A tale of two taoisigh: It’s not that easy to spot the difference

IT MIGHT appear that Enda Kenny is better appreciated outside Ireland than within it, now that he is the first Taoiseach since Sean Lemass to appear on the cover of Time magazine, subject of a largely very favourable piece about the hard work he is doing to rescue the Irish economy and praising his personal qualities.

That wouldn’t have happened to his predecessor, the dour Brian Cowen, would it? How lucky we apparently are that we made the change in the general election of 2011 and that the international media now recognises the benefit to us of that change.

Oh hang on. It is easily forgotten now but over two years ago, Newsweek, the main competitor to Time in the American news magazine business, nominated Cowen as among the world’s top ten political leaders. In an article entitled “Go to the top of the class”, Cowen was listed alongside other political luminaries such as Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, and British prime minister David Cameron. (I’m not making this up). Both magazines cited, and praised, economic policies and supposed achievements that, on examination, are remarkably similar. Maybe that is not surprising, given that this government has carried on with the substance of the economic policies of its predecessor.