Political gougers have turned Paddy’s Day abroad into a load of blarney

NOBODY seems to have asked what Brian Cowen was doing in Vietnam around St Patrick’s Day 2008.

Anyone ever heard of a Paddy’s Day parade in Vietnam? Wherever he was at the time, he could not remember the name of the place in the Dáil on Wednesday.

There has been considerable controversy during the week over Seán FitzPatrick’s telephone call to Cowen as Finance Minister during the share price crisis at Anglo Irish Bank in March 2008. Of course, like the bulk of the Government, he was out of the country for St Patrick’s Day.

By the coming St Patrick’s Day we could be in the midst of a general election or have a new government. St Patrick’s Day is a day when ministers can promote this country abroad, especially in countries like Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.

It is a great opportunity for them to drum up business, but they should be required to detail in writing what they did to promote this country before they get expenses. That is what any properly run business would do.

There are Irish people scattered all over the world, and they are one of this country’s strongest assets. Last week Barack Obama appointed William Daley as new White House Chief of Staff. He was Secretary of Commerce in President Bill Clinton’s cabinet from 1997 to 2000. But he is probably best known as the son of Richard J Daley the long-time mayor of Chicago, and a brother of the current mayor. They have had long associations with Ireland.

The State Papers recently released contained a couple of interesting files relating to Mayor Richard J Daley. He was one of those self-made men of whom the Americans are so proud.

After finishing high school, Daley worked in the local stockyards and put himself through university at night, earning a law degree from De Paul University in 1933. Governor Adlai E Stevenson appointed Daley as Cook County Clerk following the death of the incumbent in 1950. Daley was later elected to the post and used it as his launching pad to become Mayor of Chicago in April 1955. At the time Chicago was the second largest city in the US, and he was elected for five consecutive four-year terms.

Daley adopted the city’s motto, “I Will” as his own personal charter. It seems similar to Obama’s “Yes We Can.” Of course, Obama was a product of the Cook County machine, and nobody should therefore be surprised at his recent appointment of William Daley.

Irish-American political machines went back to Boss Tweed in Tammany Hall during the 1860s. Various so-called Irish bosses controlled cities from Boston to San Francisco even when Catholics were considered untouchable in the presidential arena. Daley established the last great political machine on those lines, and it still exists in Chicago.

There had been no St Patrick’s Day parade in downtown Chicago since the 1860s when Daley initiated the first of the city’s modern parades in 1956. The same year he held a dinner in honour of the visiting Tánaiste and Minister for Industry and Commerce, William Norton, who was on a six-week coast-to-coast tour of the United States seeking American investment in Ireland.

Daley also arranged a similar reception for the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Robert Briscoe, who was great hit in the USA. He was, in fact, a sensation as people were amazed that Dublin, the capital of Catholic Ireland, had a Jewish Lord Mayor.

Afterwards Jewish business people in Chicago raised $1,220 to plant a 10-acre wood near Dublin in the name of Mayor Daley. His grandparents came from Waterford, while his wife’s family had roots in Limerick.

They were always proud of their Irish heritage, but he also made a point of building ties with other ethnic minorities.

When white people moved out of the area of Chicago where Daley lived, he remained there even though the area became decidedly black. In the process, he cemented strong ties with the Afro-American community.

Daley was depicted as one of John F Kennedy’s most powerful backers in his quest to become the first Roman Catholic President of the US in 1960. Kennedy carried the state of Illinois in somewhat controversial circumstances, losing in most areas to vice-president Richard Nixon but ultimately carrying the state with an overwhelming vote in Cook County, Chicago.

In 1968 Daley became a national figure when the Democratic National Convention was held in the city. He offered his support to Senator Edward Kennedy, but the latter declined to enter the race so soon after the assassination of his brother Bobby, who was murdered in Los Angeles while running for president that June.

The Democratic Convention of 1968 developed into a political disaster when the Chicago police used heavy-handed tactics to put down anti-war demonstrators protesting against American involvement in the Vietnam War.

Daley stoutly defended his police force, but later that year a presidential commission headed by Dan Walker branded what happened as essentially “a police riot.” Walker became a darling of the liberals and was elected Governor of Illinois in 1972.

At the St Patrick’s Day Parade in 1975 the liberal governor walked with the Irish Northern Aid Committee (Noraid), which the Dublin government considered a Provisional IRA front organisation. “Irish Northern Aid in Chicago often boast that they have a direct line to the governor and that he is always available to them,” Irish Consul General Thomas D Lyons reported.

Mayor Daley “has never been identified with any particular Irish-American organisation.” He kept Noraid at a discreet distance, but he was always willing to help official representatives from Dublin, and protect them from local opponents. In 1976 the mayor invited Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave to a civic dinner in Chicago following the presentation of the bowl of shamrock to President Gerald Ford at the White House.

Cosgrave made a good impression with a witty speech in which he alluded to Mrs Catherine O’Leary’s infamous cow, which kicked over a lantern and started the fire that burned down almost four square miles of Chicago more a hundred years earlier. “The Irish were among the first settlers here and helped to establish Chicago as a centre of commerce and transportation,” he told the dinner gathering. “And if an Irish lady’s cow was responsible as is alleged, for the great fire which destroyed your city in 1871, we have, I think, long since atoned.”

After the dinner the consul general reported that Joe Fitzpatrick, a prominent Noraid activist got into the dinner. Members of Daley’s staff informed the Secret Service and Fitzpatrick was duly removed from the hall. “Contrary to rumours which have been circulating, Fitzpatrick did not have a gun,” Lyons added. “It appears that his intention was to interrupt the Taoiseach’s speech and cause a disturbance.”

Many people with Irish roots would welcome the opportunity to help Ireland, but it must be an approach to help the Irish people. In recent years, however, we have been insulting these people by sending out transparent political gougers who have only been out to help themselves.