President Mary McAleese is giving some key messages which Ireland needs to hear, writes Noel Whelan
BARACK OBAMA'S oratory is likely to be one of the sounds of 2009. Expectations are very high for his inauguration. America and the wider world expect that, as he takes office, his words will help us to comprehend our current circumstances and rally the world community to a solution.
It is a tribute to Obama's skills and a consequence of the times in which we live that even when he was only a candidate his words mattered. In three weeks Obama will take over an office which combines in one person a range of functions, powers and status which are more diversely distributed in most political systems.
The US presidency combines all of the functions performed by our President together with three quarters of the Taoiseach's. Obama will not only take charge of the most powerful executive office in the US and become commander in chief but will also inherit the ceremonial trappings that go with being a head of state. Obama's success has prompted some in Ireland to bemoan the failure of Irish politicians adequately to express empathy with the fears and apprehensions which people feel and to articulate hope for the future.
The search for an Irish Obama is somewhat simplistic. Both Obama himself and the Obama phenomenon are unique. Very few politicians anywhere in the world could compare favourably with Obama for oratorical style and charisma. He has just obtained a fresh and historic mandate after an extraordinary election in one of the world's largest democracies. The intensity of the media coverage generated by that electoral contest has given him celebrity status. His election itself reflects not only a political and generational change but stands as a key moment in the resolution of America's enduring racial tensions. Nobody could be asked to compare to all that.
Her mandate may not be as fresh and the office she holds lacks executive clout, but our own President has carefully been seeking to use her office, within its constitutional constraints, to articulate some key messages which Ireland needs to hear at these difficult times.
The role of our President is to act as a constitutional umpire and nowadays also to symbolise and articulate the concerns, values and image of Ireland. The most important achievement of the McAleese presidency has been the quiet work which she and Dr Martin McAleese have undertaken to build promised bridges between communities.
In addition, over the last 12 years Mary McAleese has
used her busy diary of engagements to deliver a consistently high standard of speeches in which she communicates key messages about community and society to both small and large audiences.
A writer on this page yesterday called for an "honest, eloquent, intelligent, inspirational individual", to step forward to perform an Obama-like role. All four adjectives can unhesitatingly be applied to our own President.
Anyone looking for eloquence, intelligence and inspiration could, for example, look to the text of an address which the President gave at the invitation of the Irish Human Rights Commission on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The text, though impressive, does not do justice to the impact her presentation had on the audience.
There have also been many occasions when the President articulated and led the public mood, none more so than in the traumatic aftermath of the Omagh bombing in 1998.
For the last 12 years Mary McAleese has been one of the loudest voices reminding us of the need for civility and social fraternity during the boom years. Now at this time of economic uncertainty she is playing a reassuring role.
During her recent visit to the US, in her Christmas message, and again in a New Year's Eve interview with Myles Dungan on RTÉ, the President has sought to address some of the apprehensions we have been experiencing. She has warned of the need to look at things from a longer historical perspective and recognise the achievements that have made us Ireland's most capable and skilled problem-solving generation ever.
This week RTÉ broadcast a series of lectures before an audience of 20-30-year-olds by keynote speakers which the President hosted at Áras an Uachtaráin. The lectures were broadcast in three special programmes which went out, interestingly, in the Liveline slot. They represented an end-of-year island of optimism after 12 months of cynicism and negativity.
Former Northern Ireland soccer captain and Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill was one of the speakers. He took as the starting point for his talk a moment a couple of years ago when a delegation from the English FA came to his home to ask him to become England manager. It didn't suit him to take the job at the time but the offer got him thinking about how much things had changed since the days when it was uncomfortable to be a young Irish man in the Nottingham Forest dressing room in the 1980s during the IRA's pub bombing campaign.
The lectures illustrated what appear to be the current themes of McAleese's presidency, namely, that Ireland has endured rapid change; that the downturn represents an opportunity to reassess; that we are up to the challenges ahead; and that a sense of community is now more important than ever.
Yes, we can too.