PERHAPS THE afternoon cauldron of the Erris Agricultural Show brought out Enda’s competitive instincts, because he came over all Olympian by the time he reached Glenties last night.
Better! Stronger! Deeper! Onward and ever upwards for the next five years . . .
The Taoiseach left the livestock in Mayo to deliver the 11th annual John Hume lecture at the MacGill Summer School in Donegal.
He’s all action these days.
Guts. That’s what it’s about.
“Patrick MacGill collected the songs of the soldiers. Noting how his friend rifleman Bill Teakes said: “These ’ere songs are no good in England. They ’ave too much guts in them,” the Taoiseach told the packed ballroom in the Highlands Hotel, in a rather strained attempt at a seamless link.
”. . .and guts – of another kind – are what we need now, both as a European country and as a European Union.” Enda is not wanting in that department, and he doesn’t care who knows it, especially people like Micheál Martin who had been criticising him for not calling up his colleagues on the continent to discuss our crisis.
“I am glad my call for European leaders to put aside national policies and lead instead in the interest of all Europeans on this crucial issue had some impact on the emergence of this new deal,” he said, modestly.
Yes, it was Enda wot won it.
He was positively fizzing when he arrived in Glenties, greeting delighted locals and shaking hands with Pat Cox – a noted MacGill gabfest recidivist.
At least Pat seems to be over his presidential nomination disappointment. He was laughing and joking in the company of Fine Gael strategist Frank Flannery, one of the men who convinced him to join the party and put his name forward for the contest.
Once the pleasantries were completed, the Taoiseach headed across Main Street to meet the waiting journalists.
On his way, he risked being run over by a bus, but Enda is a lucky general these days. He just held up his hand and the coach screeched to a stop.
While Ireland got a good break in Brussels last week, the economic situation remains grave. But Mr Positive is of the view that if we pull together as a nation, there is nothing we cannot do.
First, we have to make “a serious start” because there is “a long way to go” but we are “not going to shirk our responsibilities” because we “have to step up to the mark”. Still, things are looking up. He’s under siege from the parish priests of Ireland, having received “over a hundred messages” from PPs across the country since he made his speech in the Dáil attacking the Vatican.
But there’s more.
“I have two-and-a-half thousand messages from across the world which have been extremely positive.” But who’s counting?
MacGill Summer School founder Joe Mulholland welcomed the Taoiseach, who spoke after Julian King, British ambassador to Ireland, did the warm-up for him.
This time last year they also spoke on the same night and at the crack of dawn the following morning, Enda belted up Croagh Patrick with His Excellency. He had the time for that sort of thing then.
As it happened, the ambassador confessed that he hadn’t brought his walking shoes along this time. Clever man. No wonder the Queen’s visit went so well. A knighthood can’t be far behind.
John Hume was guest of honour. “Ireland can never begin to imagine or repay its debt to John Hume,” said the Taoiseach, “and I am honoured to give the MacGill lecture in his name today.”
As is his wont these days, Enda’s speech was big on positivity, while telling us we’re still in dire straits.
At one point he misquoted WB Yeats. Gentleman that he is, MacGill regular Brian Friel didn’t as much as wince when he said: “too much suffering can make a stone of the heart . . .” Probably relieved like the rest of us that an Irish politician quoted a poet that isn’t Seamus Heaney.
In his script, Enda referred to that famous image from August 1971 of John Hume, spreadeagled against a wall by a British soldier having been arrested after a demo in Derry. “And there’s a certain satisfaction in saying for a generation of young Northern men . . . it is not political or sectarian, but sartorial: its subject is wearing socks with sandals.” But the Taoiseach spoke mainly of this year’s school theme – Transforming Ireland 2011-2016 – the first 100 days, the next five years.
“We will honour our debts. We will regain our economic sovereignty,” he quivered, mustering up all the guts he could.
“But for the sake of our children, we must look up, we must let them see that we have the courage to face these difficulties, to survive and rise and prosper again.” Citius. Altius. Fortius.
“This is a situation where Ireland’s Call has to be answered by everyone,” he cried.
Mind you, he was a bit red in the face. Too much sun, we reckon.