A New Kind of Leader

Editorial / Periscope - Niall O'Dowd

A New Kind of Leader

May 30, 2008

By Niall O'Dowd

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 an hour-long conversation with him last week, 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, the North is over bar the shouting, 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 the Wall Street 50 event hosted by our sister publication Irish America magazine.

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 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 gets this country in a way his predecessors never did. He worked here as a student on construction sites. He played football in Gaelic Park, 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 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 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 the 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 ground breaking. Cowen promises to be all that and then some.

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