The world watches as Cowen attempts to sail through storm
The beleaguered Mr Cowen was clapped twice when he spoke in the island’s community centre while canvassing for the upcoming Donegal South by-election, but there was no hiding from the big bailout that has the country in its grip.
You know you’re in the brown stuff when the New York Times is on your tail, and so it was that the exquisitely named Landon Thomas Jnr found himself on the same ferry from Burtonport to Arainn Mhór on Saturday as the Taoiseach. Ireland’s crumbling finances are headline news around the world.
Not that you would know it from Mr Cowen’s surprisingly bullish demeanour on Saturday. With the sun glistening outside on a cold Atlantic day, he met with local community groups and fishing organisations, flanked by Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, Minister for Social Protection Éamon O Cuív and candidate in this week’s by-election, Cllr Brian O Domhnaill.
After the meetings, held behind closed doors, he spoke as Gaeilge to those gathered, drawing applause. That must have cheered him up, as God knows, the questioning couldn’t have.
Was he not ashamed that he was in Donegal today, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) combing the books in Dublin?
“That word is being used by the media a lot at the moment,” he said, adding that it was “important to meet the people, to hear their problems – it is part of democratic life”.
All the while the Taoiseach was standing behind a stonework partition of hip height. It made him look like a man behind a small, poorly stocked bar, a kind of last-chance saloon.
One man whispered: “The islands are always treated differently at election time because we vote three days ahead of everyone else. Why can’t we be dealt with differently the rest of the time?”
Although the time for exceptions seems to be over, the Taoiseach reiterated that our 12.5% corporation tax rate was a matter purely for the Government. As for the four-year plan, he said that would not be previewed by the IMF and others, nor would it be tougher than planned because of their new role in Irish fiscal matters.
Yesterday, another visitor to Arainn Mhór, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore, said he didn’t believe this. “Frankly, I think after what we’ve seen over the last week I find it very hard to believe anything that I hear from the Taoiseach.
“What we need is a new Government. It’s the worst of all worlds to have the IMF and European institutions here dealing with a Government that no longer enjoys the confidence of the people and no longer has the authority to negotiate on our behalf.”
The New York Times report on Mr Cowen’s visit referred to “weather- beaten locals” and local parish priest Fr John Joe Duffy as “the de facto village elder”.
Landon, we’ve got our problems, but we’re not back in the 1950s. Well, not yet anyway.
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