20 years since Boris Yeltsin kept the Taoiseach waiting
Derry Molony, 61, was working as an airline rep at Shannon Airport that morning. “The first I noticed about it was that I saw the army band practicing on the ramp. I went into Aer Lingus Operations where my late brother, Liam, was working in Control. I said, ‘What is the band doing out there?’ He said, ‘Boris Yeltsin is arriving shortly.’
“Then Albert Reynolds appeared. The aircraft appeared. It pulled in just at the corner of the pier building, and there were steps up to it. There was a lovely red carpet at the end of the steps, and the army band playing away, waiting for the door to open. Albert Reynolds was there, standing, looking up at the aircraft. This went on and on and on.
“About 10 of us were inside in Aer Lingus Operations looking out, and the comments were being passed. We were all wondering: will the door open, won’t the door open? What’s going to happen?”
Out on the tarmac, Reynolds stood, with his hands cupped out front, beside a few of his ministers and TDs, including Bertie Ahern, Willie O’Dea and Brian Cowen, who jigged on the spot. The plane had circled overhead for about an hour before landing.
Reynolds recalled in his memoirs: “I was waiting along with the rest of the reception party when the message came through that our very important visitor, the Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, was ‘indisposed’ and there would be a delay in his arrival.
The delaying tactics had no effect. Yeltsin failed to appear. An air hostess carried a bouquet of flowers from Mrs Kathleen Reynolds on board the plane for Mrs Yeltsin.
Eventually, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Oleg Soskovets, emerged from the plane and spoke with Reynolds for half an hour. He explained that Yeltsin was asleep, and that the Russian president would be unable to attend a scheduled news conference about the Northern Ireland peace process. He invited Reynolds to visit Russia. A planned reception at Dromoland Castle nearby was cancelled.
The plane went on its way to Russia. Reynolds denied he’d been snubbed. He told the assembled media on the runway that he understood the Russian president’s predicament. “I completely understand – Mr Yeltsin was acting on the orders of doctors who said it would be better for him not to get off the plane. He’s very ill after the long travelling, as his blood pressure is going up and down. It’s understandable that they didn’t want to take him off the flight.”
When Yeltsin’s plane landed in Moscow, he denied that illness prevented him from alighting from the aircraft in Shannon. “I feel excellent – I can tell you honestly,” he said. “I just overslept. My security guards should have woken me up at Shannon.”
There is a postscript to the story. In August 2006, a year before Yeltsin died, he finally visited Co Clare. He was taken for a day’s deep-sea fishing as part of a three-day trip. Willie O’Callaghan took Yeltsin and an entourage of about 20 out around Hag’s Head on his cruiser, True Light, departing from Liscannor pier, and stopping off on Inis Oírr Island for lunch.
“The man was very frail,” says O’Callaghan. “I’d say he was on his last legs. He had two big male nurses linking him onto the boat. I’d say they were about seven foot and 20 stoners. He was a huge man himself but he was dwarfed alongside them. I was sworn to secrecy and away we went.
“We went up along the Cliffs of Moher. He wanted to catch a shark. He made several attempts to go fishing. He’d sit out in the back of the boat and the guys would actually have to hold the rod for him. He’d just twist the handle. The poor aul divil was that frail.
“There was no sign of a shark. We were catching big pollock, cod and ling. ‘Bait, bait, bait,’ he kept saying. They were only scraps. At one stage, he looked at me and threatened me. The translators told me, ‘He’s after telling you that if you don’t get him a shark that he’s going to send you to the salt mines in Siberia for the rest of your life.’”
Richard Fitzpatrick looks back at the day the Russian president couldn’t be roused from his plane to meet the Taoiseach
