Kenny's efforts to promote Ireland were well received among business leaders, writes LARA MARLOWEin New York
IRISH OFFICIALS have been telling foreign interlocutors that “Ireland is open for business” almost since the financial crisis started. On his whirlwind trip to Manhattan, Taoiseach Enda Kenny virtually hung out the “Under New Management” sign in the capital of global finance and sophistication.
At the American Ireland Fund (AIF) gala, in a huge white tent festooned with sprays of cherry blossom behind the Lincoln Center on Thursday evening, they loved the Taoiseach’s country charm, but took him seriously as a manager and leader.
“If you want a job done, get a man from the West,” said Irial Finan, executive vice president for Coca-Cola, who emigrated from Galway. “In my view, the Irish have chosen well. The country is in great hands.” Mr Finan, who received a leadership award from the AIF, noted that Coca-Cola just built a $300 million plant in Wexford – which Mr Kenny will inaugurate on September 16th – “because Ireland is a good place to invest in”.
Mr Kenny received rave reviews all around. After meeting the Taoiseach to discuss the plight of the undocumented Irish, Ciaran Staunton, president of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, said that “as far as understanding the issues at hand” Mr Kenny was “the best Taoiseach we have met”.
With US business leaders, Mr Kenny “comes across as being very honest and straightforward about the situation” and “is able to frame the issue in a very numerate way, which creates confidence among business people”, said Ted Smyth, executive vice-president for McGraw Hill publishers.
The Taoiseach is “pro-business, but not in a reckless way,” he said.
In his introductory remarks, Kieran McLoughlin, president and chief executive of the Worldwide Ireland Funds, set the tone for the evening, noting that Mr Kenny “was elected with the largest majority in the history of Ireland” and affirming vehemently that “Ireland will recover”. The dinner raised $3 million for the fund’s “Promising Ireland” campaign to collect $100 million for Irish causes by the end of 2013.
There were notes of sadness, as when Mr McLoughlin noted that 100,000 people will leave Ireland next year, or when Loretta Brennan Glucksman, chair of the AIF, said that “Ireland has never needed her scattered children more than now”.
Dan Rooney, the US ambassador to Ireland and a co-founder of the Ireland Fund, recommended Muhammad Ali to Mrs Glucksman when the two men met in Ennis, Co Clare, the home of Ali’s great-grandfather. “His pugilistic abilities . . . I’m sure that’s from his Irish roots,” Mrs Glucksman said to applause.
The AIF gave the three-time world heavyweight champion its humanitarian award “in recognition of his ancestral links with Ireland, his unrivalled sporting achievements . . . and his contribution to educational and charitable causes through the Muhammad Ali Center”.
The boxer, diminished by Parkinson’s disease but his fighting spirit intact, raised a hand to salute the cheering crowd.
Mr Kenny said he also came to New York “to meet this great icon of millions of people” and to convey “greetings from the people of Ireland” to Ali.
All evening, women in gowns and men in dinner suits streamed to the Taoiseach’s table to be photographed with him. For nearly 20 minutes, he addressed the 1,200-strong audience as cheerleader-in-chief. “Our people and our country face the future with courage, because we know we will come through our difficulties,” he said.
“Our country is in hock to the EU and the IMF. The big challenge for our country is to come to a point where we can say goodbye to the EU-IMF bailout deal, get back in the markets, borrow at lower rates,” Mr Kenny continued.
“Do not be apprehensive,” he told the spellbound crowd, then, shifting into a more Biblical tone, repeated twice, “be not afraid”.
The Taoiseach got his biggest laugh when he promised that if Mayo makes it to the All Ireland final at Croke Park in September, “I’ll send those invitations to the whole lot of ye.”