There was more than a little upset at the Labour Party conference in Cork last weekend because the new US ambassador, Richard Egan, had chosen to go to the Sinn FΘin ardfheis in Dublin and had ignored Labour. How could he, they asked. Had he heard the Sinn FΘin calls for the release of the Columbia Three? Did he know about the links with ETA?
Indeed Egan was as conspicuous by his absence in Cork as he was by his presence in the RDS. But was he invited to Cork? Labour says he was - along with the ambassadors of the UK, Australia, Austria, Egypt, Finland and Denmark, who all turned up, and others who sent representatives. A spokeswoman said the US embassy makes every effort to attend as many meetings of political parties as possible. Since the Belfast Agreement, attendance at Sinn FΘin's had been at ambassadorial level; but Ambassador Egan was only here three weeks, and most of his time had been taken up with the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in the US. He was making every effort to acquaint himself with the political scene and would continue to meet people.
A full diplomatic turnout is expected for the Taoiseach's speech at the FF ardfheis in Citywest on Saturday night, and at the State funerals of the 10 IRA men reinterred from Mountjoy prison to Glasnevin cemetery the next day. The ardfheis is definitely not a pre-election rally; another one takes place in the RDS on the first weekend in March, and if that is not a pre-election gathering, we are in the land of the coup.
The honoured position of warm-up speaker goes this year to Micheβl Martin, and the warm-up to the warm-up is billed as Eoin Ryan, Margaret Cox, Noel O'Flynn and Jim Glennon. The three video inserts to the leader's speech will be introduced by Frank Fahey, Mary Coghlan and Mary O'Rourke. S∅le de Valera is anchorwoman.