Thoughts on the David Norris Tragedy

There are so many facets to the story of David Norris’s failed presidential bid, so many issues involved that need to be teased out, that there must be some take-away lessons from it all. How we view it says a lot about our attitudes to politics, to sex, to our ethics and sense of right and wrong. I want to try to make sense of it all, because it seems to me that Ireland has lost a good president.

Even many of those who believe it was right for Norris to leave the campaign concede he would have been good in the job. So why, then, have we forced out someone like that out of the race? The whole thing leaves everyone feeling a little worse off.

I don’t like conspiracy theories. I don’t buy that he was driven out because of his sexuality, though of course it played its part. Was there an orchestrated campaign against him? Of course! But that’s called politics. That’s what you do in an election – you orchestrate a campaign against someone you don’t want to get elected. That’s not sinister, it’s the game.

What do we want from a president?

David Norris was by far the most popular candidate for president – that much is clear from successive opinion polls, even those taken after the original controversy surrounding his Magill interview. It’s not that we’ve all suddenly fallen for his west Brit charms after all these years. It’s because he was a perfect fit for what most people want in a president.

It seems to me all we want from the president – which after all is a “largely ceremonial” role as people keep saying – are a few simple things.

They need to look presidential. (I’m sorry, but for me Gay Mitchell or Sean Gallagher just don’t fit the bill.)

They need to sound presidential – someone articulate that can make wishy-washy non-political statements sound profound and important, and who we feel won’t let us down when speaking in public.

They need to have made some contribution of significance to Irish life and society over the years – we need to feel that they deserve the reward of the Aras. (Again, sorry Gay and Sean!)

And most importantly, and this is why I believe Norris was such a front runner, we want their election to say something about us as a nation.

Mary Robinson’s election showed we were ready to have a first female president. Norris’s election would have shown that we were ready to have a gay president.

A gay president

I think that, far from his sexuality being a negative for him, it was actually the biggest positive for him. We wanted to be able to say to the world – look at us, we in Ireland are now a grown up liberal social democracy capable of electing the first gay president anywhere in the world. He was popular because he represented the image of the country that a large portion of the population wanted to portray.  

Norris himself campaigned that he “did not want to be a gay president, but a president who happened to be gay”. But the reality was, the only reason he was so far ahead in the polls is that Ireland didn’t just want a president who happened to be gay, we wanted a gay president. Because it said something about us. For all his human rights work, and all his scholarly Joycean work, for most people in Ireland the name David Norris means just one thing – gay rights. We weren’t just ready for a gay president, we wanted one.

The thorny issue of pederasty

Because David Norris equals gay in Irish shorthand, his opinions on sexuality became a focus point for the media. It happens to all candidates. If Mary Davis is being interviewed, she’ll be asked about the Special Olympics, not for her views on pederasty. If Gay Mitchell is being interviewed, it will probably be our role in Europe – he’s been an MEP for a long time, hasn’t he? Sean Gallagher, your thoughts on entrepreneurship please.

But luckily for the other candidates Europe, the Special Olympics and business are not as emotive and personal an issue as sexuality. The very idea that we would even ask Mary Robinson or Patrick Hillary for their nuanced opinions on teenagers having sex would be ludicrous. But it’s an issue that Norris had to deal with because his defining public role has been steering a catholic dominated country to a more gay-friendly equal society.  

So I’m sorry David, but we must ask you – how young is too young? Mary Davis, what is your favourite Special Olympic sport? Davd, do you like having sex with younger men? Michael D, a word on how important the Arts are in Irish society? David, will you be having sex with another man while in the Aras?

Ezra Nawi

Here comes the tricky part to discuss. The statutory rape of a 15 year old Palestinian boy by Norris’s former lover Ezra Nawi.

In a strange way, it was useful for Ireland to have had the discussion earlier in the year about Norris’s Magill interview, because it laid down an important distinction – that between paedophile and pederast.  A paedophile has sex with children, a pederast has sex with post-puberty teenage boys.  Neither is acceptable in my opinion for a man in his forties or fifties, but can we at least talk about this for a minute without descending into moral outrage.

The teenager, in any of the following European countries, would be over the age of consent:

Albania (14), Austria (14), Bosnia (14), Bulgaria (14), Croatia (14), Czech Republic (15), Denmark (15), Faroe Islands (15), Estonia (14), France (15), Germany (14), Greece (15), Iceland (15), Italy (14), Liechtenstein (14), Macedonia (14), Monetnegro (14), Poland (15), Portugal (14), Romania (15), Serbia  (14), San Marino (14), Slovakia (15), Slovenia (15), Spain (13), Sweden (15)

That means, if as the Israeli court accepted the relationship between the teenager and Nawi was consensual, no court case would have arisen in any of these countries and Norris’s letter would never have been written.

Now of course, the law of each country needs to be respected – but I think it’s a point worth making. And its important to make it because tabloid headlines describing Nawi as a paedophile, or commentary comparing his actions to those of paedophile priests are just dishonest.

It’s not unheard of in the straight world for teenagers to have sex with older men or women (when it’s a woman we call her a cougar!).

Now, personally, I don’t think it’s right for an older man to be with a teenager, but I’d have a bigger problem with Norris defending Cathal O’Searcaigh, who was an obvious sex tourist.

The letter

Was Norris right to pen the infamous letter seeking clemency for Nawi? No, he wasn’t.

But I think it’s perfectly understandable that he did.  If the love of your life was heading for prison, and you thought you could make a difference by writing a letter, who wouldn’t? The words used, and the fact that Norris was making himself sound as important as possible, don’t matter. He was making the letter sound as strong as possible.

I don’t think any politician should be writing these kinds of letters to judges in any jurisdiction. Norris was wrong to do it. And it cost him his presidential bid.

But should it have? Was the crime big enough to match the punishment? And has our moralizing cost us one of the best presidents we could have had?

Have we ever asked any other candidate in any other election to reveal what letters they had written to seek clemency for criminals? This is a new standard we are setting now.

Gay Mitchell, it appears, wrote to a Florida judge, seeking clemency for a man who shot dead two people at an abortion clinic, and was facing the death penalty.

