WHISPERS AND cheers, wolf whistles, foot-stomping and tears marked the mood in the west of Ireland yesterday as Americans gathered to celebrate the inauguration of US president Barack Obama.
The usually noisy King’s Head pub in Galway was silent during much of the live television broadcast from Washington DC. Pressed shoulder to shoulder, several hundred Americans, Canadians and Irish had responded to an invitation from the new Americans in Galway group to watch the broadcast on the pub’s big screen.
“It’s just wonderful to see that Irish people are as excited as we are,” Jamie Blanchard from Ellington, Connecticut, who is studying psychology at NUI Galway, remarked. “Isn’t it so significant that Obama talks about ‘we’ and not ‘I’ and ‘me’,” another university colleague noted.
The event’s organiser, Brooke McDermott, was moved. An American with Irish roots, Ms McDermott worked with the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania during the Kerry campaign before moving to Galway four years ago. Her husband, Brendan Kennelly, is an economics lecturer at NUI Galway.
“After 9/11, the Bush machine harnessed fear in a way that many of us want to forget. We all know the power of that fear, and we know that hope can be equally powerful,” she said.
Meanwhile, US students and staff at Queen’s University in Belfast met in the students’ union to watch Mr Obama’s inauguration.
There was sustained applause as Mr Obama was sworn in and again when he took to the podium to deliver his speech. There was less applause when Mr Obama thanked outgoing president George Bush for his “service to the nation”. Some 300 people attended, including the US consul in the North, Susan Elliott.
Brittany Bevier (20), from Detroit, and Valerie Guiles (23), from New York, are studying theology at Queen’s. “I like that Obama is ready to talk with anyone, and that he wants to deal with the terrible legacy Bush has left behind,” Ms Bevier said.