‘Go to it!’ urges Rev Clinton in rallying sermon on Ireland

There’s an expression in the great state of Arkansas that warns against the futility of “preaching to the saved”, former US president Bill Clinton told guests at a Global Irish Network event in New York yesterday.

He was wondering aloud if he was surplus to requirements: “You have a coalition government working across party lines to get things done.”

Sitting on the stage to his left, the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, and the Tánaiste, Eamon Gilmore, took their cue and shook hands energetically, backing up the blind faith of their prestigious speaker as the lunch guests in the NYU Kimmel Center chuckled along. Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton, on the far side of the Tánaiste, smiled wryly.