Did I miss something here?

Since when is a Double Murder a less heinous crime than pederasty?

If Norris is forced out of the race for his letter, on behalf of the love of his life, why is Gay Mitchell still in the race, given his letter on behalf of complete stranger who is a killer?

Media bias

Finally, there is now an attempt by some conservative/right commentators like John Waters, David Quinn or Kevin Meyers to say that the media went easy on Norris. That because of a “liberal” bias, the media looked the other way to Norris’s comments. They argue this would not have been the case if it was a priest that had said it.

I’ve already pointed out how the comparison to clergy is wrong. I think it’s also wrong to claim the media somehow went easy on Norris. There was a very tough series of interviews with Norris when the Magill controversy blew up – including the memorable one with Aine Lawlor on Morning Ireland. And once the letter emerged, the media were all over the story like a rash.  The very media that these commentators claim is going soft on Norris, were the ones that kept the controversy so heated that Norris’s supporters found the going too hot and pulled out.

It’s a favourite new argument of right wing commentators that somehow they are victims of a liberal conspiracy. The fact is that it is often liberals who are weak at standing up for their viewpoints. Because a liberal viewpoint by its very nature is open to other ideas, and a conservative viewpoint is usually married to some dogma. Liberals want to hear all sides of the argument including the conservative ones. Conservatives never accept they are wrong. You see it in the States all the time, where Fox or Tea Party supporters claim the media has a left-wing liberal bias, where in fact it’s their viewpoint that is one-sided. I hope the liberal forces in Ireland will keep their strength.

Aftermath

After the dust settles on the whole controversy, I think we’ll all feel a little worse about the situation.

There was no big homophobic conspiracy. There was no grand Israeli plan to knock him out of the election.  There was simply a storm that brewed from a society that still finds it difficult to discuss teenage sexuality, and a political habit of trying to wield influence over things that maybe they shouldn’t.

 If we step back from it, do we really think that Norris is not acceptable as president because of that letter? It’s a hard one. I didn’t realize how much I wanted him to be president until he was no longer in the race. How boring it all looks now. I’m hoping some new candidate will come along that can inspire us, who would represent us well, who has contributed to Irish life and society, and whose election says something about us as a country.

Of course, they will still need to get the support of county councils or 20 TDs… don’t get me started on that whole side of things…

Michael Noonan: The Man in the Hot Seat

Ireland's new Finance Minister Michael Noonan talks to Vincent Murphy about the bailout, his first 100 days in the job, and how the Irish overseas can help the recovery

“I’m on my third Taoiseach, you know,” laughs Michael Noonan, when I ask him how he’s coping with the toughest job in Ireland right now.

“I was there with Garret Fitzgerald and I was there with John Bruton. And I’m now there with Enda Kenny. So I’ve held a number of ministries. And I’m glad to be given the opportunity again to make a contribution.” Fine Gael has not been in government for a long time – but in their new Finance Minister, they have a wily pair of hands. Noonan has been around the block – several times.

And now the Limerick man is facing his biggest challenge – taking over the reins at the Department of Finance as Ireland struggles with an unprecedented debt and banking crisis. “Things got into a crisis in Ireland, and all I can say is I’m going to work every day to get us out of it,” he says.

In many ways his hands are tied as Finance Minister, with the State effectively locked-in to the IMF/EU/ECB rescue package agreed by his predecessor. The day before we meet, during an interview, Noonan re-opened the debate on burning senior bondholders at Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide. He said, as Anglo was no longer a bank in any real sense, he believed losses should be imposed on the bondholders. His comments were front page news on the Financial Times in Europe next day, alongside reports of the escalating crisis in Greece.

And as a result, he was trying to dampen the fire, when we met, arguing that his comments had been given a weight they didn’t deserve, because of what was happening in Greece. “We are saying publicly that everything that has been given to us as a country, or has been given to us in our banking system, that we’ll repay to the last cent. And that’s our commitment to the senior bondholders everywhere,” he said. He added that, while his comments were accurately reported, he wanted to frame them in the context of the continuing review of the rescue program.

There is estimated to be around €3.1bn in the relevant Anglo bonds and around €600m in Irish Nationwide bonds. “Everybody knows about Anglo,” he says, “I mean, Anglo is Anglo. And all I’m saying is there are issues that haven’t been fully resolved but that we are not going to make any kind of unilateral move. We are going to discuss these issues with the IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank. And the discussions aren’t imminent either. You know, this is something for the Autumn. So we are not even looking for meetings on these issues at the moment.”

It was a fascinating snapshot of the kind of pressure the new Finance Minister is under, and how careful he has to be with the words he chooses, and how the global financial markets hang on his every utterance.

"We have been working day and night on it, you know,” he says, “I’m hardly seeing home, or hardly seeing the constituency"

Noonan was in New York and Washington last week for over 16 meetings with business leaders and opinion makers. His message was simple – the new government in Ireland is sticking to the terms of the bailout deal. “It’s like a contract,” he explains, “where there are literally dozens of conditions, and when you fulfill the conditions on a timeline, you are allowed to draw down money. You can draw down money to pay the day-to-day needs of the State, whether it’s the health service or paying the teachers or the Gardai, and then there is another side where you can draw down when you need to capitalize the banks. So I was confirming that we’re committed to the program, we’re sticking by the program and we’re going to see it through.”

US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and the top officials at the IMF were among those who took time to meet the Minister during his visit to Washington. Noonan was also keen to draw attention to the differences between Ireland and Greece, as the world’s attention is focused on Athens. “We keep saying Ireland is not Greece, and people understand that, but when it comes to issues like this, the international financial media tend to box us together,” he says.

Whatever happens to Greece will have a major impact, not just on Ireland, but on the whole Eurozone. But Noonan knows Ireland is not in any position to direct events. “In the real world, it’s the stronger nations in Europe that will make the decisions about Greece,” he explains, “Now, the definition of the stronger nations are the Triple A countries – those that have a triple A credit rating. Finland is one of those even though it is a small country, Slovenia is one of those even though it’s small.  Ireland won’t have a very strong voice in designing the solution, and our primary interest is to ensure that any solution arrived at doesn’t damage us.”

