Substantial protests are planned, but the protesters will, of course,
be kept far away from the president.
He won't even hear their chants.
No doubt American television will show the president and his wife
surrounded by harp-playing colleens and little girls in ringlets doing
stepdancing in a medieval castle -- this is an election year, after
all, and there is an Irish-American electorate.
But, in fact, the president and the Irish won't encounter each other
at all.
The loss is ours; but it is America's, too.
How can there be so little enthusiasm for welcoming President Bush in
as pro-American a country as exists on the face of the earth?
Our intelligentsia is pro-American; American popular culture, far from
being resisted as it is elsewhere in Europe, has been a precious
modernizing influence on the grim patriarchy that dominated Ireland
until recent times; our teachers and students work in the United
States in the summer, our athletes train there, our doctors and
scientists do postgraduate work there, we all have friends and
relations there.
No wonder Ireland shut down more completely than any other country in
the world -- schools, pubs, business, transport, everything -- on its
day of mourning for the Sept. 11 attacks.
But nations on the periphery watch the center more keenly than the
center realizes.
The vacuum where our enthusiasm should be is our response to the
perception -- the fear -- that this administration is indifferent to
any world view but its own; that it doesn't care whether a little
place like this loves it or not.
From The New York Times, 6/23/04:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/23/opinion/23OFAO.html?ex=1088568000&en=ce62c0d24589753d&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
When Irish Ties Are Fraying
By NUALA O'FAOLAIN
DUBLIN --
The Irish hold the rotating presidency of the European Union and
President Bush is scheduled to make an overnight visit to Ireland this
week to take part in a two-hour summit meeting.
On Friday, he'll fly into Shannon, an airport whose use by the
American military during the Iraq venture has been highly
controversial here.
Substantial protests are planned, but the protesters will, of course,
be kept far away from the president.
He won't even hear their chants.
No doubt American television will show the president and his wife
surrounded by harp-playing colleens and little girls in ringlets doing
stepdancing in a medieval castle -- this is an election year, after
all, and there is an Irish-American electorate.
But, in fact, the president and the Irish won't encounter each other
at all.
The loss is ours; but it is America's, too.
___________________________________________________
Hey, Bush, póg mo thón.
Harry
.
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