticism of Jordan’s Collins flick. Indeed, he is fit to be tied to this day over how de Valera was presented against Liam Neeson’s heroic Collins. Bergin, whose family political roots are, he stresses, not Fianna Fáil, states in the interview that the de Valera character was completely underwritten.

"I have actually had people come to me, in America, and ask, ‘Was de Valera gay?’ And not in terms of any subtext in the movie! Because he is this quivering [bleep] in a barn with some young kid at the end! They ask, ‘What was he doing with the kid in the barn?’ And, apart from the fact that he was not in the barn in the first place, at first, I said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ But now I see exactly where they’re coming from."

Times two

With the Irish Times’ Washington correspondent Joe Carroll, getting ready to wind up his stint by the Potomac in a few months, the race is on to succeed him in what is undoubtedly one of the plum positions in Irish journalism. Word, via Phoenix magazine, is that there are two prime contenders for the D.C. post. One is Patrick Smyth, currently the Times man in Brussels. The other leading candidate appears to be U.S.-based free-lance Elaine Lafferty. You never take bets on appointments in the auld biddy of D’Olier Street, an organization that can, per times, make the Chinese Communist Party seem positively transparent.

One thing about Irish American Lafferty that may help or hinder – it’s hard to say which – is that she can certainly stir the pot. This was in evidence a while back when she penned a ripping critique of a President Mary McAleese visit to California. Lafferty’s report amounted to a ticking off for McAleese and a series of instructions on how to make the most of the downtrodden taxpayer’s buck when said buck is paying for your trip to wonderland.

"IF" will be interested to see who emerges victorious when the white smoke billows from the IT’s inner sanctum in Dublin.