Intelligencer

Illegals Are ‘Rats’

HERE’S some of the comment on the undocumented Irish issue coming from the Irish media.

“Irish illegals in America deserted the sinking mother ship when times were hard, and now the vessel’s afloat again the rats expect us to help them out . . . why should we be a special case? Because we helped build the railroads?

“Yeah, and we also helped build the Ku Klux Klan. You never hear Irish politicians boasting about that at the White House on Paddy’s Day. What’s hilarious is that the Irish illegals are now under pressure because, post 9/11, Americans are more sensitive about security and terrorism.

“I bet some of those expats don’t feel so blase now about all those years they spent out there singing rebel songs and drumming up support for the IRA while the rest of us back here actually had to live with the consequences.”

Quite a rant in last week’s Sunday Independent owned by Dr. Tony O’Reilly, wouldn’t you say? It was written by Eilis O’Hanlon, a columnist for the paper who specializes in shock jock tactics.

Even for that paper, however, it was way over the top. The Irish started the Ku Klux Klan?

Hmm, maybe some of O’Reilly’s friends in the American Ireland Fund, properly dedicated to peace and charity, might wish to take exception to that.

The Truth About Adams

THERE was considerable media comment in Ireland that Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams had been snubbed at the White House during the St. Patrick’s Day events there.

The “Adams Snubbed” angle was especially reported on in the Sunday Independent, which regaled its readers with tales of Bush refusing a private meeting with Adams — something he gave no party leader — and other insults. Fact is, there was never the possibility of a private meeting between Bush and Adams, nor was one sought.

But the reality of the Bush/Adams interaction was somewhat different.

At the St. Patrick’s lunch hosted by Speaker Dennis Hastert on March 16, Bush made a point of coming over to Adams and Congressman Peter King, shaking hands and conversing for several moments with the Sinn Fein leader. Adams and King have the pictures to prove it, as you’ll see elsewhere in this issue.

At the actual White House ceremony Bush also made a point of singling out Adams, who was sitting in the front row with several congressmen, and remarking jokingly that Adams was in bad company.

So it was hardly the brush off that some in the Irish media had hoped for. Facts are that Adams and Bush have always enjoyed a cordial relationship. Bush made the determination after coming into power that Adams was trying to steer the IRA away from violence and reacted accordingly.

No doubt there are many in the Bush administration upset with the notion that the president and the leader of Northern Ireland’s largest Nationalist party actually have a reasonable relationship. With the one size fits all view of terrorism prevalent in the White House these days, the stature that Adams enjoys must be an annoyance to many.

Reiss On the Outs

IT was noticeable during the St. Patrick’s events in Washington that Mitchell Reiss, the Bush special envoy to Ireland, was being kept out of the inner circle.

It is a gross disservice to a man who has shown excellent instincts on the Irish issue, but who is now clearly being blocked at some level in the White House from the decision making on Northern Ireland.

That finally explains some of the downright bizarre decisions over Adams fundraising, etc., which have recently come down from this administration. There is simply no one at the wheel nowadays who understands the complexities of the Irish issue.

Reiss deserves better, and there has been a fair amount of speculation as to who exactly at the National Security Council is keeping him away from the point position on Ireland that he used to occupy.

What is also abundantly clear is that since his influence has faded, the decision making from the White House has become puzzling to say the least.

Dunleavy Stirs The Pot

PARADE Chairman John Dunleavy certainly did the parade no good by his ill-tempered comments comparing gays to neo-Nazis and prostitutes.

He could hardly hold his bile in check when discussing Senator Hillary Clinton and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

No one would ever mistake Dunleavy for a social liberal, though why precisely he repeated the phrases about people wanting to take bites from his butt has led to some interesting conjecture.

Strange he made those comments at all. Up to that point, Dunleavy had been a restrained force during the run up to St. Patrick’s Day, leading some to speculate that a kinder gentler John was on the premises. In fairness that is how many people remember him before he took over the parade.

Of course the impact of Jim Barker, the former puppet master of the parade, passed with his death, but the man called Hillary, young Hillary Beirne, nephew of the redoubtable Frances Beirne, former parade chairman, appears to have filled the gap.

The man called Hillary is seen as even more hardline that old Jim, or indeed his uncle Frankie, and John Dunleavy no doubt has a tougher job containing a young buck with his eye on the top job.

All of which may explain why John made his intemperate remarks. Then again it may not, and the man called Hillary may be completely innocent of wielding any such influence.

In the end, however, it hardly matters. As Paul O’Dwyer once remarked, the parade organizers spent the time from one year to the next planning who they can exclude next year. That should keep Dunleavy and company going now that they sink back into well-deserved obscurity for another 12 months.