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Irish America magazine - Aug/Sept '08 issue: The Global Irishman, In the Name of the Fada, Chicago and the Irish, Hannah’s Descendants, Roots: The Marvelous McDonaghs, Slainte: Dancing at Lughnasa, Review of Books, Ashley Davis - Finding Herself Through Her Past
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 A
New Kind of Leader For a New Kind of Ireland
Brian Cowen recently took over from Bertie Ahern as Taoiseach of Ireland.
Publisher Niall O’Dowd, who was one of the first Irish-Americans to meet
with him, writes about his first impressions of the new leader of the Fianna
Fail party.
Pride of place on the wall of new Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen’s
office is a portrait of Sean Lemass, the father of modern Ireland.
When Lemass came to power in 1959 Ireland was at a low ebb. Over the next
seven years he revolutionized the country, putting in place the
industrialization strategy and free education scheme that transformed the
landscape and gave us modern Ireland.
Cowen, 48, clearly sees himself in the same mould as a reformer and
innovator. Given the evidence of a recent hour-long conversation with him, I
have little doubt he will succeed or die trying.
Cowen is refreshingly direct about his ambitions. He well suits the
unapologetic, upwardly striving country he now runs. Don’t expect blarney or
blather from Cowen. He lets people know where he stands and rarely
embellishes. What you see is what you get. It is a direct style that will go
down well in America.
He comes to power at a pivotal moment. The Celtic Tiger is flagging, peace
reigns in the North, and a new vista and vision is needed for Ireland as the
world turns elsewhere. Cowen believes he can provide it.
America looms large in that vision. One of his first trips abroad will be to
New York in July for Irish America’s Wall Street 50 .
As the Celtic Tiger light dims, Cowen knows that efforts are afoot among
foreign development agencies to portray Ireland as busted flush whose best
days are behind. He is intent on setting that perception to one side. Coming
to America soon into his term is a very smart move and signals his
priorities.
Helping the Irish undocumented in the U.S. is another area Cowen intends to
focus on. He wishes to meet with the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform and
some undocumented persons when he is here. He is not talking in the
abstract, either – he has relatives who are undocumented.
Coming from a rural constituency in Offaly, Cowen has an instinctive feel
for an issue that affects thousands of families in Ireland. Indeed, Cowen
understands this country in a way his predecessors never did. As a student,
he worked here on construction sites. He played football in Gaelic Park in
the Bronx, and he has close relatives living in New York.
He knows there is no greater crisis facing an Irish community abroad than
what is happening in America since 9/11 and the immigrant crackdown.
It is an instinctive reaction on his part. You get the sense that Cowen
would be as comfortable sipping a beer in the corner of O’Donnell’s bar in
Gaelic Park as presiding at a major European Union summit. It’s a rare
ability to be able to fuse the two talents. He knows that Ireland and
America need a new paradigm, a new way of dealing with the reality of the
relationship. It makes no sense that legal immigration from Ireland is
virtually no longer possible, or that Americans cannot work legally in
Ireland.
He understands the danger if the two countries no longer have access to each
other. Expect a major effort on his behalf to remedy that.
He arrives in power with great expectations. Cowen, a country lawyer from
Offaly before he took up politics, has excelled in a series of ministries,
so much so that the race to succeed Bertie Ahern was a walkover.
Along the way he developed a reputation as a private wit and raconteur, but
also a man who can handle the most difficult briefs and fight his corner
with aplomb.
He is the grassroots taoiseach, a man beloved by the rank and file of his
own party who provided him with the overwhelming support he needed to
succeed Ahern.
Interesting that in the offices of the last two Irish leaders, Ahern and
John Bruton, historical figures took pride of place – Patrick Pearse, the
1916 leader for Ahern, and John Redmond, the leader of constitutional
nationalism at the beginning of the last century for Bruton. By giving
Lemass a pride of place Cowen is making his own statement too. It is one
about the future and the need to be innovative and groundbreaking. Cowen
promises to be all that and then some.
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