While Europe is dealing with the Greek crisis, Ireland’s attempts to have the terms of its bailout deal reviewed will have to wait. The government is keen to have the interest rate it is being charged reduced, but is facing some opposition from France and Germany, who are looking for changes to Ireland’s low corporate tax rate in return. That’s non-negotiable as far as Noonan is concerned: “It’s part of our industrial relations policy, and we will not negotiate it away under any circumstances.”

While in the US, Noonan was also keeping a close eye on negotiations over the sale of Anglo assets here. These are properties worth up to €11 billion – a mix of hotels, shopping centers and apartment blocks, mostly in the North East, from New York up to Boston. As part of the wind-down of Anglo, the government hopes to sell these assets. “These are very good assets now. These are not impaired assets at all. All this stuff is leased or rented and is generating income. So these are very attractive on the market. We’re trying to reduce the size of the banks by disposing of their assets abroad.”

By coincidence, it’s exactly 100 days since the new government was formed on the day we meet. I ask him to rate how he believes he’s done. “Very busy,” he says, before listing off what he’s undertaking since taking up the position.

“We totally restructured the banking system in accordance with the program. We did that in the first three weeks and made all the necessary announcements and we’re implementing that now with a view to making the banks fully recapitalized in line with the new stress testing by the 31^st July.

“We’re looking for private money in Bank of Ireland. We’ve commenced the legal merger of EBS and Allied Irish Bank, we are talking to people to sell off the insurance arm of Irish Life and Permanent.

“On the bondholders, we have gone to court and made arrangements and offers, for subordinate bondholders and we had the first success in that two weeks ago when we got agreement from 86% of the bondholders in AIB to accept the discounts offered. That’s worth, by the time the second tranche comes through, almost two billion to the Irish taxpayer.

“And we’re proceeding the same way now with Bank of Ireland. We want to see if we can arrange debt for equity swaps there. We’d like to keep Bank of Ireland as a publicly quoted bank, with majority private ownership. And then we’re moving on to EBS and Irish Life and Permanent.

“So we have, not only made the initial announcements about the structures, we are systematically implementing them and that’s a huge quantity of work in the first 100 days.

“The second thing we did then was we renegotiated the program that had been agreed by the previous government and we got some major concessions on it. Particularly, room to implement the jobs initiative because we had to change things around on the program to get that implemented.

“We also, on NAMA, got an agreement that assets below €20m in value would remain in their parent banks and wouldn’t be switched to NAMA which was very important.

“And we’ve got a review build in after 2012, and we got an extension on the time for the bailout, so it’s getting the deficit down to 3% by 2015 now.

“And of course, for the jobs initiative then, we had to put a Finance Bill in place. And we had to implement that.

“So systematically, we are ticking the boxes and we are meeting the commitments in the program on a timeline.”

“I hope that most of the decisions we make will be good ones and that the ones that aren’t good ones, we’ll have the sense to admit it early and change”

It’s a thankless and tiring job.

“We have been working day and night on it, you know,” he says, “I’m hardly seeing home, or hardly seeing the constituency – that work is being done with the help of other people. But it’s Dublin all the time in the Ministry doing the job that’s required.”

He says the new government is very conscious of how difficult it is for young people to find work in Ireland. But he argues that things are still not as bad as they were in the 1980s. “Back then there were only around 900,000 people at work. But this week’s figures have 1.8 million people at work – it’s nearly double. So even at the bottom of the cycle - and it looks that unemployment has bottomed out now - there’s 1.8m at work. And they’ve gone up the skill chain as well, the people who are at work.”

He said foreign direct investment is strong in Ireland, with the IDA successfully attracting companies, particularly form the US. Exports are booming, and he expects a Balance of Payments surplus this year. And he’s also targeted tourism as a key sector for recovery. The numbers visiting Ireland have declined 30% over a three year period, and Noonan sees regaining that lost ground as a priority. With that in mind he has an appeal to Irish Americans. “You know, people often say to me: You have trouble at home. What can we do? We feel that the crisis is too big and we can’t make any contribution to the solution,” he says. “Well my message is, if you can convince one friend to visit Ireland this summer, do. There’s a lot of Irish abroad, and if they can convince one person to come, it will swell the numbers.”

Noonan says he believes things are beginning to build up again in Ireland.  “I hope that most of the decisions we make will be good ones and that the ones that aren’t good ones, we’ll have the sense to admit it early and change,” he says. “We’re very conscious of building morale and confidence. We’re moving on. So far, so good.”

This article first appeared in the Irish Examiner USA June 21st issue

Ireland's Man in New York: An interview with Noel Kilkenny, Consul-General

For just over seven months now, the Irish Consul General in New York, Noel Kilkenny has been doing his utmost to get to know you. If you haven’t met him yet, it’s not for the want of trying on his part.

The County Clare native, and his wife Hanora, have been attending as many Irish community events in the Tri-State area as it’s physically possible to fit into their schedule - and loving every minute of it. “My priority for my first few months here was to get to know and get known by as many and as broad a spectrum of the Irish and Irish-America as possible,” he told me during an exclusive interview at his office on Park Avenue this week. “In a sense that was both difficult and easy. The difficult part is that it takes so much time – it’s literally night after night after night. But in another sense it’s easy. I went to everything humanly possible. There was no prioritization in that. It was just that if there was a gap in my diary and I got an invitation, I went to it.”

One day, Noel was talking to very important executives making very important multi-million dollar decisions about whether to invest in Ireland or not. And maybe later that same day, he’s meeting people who moved here in the 40s and 50s, who are continuing to do tremendous work in the Irish community. He loves the variety.

“Literally, in the space of a few hours, you are going to see and engage with two entirely different forms of Irish America...New York is, in a totally different way, the most exciting post I’ve ever been in.”

And that’s saying something.

Noel Kilkenny, 58, is a career civil servant, who has one of the most interesting backstories you’re likely to hear. He was posted in China during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, and headed up an EU mission in Bosnia in the late 90s as the war there ended and the Dayton Peace Agreement was beginning to be implemented.

