Bush's visit to Ireland
On Friday evening George Bush came to visit Ireland for an EU-US summit. The summit was held in Dromoland Castle, in Clare.
However, the evening before, Bush gave an interview to RTE's Carol Coleman, RTE's Washington correspondent. Coleman's interview was quite impressive (although the timing was bad...over on Network Two England were in extra time against Portugal in the European Championship quarter final, after which they were duly knocked out on penalties). Coleman asked Bush quite a few tough questions, and in fairness to him, he answered most of them quite well (I believe the questions were vetted beforehand, and she was not allowed to ask about certain topics). However, when Coleman pressed him on certain issues, Bush got visibly annoyed, and told Coleman not to interrupt him, several times.
It was quite strange to see him getting so annoyed. Apparently from what I have read in the weekend's newspapers, in the US politicians are not used to getting challenged by reporters, and are generally given an easy time. This is consistent with every other interview or press conference I have ever seen Bush in. All his press conferences and interviews are carefully stage managed, so he is never really probed hard.
I was quite impressed with Carol Coleman, but apparently the White House was not. She was supposed to be interviewing the First Lady, Laura Bush, on Friday, but the White House pulled the interview when they found out it was Coleman again who would be conducting the interview.
On Friday evening anyhow Bush "came to shove", and fly into Shannon Airport. Anti-Bush protests were held in several towns around the country, but I went into the largest, in Dublin city centre. We marched from Parnell Square down O'Connell Street, over O'Connell Bridge, up D'Olier Street, into Nassau Street, but the Gardai prevented the march from going up Kildare Street (location of the Dáil, the Irish Parliament), so the march finished in Merrion Square instead. It is hard to know how many people marched, the Gardai said around 10,000, and the organisers said 20,000, so I guess it was probably somewhere in between.
There was a mixture of different types, from across the left. Sinn Féin (inevitably; I did find it a contradiction that Sinn Féin went on an anti-war march, given they maintain their own private army and refuse to disarm), Labour, Irish-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Socialist Workers, and believe me many many more.
I had never been on a protest march before, so it was a bit of an experience. I took a few pictures on any camera, but all were as uninteresting as the one above!
Some of my views did differ from the majority of the crowd on the march. A lot of people there seemed to hold the view that Bush was not welcome in Ireland, and that he should not have been allowed to come. I disagree. He is the democratically elected (with more that a little help from Republican judges in Florida) president of the United States, and represents the American people. Ireland holds the Presidency of the European Union. Every year there is an EU-US summit, and these are going to be crucial if good relations are to be maintained between the two regions. Thus it was our duty to host the man.
However...this gave us an ideal opportunity to voice our concerns (plus disgust plus anger) to the President of the United States, at the reasons for going to war in Iraq, the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, Afghanistan and other camps around the world where captives disappear without trial or due process, the lack of respect for the Kyoto protocols and the ICC (although in fairness this week there seems to be some positive movement on the ICC front). Our politicians had a duty this week to convey our views on these issues, and we the people had a right to protest on the streets, which we did.
It was good to see all the protests passed off peacefully and without any real incident.
However, the evening before, Bush gave an interview to RTE's Carol Coleman, RTE's Washington correspondent. Coleman's interview was quite impressive (although the timing was bad...over on Network Two England were in extra time against Portugal in the European Championship quarter final, after which they were duly knocked out on penalties). Coleman asked Bush quite a few tough questions, and in fairness to him, he answered most of them quite well (I believe the questions were vetted beforehand, and she was not allowed to ask about certain topics). However, when Coleman pressed him on certain issues, Bush got visibly annoyed, and told Coleman not to interrupt him, several times.
It was quite strange to see him getting so annoyed. Apparently from what I have read in the weekend's newspapers, in the US politicians are not used to getting challenged by reporters, and are generally given an easy time. This is consistent with every other interview or press conference I have ever seen Bush in. All his press conferences and interviews are carefully stage managed, so he is never really probed hard.
I was quite impressed with Carol Coleman, but apparently the White House was not. She was supposed to be interviewing the First Lady, Laura Bush, on Friday, but the White House pulled the interview when they found out it was Coleman again who would be conducting the interview.
On Friday evening anyhow Bush "came to shove", and fly into Shannon Airport. Anti-Bush protests were held in several towns around the country, but I went into the largest, in Dublin city centre. We marched from Parnell Square down O'Connell Street, over O'Connell Bridge, up D'Olier Street, into Nassau Street, but the Gardai prevented the march from going up Kildare Street (location of the Dáil, the Irish Parliament), so the march finished in Merrion Square instead. It is hard to know how many people marched, the Gardai said around 10,000, and the organisers said 20,000, so I guess it was probably somewhere in between.
There was a mixture of different types, from across the left. Sinn Féin (inevitably; I did find it a contradiction that Sinn Féin went on an anti-war march, given they maintain their own private army and refuse to disarm), Labour, Irish-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Socialist Workers, and believe me many many more.
I had never been on a protest march before, so it was a bit of an experience. I took a few pictures on any camera, but all were as uninteresting as the one above!
Some of my views did differ from the majority of the crowd on the march. A lot of people there seemed to hold the view that Bush was not welcome in Ireland, and that he should not have been allowed to come. I disagree. He is the democratically elected (with more that a little help from Republican judges in Florida) president of the United States, and represents the American people. Ireland holds the Presidency of the European Union. Every year there is an EU-US summit, and these are going to be crucial if good relations are to be maintained between the two regions. Thus it was our duty to host the man.
However...this gave us an ideal opportunity to voice our concerns (plus disgust plus anger) to the President of the United States, at the reasons for going to war in Iraq, the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, Afghanistan and other camps around the world where captives disappear without trial or due process, the lack of respect for the Kyoto protocols and the ICC (although in fairness this week there seems to be some positive movement on the ICC front). Our politicians had a duty this week to convey our views on these issues, and we the people had a right to protest on the streets, which we did.
It was good to see all the protests passed off peacefully and without any real incident.