A POLITICIAN has to be a jack of all trades, and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin is playing many roles on his US visit: intellectual at the European Institute; statesman on Capitol Hill; man of the people and sports fan at the embassy’s reception for the Irish community and at the Rockland County GAA grounds.
At breakfast in New York this morning, he’ll tantalise the money men with intimations of recovery and growth, only to revert to Cork’s native son at the 125th anniversary of the Cork Association in Flushing this evening.
The Irish Embassy stresses that Martin is good value in these straitened times.
It’s not easy to fly in at midnight, deliver a lecture at 8.30am, meet 23 congressmen throughout the day – a record – then speechify in the evening.
It was, said Ambassador Michael Collins, “a programme that would exhaust any normal human being. Whenever we get a minister here, we try to exploit them to the max”.
It helps to have a friendly audience. In Washington, Martin was twice hailed as the hero who pioneered smoking bans in public places. On Capitol Hill, it was like St Patrick’s Day, five months early.
“It’s really awful on St Patrick’s Day,” the former presidential candidate and Republican senator John McCain joked. “That’s when everybody claims that they’re Irish.”
McCain imparted to Martin his views on China (dangerous), Russia (dangerous), Iran (more dangerous), and President Barack Obama’s cancellation of the missile defence shield in Europe (also dangerous).
The senator’s own links with the old sod are tenuous. “My family were originally from Scotland, driven out by the Campbells, and they stopped in Ireland for a period of time,” he explained. “My wife’s family is Irish. I love the country and I love the people and the literature.”
William Trevor and Roddy Doyle won special mention. Martin recommended Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn, which is now on its way to the senator’s office.
The abundance of warm and fuzzy feeling did not prevent Martin from doing serious lobbying on behalf of thousands of undocumented Irish in the US. “The big news is that he brought senator Lindsey Graham on board,” said Bruce Morrison, the former Democratic congressman who originated the idea of an E-3 visa system – a swap regularisation of 10,500 Irish and American citizens in both countries, modelled on the arrangement between Australia and the US.
Martin described the E-3 proposal as “a mechanism to ensure we don’t have future generations of undocumented Irish”. The Minister will meet the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform in New York this afternoon.
The Government has already enlisted the support of New York senator Charles Schumer, who heads the immigration subcommittee, and Vermont senator Patrick Leahy, the head of the powerful judiciary committee.
Martin’s visit marks the first time that Graham, the Republican from South Carolina who led the last attempt at immigration reform, has been contacted. “There’s no problem with the Irish,” Graham told Martin.
Martin’s day on Capitol Hill was book-ended by memories of Ted Kennedy, who died on August 26th. In the morning, he called on Paul Kirk, the former head of the Kennedy Library in Boston who is filling in as senator from Massachusetts until a January byelection. Ted Kennedy’s name is still on the office door, along with his Céad Míle Fáilte sign.
The Minister stood for a moment’s reflection in front of Kennedy’s desk, surrounded by Irish memorabilia.
Kirk and Martin talked about creating Irish links to the Edward M Kennedy Institute, which Obama inaugurated this week. Late in the afternoon, the Minister called on Chris Dodd, who has a house in the west of Ireland, and who was Kennedy’s best friend in the Senate.
“Obviously, Kennedy is sorely missed,” Martin said later. “But Leahy has been a great leader to us. Chris Dodd as well. These guys are in love with Ireland.”
Leahy has other Irish friendships: a shared interest in fighting landmines and gaining aid appropriations has put him in frequent contact with Bono. The senator added a personal touch to his meeting with Martin, giving the Minister photographs he’d taken of Martin and Obama last March.
Kennedy’s death left Leahy and Dodd as dual patriarchs of the Irish-American community. But, Martin said, “It’s equally important that we continue to broaden the degree of interest in Ireland on the Hill.”
To this end, Martin also met with Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, a 48-year-old freshman Irish-American senator who plays basketball with Obama.
Just as Irish officials keep an eye out for new American leaders, the legislators on Capitol Hill are watching Ireland’s turbulent politics. Martin, said Democratic Congressman Mike Doyle from Pittsburgh, “is viewed by many of us over here as a rising star. We think he has a great future.”
Timothy Murphy, a Republican congressman from Pittsburgh, said he was most struck by Martin’s optimism about the Irish economy. “Ireland may recover sooner than the US,” Murphy said. “We’ve accumulated a lot more debt than Ireland has.” He quoted an Irish friend of his saying, “We tried poverty for 800 years and it didn’t work very well for us.”
The Celtic Tiger years gave Ireland a taste for prosperity. “You ended up with intelligent entrepreneurs who know they can be leaders,” Murphy said. “It’s like the Steelers [football team] in Pittsburgh. They’ve won so many Super Bowls that we always say: ‘We can be champions again’. Ireland can do it again.”