China is now a global player, but in the period from 1985 to 1989, when Noel served there, there far fewer foreigners in the country than there are today. While Ireland enjoyed good cultural relations with Beijing – the Chieftains were especially popular – only a few brave companies had been making efforts to break the market. When the protests in Tiananmen Square turned violent in June 1989, with government troops killing up to 800 of their own people, Noel was tasked with locating any Irish there and getting them to safety. “The main problem in all these situations is always information,” he recalls, “What is happening? We had about 30 Irish in and around Beijing. Some of them were students, some were teachers in the various universities. After the initial events in Tiananmen, they were cut off. There was a lot of concern. Was it going to get worse?”

He gathered all of them together in the compound where the Irish embassy is based, and flew them out to safety, including his wife and kids. He himself remained behind. “My wife and two kids were evacuated to Hong Kong. She turned on the television in Hong Kong and  by then they had pictures that some of the foreign journalist had gotten out of what had been going on, not just in Tiananmen itself but in neighboring streets. She was actually more scared, in a sense, when she got there and she realized just how bad it had been in certain places. And also obviously concerned for me, because I stayed on.”

The other major professional challenge for Noel, was in 1996, when he was posted to Bosnia ahead of and during Ireland’s presidency of the European Union. One of the duties of the presidency, was to take over the running of many EU institutions, one of which at the time was the EU’s Monitoring Mission in Bosnia. “When I arrived, the war was over. The war ended with the Deyton Peace Agreement and that was around November. I arrived in in January with six months to prepare, and then six months of the Irish presidency. But even though the war was over, Sarajevo was still under siege, because under the terms of Dayton, the Serbs didn’t have to lift their siege of Sarajevo until the 19^th of March that year.”

It was a massive mission, even just in terms of the numbers involved. Ireland’s biggest embassy in London has around 80 staff. The mission in Bosnia at the time counted 180 ex-patriot EU personnel and another 360 locals. For a diplomat, the logistics of managing all that was a big challenge. He also oversaw a change in the role of European forces on the ground in Bosnia, from one of a war footing reporting troop movements, to a more political level of reporting. “They were good at what they were trained to do, which was military reporting, on troop formations and atrocities and so on. But now we needed them to report on issues of interest to the international community from a political perspective. And also for the International Court of Justice in The Hague because inevitably prosecutions started to flow and our people were plugged in on the ground. So it was a challenge, I enjoyed it.”

You might think that a posting to the Big Apple would be boring in comparison to all that, but Noel says he’s enjoying the scale and breadth of Ireland’s relations with the US. “There is an energy in New York anyway, even if you are just here as a tourist. Add to that the energy we get from all the events we go to. For me it’s professionally challenging, professionally interesting. Hanora is really loving it too. The great thing about our career is that your partner is part of the job. And that’s a positive. Some people might think, oh but isn’t that a negative then, they’re unpaid servants of the State? But no, we view it as a positive.”

The couple clearly love meeting new people, and show no signs of fatigue. “People actually laugh at us. You go to events and people understand that you may need to slip away after an hour. Often we’ll say, ‘Listen, we’ll stay only for an hour’ - We’ve never achieved it.  Because everything you go to, you meet someone of interest or you hear something of interest. There is something about the energy here. People positively want you to succeed and they want to work with you at succeeding. There’s a welcoming, I mean in a real sense. There is a great warmth, and not just among the Irish and Irish Americans obviously, but among Americans with no connection to Ireland, there is a positive curiosity.”

Noel and his wife Hanora regularly throw open their home to host events. The spectacular Manhattan apartment, which has amazing views of the city, has hosted events ranging from arts launches to business meetings. “It’s a State asset,” Noel says, “And it should be used to maximum degree possible. The night before last we had close on 90 lawyers there for Arbitration Ireland. In two weeks’ time the Irish Film Board are coming out here for the Tribeca Film Festival, we’ll be holding an event in the apartment for that. In May, Queens University Belfast are having an event out here, we’ll be having that in the apartment. The Ancient Order of Hibernians will be celebrating the 175^th anniversary of the organization in the US and I’ll be having an event there on May 20^th.

Luckily, their two dogs are also very welcoming of guests.

To get away from it all Noel enjoys a round of golf, or just watching sport in TV, especially American Football. Their two children are now grown up – their daughter works as an aid specialist for the Irish embassy in Mozambique and their son is a film editor in Dublin. Although not directly involved in the preparations for it, he says he’s hugely interested in how the Obama visit to Ireland goes next month.

As a civil servant, Noel’s positing was unaffected by the recent general election in Ireland, although the new government is keen to use its international team of diplomats to maximum affect at this difficult time. “To imply that nothing changes is to imply we run the system and we don’t,” he explains. “Two things happen after an election. One is we educate ourselves on the policies of the incoming government, and we provide briefings for them on basically how we have done things in the past and how they might want to change things in the future." The new government has summoned all the ambassadors and consuls general home at the start of June for a major briefing. “It’s not so much that we’ll get our new marching orders but we’ll certainly get what they want of us going forward.  The election is almost a fresh mandate for us as well.”

Noel says his priority in the period ahead will be to maintain the contacts he has made and broaden them further. He says he’s conscious that he is not just Consul General for New York City, but for the Tri-State area plus Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia. “I’ve been down to Pennsylvania a few times but I’d like to go there more often,” he says, “I’d like to go more to upstate New York, where there are very strong Irish communities. I want to continue that reaching out to Irish and Irish-American communities.”

Having worked in the embassy in Washington during the 1990s, Noel was familiar with the strength of the Irish American community, but he admits to being impressed by the level of engagement of younger generations of emigrants with organizations like the IBO-NY and IIBN. He also professes huge respect for the work done by longer established centers. “What’s great to see, you go to somewhere like the Aisling Centre,” he says, picking one example. “They run a weekly service into the city to bring food and other items to the homeless of Manhattan. I asked them, how many Irish were among the people they were serving. And they’ve come across very few Irish. That’s not the point. There are homeless people and they see it as something they want to contribute back to this city.”

