Little craic at G8 but plenty of cracks

If Barack Obama was in search of craic, Enniskillen was probably the wrong place to find it.

After electrifying the audience at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall, the US president ended up in rather more choppy waters overlooking Lough Erne as Russia’s Vladimir Putin appeared as chilly as the unseasonal weather.

Enniskillen did not feel like the temporary capital of the planet as the world leaders arrived at the golf resort up the road, with locals noting the sleepy border town was even quieter than on a normal Monday.

Well, apart from the 8,000 cops swamping the area, that is.

Only a smattering of the usual G8 demonstrators could be seen roaming around for most of the day, men on stilts dressed as Victorians, women on tricycles dressed as clowns — oh, and a giant bomb on the high street. The explosive device was, of course, fake and there to stress the point “Drop the debt not bombs”.

But it was dropping names that first occupied Mr Obama and British prime minister David Cameron as they popped into an integrated primary school to sign a tapestry.

Perhaps to prepare for his later battle with Putin, Mr Obama introduced a brush of rivalry with Cameron as the pair helped paint a G8 poster at the school.

Referring to the pupils, Mr Obama praised his own artwork, saying: “I’m not as good as these guys but I’m better than David” — so much for the special relationship.

But the emotional centrepiece of the day was the president’s address to an ecstatic audience of 2,000 mostly young people in Belfast during which the charm came as thick as the “pint of black” he said Michelle had learned how to pour during their trip to Ireland two years ago.

Travelling to the event from Air Force One in his customised black limo known as the “The Beast”, Mr Obama joked that his daughter had pointed out he always creates “a fuss” wherever he goes, and Belfast was no exception.

Yes, some of the Irish whimsy he wove into his speech was recycled from his last visit to the Republic — though as green issues are conspicuous by their absence from the G8 agenda any recycling is welcome — but underpinning the warm jokes about getting golf tips from Rory Mcllroy, attempting Irish, and asking “How’s the craic?” was a deeply serious message about the effort needed to keep the peace alive.

Citing how segregation touched his own life as he recounted it would have been illegal for his white mother and black father to marry in some US states, Mr Obama called on the audience to tear down the barriers that remain in the North because: “Wounds have not healed and there are walls that still stand.

“Peace is harder than war. Its constant fragility is part of its beauty.”

But back in Lough Erne it was all war — the Syrian civil war — as president Putin dug in and refused to abandon his blood-stained ally in Damascus.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny, attending as rotating head of the EU, may have joined in the rather stiff-looking attempt at informality by ditching his jacket and tie along with the others, but the G8 faultline was best summed up by Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, who accused Russia of backing “thugs” in Syria, adding: “I don’t think we should fool ourselves. The G7 plus one, that’s what this is.”

By evening, thousands of demonstrators had made their way to Enniskillen and were halted a few miles from the summit venue, lest the voice of the people be heard in the club of the globe’s super rich.

Little craic, but plenty of cracks appearing in the G8.