“There are a lot of great things going on in this city,” he smiles.

10 Reasons We’re Still Proud to be Irish

It’s been a tough week to be Irish – with the shame of being forced to go cap in hand to the EU and IMF, effectively handing over our economic sovereignty for the next few years. But there are some things that the IMF money-men can’t touch. And as Vincent Murphy reports, there are still plenty of reasons to stay positive.

The Irish Landscape

Long after Ajai Chopra and his friends from the IMF are gone home, and long after the loans they give us are repaid, the Cliffs of Moher will still be standing tall on the coast of County Clare. Just as they always have done. The beautiful Killarney lakes will still nestle in the Kerry Mountains.  The Giant’s Causeway will continue to inspire wonder among those who travel to the Antrim coastline. And the rugged beauty of Connemara will still provide sanctuary. Regardless of the tough times ahead, or what fiscal parameters are put in place, Ireland will remain one of the most beautiful patches of land on the entire planet.  With rugged coastlines, forty shades of green, and picture postcard vistas throughout the land, who could fail to be proud of belonging to such a country.

Peace

Ireland is at peace. Sometimes it’s easy to forget the enormity of the Northern Irish peace process. Not long ago, when Ireland hit the international headlines, it was because of murder, bombs and war. Now, it’s because of bond yields, sovereign debt and bank capitalisation. Which one would you prefer to be reading about? The IRA has not only ceased fire, it has decommissioned all its weapons. The Good Friday Agreement in 1998 remains an inspiration to others trying to negotiate peace around the world. And despite the continued threat from dissidents, a power-sharing government in Belfast, where Gerry Adams’ Sinn Fein and Ian Paisley’s DUP form a coalition, deals with the regular political issues with which every other normal government grapples. The tit-for-tat killings are part of history. If Ireland can get through the Troubles, we can survive some economic difficulties.

Our Sporting Heroes

For such a small population, Ireland punches above its weight in the world of sport. And no-one punches better than Katie Taylor (pictured) from Bray in Co Wicklow. She is a three-time World boxing champion, five-time European champion, and has twice been named by her peers as World Female Boxer of the year. And she is still only 24. Oh, and she plays international soccer for Ireland too. Taylor is just one of hundreds of sports stars who provide inspiration and hope for Ireland in the toughest of times.  We have some of the world’s top golfers: Graham McDowell, US Open champion 2010 and the man who clinched the Ryder Cup for Europe, Rory McIllroy, and Padraig Harrington. We have top quality soccer players in the English Premier League:  Shay Given, Kevin Doyle, Robbie Keane and young Seamus Coleman, whose breakthrough at Everton has been one of Irish sports stories of the year. There is the inspirational force that is Munster Rugby, the genius of Leinster and Irish centre Brian O’Driscoll, one of the world’s greatest players. There is the magic of the All Ireland Hurling and Football championships and the indescribable contribution the amateur GAA makes in every community around the country. There’s athlete Derval O’Rourke, cyclist Nicholas Roche, jockey Tony McCoy and... well ,this list could go on for pages. These are just the sports men and women who have inspired the country this year, and they provide hope and promise for years to come.

The Rest of our Economy

What do Google, Facebook, Linkedin, Dell, and Intel have in common? They all have their European headquarters in Ireland. The country is not just a hub for some of the world’s biggest IT companies, it also plays host to some of the planet’s biggest pharmaceutical (eg Pfizer and Wyeth)and medical device companies (nine of the top 10 global medical device companies have a manufacturing base in Ireland).  Take away the disaster zone of our banks and construction sector, and all things considered, the rest of our economy is not doing too badly.  Exports in September were 4% higher than last year.  In 1990 our exports were worth €18 billion. Today they are worth €84 billion. If you read the international papers right now, you might get the impression that everyone is packing their bags to emigrate. And, of course, unemployment is unacceptably high at 14%. But there are still 1.85 million people who go out to work every day in Ireland.  That workforce is young, educated and entrepreneurial.  Things are tough, but we’ll roll up our sleeves and get on with it.

Irish Music

U2 are probably still the biggest rock band in the world (their taxes may be Dutch, but Bono and the lads are still unmistakably Irish!). Enya has sold more than 70 million records over the past two decades. There are new pretenders like The Script and Snow Patrol. And there are few countries where you will not hear Sinead O’Connor, Van Morrison, Westlife or The Cranberries on the jukebox. Irish artists, from pop to rock, from trad to folk have made their mark on the world stage, and will continue to do so.

The Irish Pub

What are you having yourself? A creamy pint of Guinness or a small dram of Irish whiskey? Ok, we Irish might have a reputation for being a bit boozy (even our Taoiseach made headlines around the world recently for doing a radio interview with a hangover). But the truth is, when the craic is good, there is nowhere in the world quite like an Irish pub. And there is nowhere in the world you won’t find one.  There’s “Irish Pub” in Kathmandu, and “Connemara Pub” in Bordeaux. From Paddy O’Shea’s in Beijing to Kilkenny’s in Buenos Aires, an Irish bar is a by-word for a good time. Of course there are none better than the ones in Ireland itself – with impromptu trad sessions or late night sing-songs.  Cheer up, have a pint.

Storytelling

Ireland is a powerhouse of literature, theatre, poetry and cinema. Our ability to tell a story and engage an audience is legendary and for a country our size, disproportionately influential. From classics like James Joyce’s Ulysses, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Jonathon Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels to modern award winners like Frank McCourt, Colum McCann, Joseph O’Neill, Roddy Doyle and Colm Toibin, Irish authors are respected internationally. In theatre, we have a strong tradition from Oscar Wilde, to Samuel Beckett, to Brian Friel and Martin McDonagh.  Our poets from William Butler Yeats to Seamus Heaney have captured the age they live in. And our modern filmmakers like Oscar winners Jim Sheridan and Neil Jordan, have brought Irish tales to a global audience.  We’re the country who produced Maureen O’Hara, Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Liam Neeson and Gabriel Byrne.  Our storytellers, in all art forms, will continue to provide escapism, inspiration and a mirror to ourselves.

Our ability to Laugh

Sometimes all you can do is laugh. On the day the IMF arrived in Dublin last week, the jokes were already circulating on the internet. One showed a fake property listing with the entire country up for sale.  “€900bn o.n.o” it says, “In need of some refurbishing.” It said to contact Brian Cowen. Another was a newspaper death notice for Ireland. “Eire 1922-2010 (after a terminal illness bravely borne) predeceased by her founding fathers Arthur (Griffith) and Michael (Collins), survived by her grieving 4.3m children. Removal from Cowen and Lenihan’s funeral home to the Church of the IMF.”  The one thing you can always count on from the Irish – we will try to see the funny side of it all. Last week, a festival was held in Kilkenny called Kilkenomics. It was jointly organised by economist David McWilliams and comedy festival organiser Richard Cooke. It featured a mix of comedians and economists debating Ireland’s plight, and how it all went wrong. It was a sell-out smash.  “Ireland needs a new credit rating agency. Moody and Poor”, said one comedian Colm O’Regan.  The day we lose the ability to laugh in the face of adversity, is the day to start worrying.

Our Simple Pleasures

There are some things you need to be Irish to fully appreciate or understand. Tayto crisps or Red Lemonade, for example. Why there is nothing tastier first thing in the morning than the full Irish breakfast washed down by a cup of Barry’s Tea. Tuning into your local radio station at 10am to hear the death notices being read out.  How, despite annual evidence to the contrary, we can convince ourselves that we will have a summer of sunshine, just because we get two weeks of nice weather in May. Our wide range of accents, which differ from county to county, despite how small the country is. Waving hello to strangers on a country road. No matter what tough medicine the IMF prescribe, day-to-day the Irish way of life will go on with all its idiosyncrasies and charms.

Our Proud Diaspora

Over 70 million people around the world claim to have some Irish heritage. That’s a hell of a lot of friends to have. All you have to do is look at the international outpouring of pride that accompanies St Patrick’s Day around the world every year. Green hair, green rivers, green milkshakes – can you think of any other country that inspires such devotion! You can travel anywhere in the world, and chances are you will find someone Irish. From the Great Famine, to the mass emigration of the 1980s, Ireland’s sons and daughters have dispersed around the world in numbers. Nowhere is this truer than in the United States. Ireland’s international reputation has been damaged by recent events. But the fight back starts here. If every one of those 70 million friends stands up for our country, and re-asserts our pride in all things Irish, then the future is bright.

(A version of this article appears in the November 23rd issue of Irish Examiner USA)

Hanafin: Art event can send positive and vibrant message about Ireland

A new contemporary art event, which is expected to bring 150,000 extra tourists to Ireland next year, was launched in New York on Friday. Leading figures from the arts and business world gathered at the spectacular Irish Consul General’s residence in Manhattan to hear Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport Mary Hanafin announce details of Dublin Contemporary 2011.

The large-scale visual arts event will open in Dublin next September, showcasing the best of Irish and international contemporary art. It’s planned to hold the event every five years, and it aims to put the Irish capital on the map as a destination for lovers of contemporary art, in a way that Venice Biennale has done for its host city.

“It can be and will be a very imaginative and very exciting event,” said Minister Hanafin. She said it sent out message about Ireland that was “very positive and vibrant” at a time when Ireland is in the international headlines for all the wrong reasons.

When you ask anybody around the world what do they know about Ireland, there is very few that will mention the Irish economy. But what they will talk about is our culture

“This is a way of saying to people: ‘Look at Ireland in a different way’ and look at what we do well,” she said. “When you ask anybody around the world what do they know about Ireland, there is very few that will mention the Irish economy. Very few of them will be able to name a particular bank or a developer or anything like that. But what they will talk about is our culture. And our unique characteristics that set us out from any other country that speaks English.”

The event is already generating interest in the New York arts community – among those attending last Friday’s launch were art historian and critic Barbara Novak, Village Voice art critic Christian Viveros-Faune and renowned Irish-born artist Brian O’Doherty. The business community was also well represented by, among others, Revlon president Alan Ennis, and Continental Airlines director Patricia Cunningham.

Details of the programme for Dublin Contemporary 2011 will be announced in March, but it will include a trail around the city at landmark sites including established art venues, warehouses, churches and open spaces. “It’s the open space element that I’m looking forward to most,” said Minster Hanafin “Because I have no doubt those will be the pieces that will be bold, daring, exciting and those are the ones that will cause debate. And there should be debate about contemporary art.” She said cultural tourism was very important to Ireland – if the event is a success it has the potential to generate €13.5m for the economy.

Among those attending were art historian and critic Barbara Novak and Village Voice art critic Christian Viveros-Faune

The festival’s artistic director Rachael Thomas, who is on secondment from the Irish Museum of Modern Art, said the theme would be “Silence”. She says it takes its inspiration from James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and John Cage, and told the gathering that it can be seen as part of a long tradition of Irish art from the Book of Kells to Jack B Yeats. 

Dublin Contemporary 2011 was also launched in London last week at the 2010 World Travel Market – the biggest expo event for the travel industry in the world.

Haunting Ireland - Ghost Estates

Nothing captures the despair and destruction left behind by the bursting of Ireland’s property bubble better than photos like this one.

And there are thousands upon thousands of others.

A website has been created, www.ghostestates.com, which reveals the complete scale of the disaster. It’s a Google-map of Ireland with red pins marking the locations of abandoned building sites. Click on the pin, and you will see a photograph of the estate or site concerned. The map of Ireland is covered with red pins – every province, every county, almost every town is represented.

The website was the work of ordinary citizens, but last week an official State study was published which put exact numbers and locations on the problem. The Department of Environment study confirmed there are more than 2,800 ghost estates in Ireland. Building has started on 120,000 homes in these estates, but only 77,000 are complete and lived in.  That means there are 33,000 empty, vacant, unsold or incomplete houses and apartments across the country.

Ten thousand of these houses are in the early stages of construction and have been completely abandoned. In fact, builders are only continuing to work in one-in-six of the ghost estates. The report breaks down the figures, county-by-county. Worst affected are Carlow, Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo and Longford. Cork has the most unsold homes with 3,427.

Real Victims - Phase 1 buyers of overpriced homes

But it’s not just the empty or abandoned houses that are the problem – the real victims are those who bought houses or apartments in Phase 1 of the developments. In many cases, homeowners who live on estates where building work has ceased have also been abandoned and left without essential services. Sewers have been left open on the sites, water is contaminated and security lax. Thousands of homes are not served by roads, paths and public lighting – many of these essentials would be “finishing touches”, undertaken by developers when the entire estate was completed.

An expert group has now been set up to look at how to deal with the problem. It comprises, among others, local authorities, NAMA (the agency set up to take over non-performing loans from banks and pursue developers – it will end up owning many of these estates), representatives of the Construction Industry and health and safety authorities. The choices they face are stark.

Awful Truth: Bulldozers

Experts say it could cost up to one billion euro to complete all the estates on which work has begun. There is simply no money to do this, nor is there a market for all the houses if completed.  A portion of the houses will be taken over by NAMA, and completed and sold for as much as they can get. Others will be allocated to social housing – good news for those on waiting lists, but perhaps not what many of those who bought houses in these estates for inflated prices were expecting when they took out their massive mortgages. There has been talk of converting some ghost estates that are near completion into hospice or nursing home communities.

But the awful truth is that hundreds if not thousands of these properties will be simply bulldozed to the ground – symbols of the foolishness and recklessness that has brought Ireland to its knees.

One NAMA for the rich, and Bananas for everyone else:

The property companies who built these estates, are for the most part, insolvent. They borrowed heavily to finance the developments, and now in a collapsed market, will never to be able to afford to pay them back. But the men who set them up, are often far from insolvent. Intricate corporate structures, and transfers of asset ownership to family members means that even when the company goes kaput, they can walk away comfortably leaving massive debts behind.

The foolish banks who lent them money in the first place without adequate collateral must surely take the hit? No - of course, not. Banks are systemically important. Their books are so filled with these worthless never-to-be-repaid loans, that they need to be bailed out. So the citizens of Ireland, through the government they elected, say "we'll buy these loans off you". Enter NAMA, a "bad" bank who will buy that €100m loan-which-will-never-be-repaid for €40m. (Reports put the average haircut or discount for loans taken over by NAMA at 60%). Of course, even that €40m in most cases will never be repaid - the property company is kaput, remember - so NAMA will take over the assets behind the loans. For that read hundreds of ghost estates.

Now in order for NAMA to work, it must make as much money as it can from selling these houses. Even if that means selling them at fire sale prices. So the market gets flooded with more apartments and houses at a lower price. Guess what that does to the value of the house owned by our Phase 1 buyers? Correct, it drives it down even further.

So now that the fools who borrowed to build, and the chancers that recklessly lent to them are bailed out, the biggest victim of all turns out to be the young couple who just wanted to buy a home to live in. They paid hundreds of thousands of euro to live in an unfinished estate, in a house now worth half of what they paid for it only a few years ago, in an economy wrecked by the very people who overcharged them and are now being bailed out.

Families: as systemic as banks?

Which brings me to the key point. Isn't it time to at least talk about a Nama for "the little people"? Call me bananas, but if the banks are will to sell loans to NAMA for 40% of their original value because the builder has walked away from it, why won't someone give a haircut to those now in negative equity? If we can borrow to buy bad loans off the banks to make sure they don't go bust, can we not do something to make sure families don't go bust? Are families not as systemic to our society as banks? Don't we own most of these banks now anyway?

Personally, I don't own one of these houses, and while I know some people in negative equity, thankfully they are not living in a ghost estate. But many people my age bought houses in areas they didn't really want to live in, and towns that didn't exist ten years ago, just because it was all they could afford. Now, they are trapped. 

They have no road or footpath in the estate, youngsters are hanging out in the abandoned building site near their homes, and their new neighbours are likely to be either pensioners from retirement homes or welfare recipients - that's if the bulldozers don't get there first.  Their jobs are far from safe, their pay has been cut, their taxes are about to rise, their childcare costs are still high, and they have to work two jobs to pay a mortgage back to a bank that managed to get it's loans taken off its hands.

I'm not an economist. But people live in a society, not an economy. I understand that our budget structural deficit is completely unrelated to the NAMA project and bank bailout (which makes it even scarier). But the tough medicine that is about to be administered, would not taste as bad, if it was tempered with some recognition that there is one group left waiting for their bailout - ordinary citizens.

When the ship is steadied, and the current fire is put out, there are a few "finishing touches" to be made to our approach to the bursting of the property bubble. In the meantime, can we get some paths, roads and lighting to those poor people trapped in our ghost estates, and please tell me we don't have to wait for an "expert group" to report back to tell us that is what they need.

Robinson congratulates Hume on "Ireland's Greatest" at launch of UN report

-          Robinson congratulates Hume on Ireland’s Greatest

-          Former president says debate on gender quotas in Irish politics should be reopened

-          Equality Minister Mary White is considering a proposal whereby State funding could be cut for any political party without a fair proportion of women candidates

Former President Mary Robinson has congratulated John Hume on being named Ireland’s Greatest in an RTE vote, in which she finished in third place.

“I’m very happy that John Hume got the recognition he so richly deserves,” she told me, “For him, for his wife Pat and the family. It’s a very good way for the Irish people to recognise the huge contribution he has made.”

She was speaking at the office of Ireland’s UN Mission in New York last night, where she helped launch a new report into women’s participation in politics, which was co-authored by Ireland.

Mrs Robinson, who was Ireland’s first ever female President, said she had not had yet the opportunity to watch any of the five documentaries in the series - including the one in which economist David McWilliams championed her case.

“My family certainly felt it was a good documentary,” she said, “And I heard that people in the west of Ireland, at least, also agreed. But I will catch up on it soon.”

She said she was glad to been a little distant from the process, and was now happy that “the rest of us can fade into a nice comfortable obscurity again”.

The UN report – which was co authored by Ireland, Northern Ireland, Liberia and Timor Leste (East Timor) – made a number of recommendations on improving women’s participation in formal politics.

These included more family friendly working arrangements for politicians, the engagement of men in support of women candidates and political structures like a women’s caucus in parliament once elected.

One of its key findings was that gender quotas in politics do work, and should not be dismissed as token gestures.

It cautions against viewing them as negative and said they should instead be a key strategy in helping women to enter formal politics.

Mrs Robinson said she believed it was “appropriate” for the issue to be re-examined in Ireland.

“The countries around the world that have been willing to have quotas have made much more rapid progress,” the former president said, “It is up to every country, and some, Ireland among them, feel we don’t need quotas.

“But maybe they should think: how is it that we still have a very small percentage of women? How can we ensure that we get closer to the 50/50? Do we even have the ambition to get close to the 50/50?”

Equality Minister Mary White of the Green Party, who represented the government at the event, said quotas would be considered as part of a wider package of reforms aimed at increasing female participation in politics in Ireland.

“I have said all along that quotas on their own won’t work – we need a strong supportive package,” she said.

She said in recent weeks her team had received responses from all the political parties to a detailed questionnaire on the issue.

She said she is working on a proposal, some of which could be implemented as part of electoral and Dail reform.

These include a change to working hours in Dail Eireann to make them more family friendly, and more women nominees to State boards.

One potentially controversial proposal under consideration is the linking of the State funding of political parties to their gender representations.

“I’ll be looking at the issue of party funding if parties didn’t actually run (women) candidates,” said Minster White, “and maybe having a sliding scale.

“So if you had 20% (female candidates) you lose a certain percentage of your state funding, 25% you’d lose less, and the more you go up in terms of having women on the ballot paper, the more money the party would have.”

Ireland is currently ranked 84^th in the world for female representation in politics – just 23 TDS are women (14%) which puts us behind Sierra Leone.

Several high-profile female TDs, including Olwyn Enright (FG), Liz McManus and Mary Upton (Lab), indicated during the summer that they don’t intend to contest the next election.

“There is no question about it,” said Minister White, “Our parliament is not balanced.”

The UN study was presented to the head of UN women Michele Bachelet.

The Irish-hosted event was also attended by Ministers from Liberia, Timor Leste and several senior international and UN diplomats.

Cowen “dealt tough hand” says New York Mayor

Taoiseach Brian Cowen has met New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the second day of his visit to the United States.

Mr Cowen also met with executives from Goldman Sachs and Bank of New York Mellon, both of which have significant operations in Ireland.

Speaking at City Hall after the meeting, Mayor Bloomberg said Mr Cowen had “been dealt a tough hand, like at a lot of leaders around the world” but said he had “a lot of respect for him and his willingness to take on the tough issues.”

The Taoiseach said he used the meeting to indicate the continuing interest of Irish business in penetrating the New York and Tri-State area.”

“Since beginning of the year 32 more companies from Ireland have set up in the States, eight in New York City,” said Mr Cowen.

Mr Cowen said he wanted to learn lessons about the innovative way in which Mayor Bloomberg had been delivering public services.

The Taoiseach will travel to Atlanta, Georgia tomorrow (Wed) where he will open the first ever Irish consulate office in the southern United States.

He will also meet Governor Sonny Perdue and give an interview to CNN.

Cowen launches €500m Innovation Fund on US visit

Taoiseach Brian Cowen is in the United States on a three day mission to spread optimism and confidence about the Irish economy.

Mr Cowen is eager to convince business leaders here that Ireland’s fiscal fortunes have turned a corner, and the country is on the road to recovery.

He’s also announced a new venture capital fund, worth half a billion euro, aimed at promoting entrepreneurship.

On Monday morning, he met with the President of the New York Stock Exchange Duncan Niederaur on Wall Street.

He followed that by a meeting with leading business figures, including many members of the Global Irish Network, established at the Farmleigh Summit last year.

He has also been holding talks with US companies that have invested in Ireland, as well as giving a series of high profile media interviews including Bloomberg and CNN.

On Tuesday, he is meeting held talks with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

He travels to Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday, where he will meet Governor Sonny Perdue, before opening a new Irish consulate.

It will be the first ever Irish diplomatic mission in the southern United States and the first new consulate to be opened here in several decades.

Mr Cowen is using his visit to the US to promote a new Innovation Fund, worth half a billion euro, aimed at boosting Irish business over the next five years.

The government is investing €125m from Exchequer funds into the project, and €125m will be provided by the National Pension Reserve Fund.

The remaining €250m will come from venture capital companies, which Mr Cowen expects to locate in Ireland, bringing money and expertise.

“The Innovation Fund was very well received,” Mr Cowen said after the Wall Street meeting.

“It’s about Ireland setting itself up as a place where business can be done, where start-ups can take place, particularly in the technology and life sciences and other areas, and ensuring there is risk capital available to help those companies scale up.”

He also expressed confidence that, based on market testing they’ve done on the initiative, that some US Tier 1 Venture Capital companies would send personnel to Ireland to establish European bases over the next few years.

“This fund is an opportunity for people with good ideas, whether they are in Ireland or within Europe, to see the country as a good location to start up their business or grow their business.
Although the visit is focussed on economic issues, Mr Cowen also stopped off at Gaelic Park in the Bronx on Monday afternoon to launch a GAA summer camp aimed at children.

The 2010 New York Cúl 4 Kids Summer Camp has around 200 participants from the Tri-State area.

He posed for pictures with many of the children, including 6 year old Roisin Smith, from Woodside, Queens, who wore the GAA jersey of Mr Cowen’s home county Offaly.

Roisin’s mother, Marie is from Mr Cowen’s constituency.

“I didn’t expect her to get a picture with him,” she said, “but it’s great that she did!”

Her son Sean, 8, was also taking part in the summer camp.

But did they know who Mr Cowen was?

“I’ve been explaining to them by comparing him to Barack Obama,” said Marie, “I said that in the way that Obama runs the US, Mr Cowen is in charge of Ireland.”