Out Like Flynn

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Editorial / Periscope - Niall O'Dowd

Out Like Flynn

September 13, 2007

By NiallO’Dowd

FORMER Vatican Ambassador and Boston Mayor Ray Flynn had a go at the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) in an Irish Echo op-ed piece last week. Flynn stated that he was “surprised by the lack of political experience and savvy” of the organizers of the lobby. Political speeches, he said, were “overly supportive of liberal Democrats. Standing ovations for Ted Kennedy and Charles Schumer roared from the crowds, often to the exclusion of other members of Congress.”

As chairman and founder of ILIR, I feel the need to respond and also to place in context where Ray is coming from.

Ray has been getting a free pass on a lot of Irish stuff for the past few years. In his day he was a fine mayor of Boston, but I’d say Ray would be the first to admit his subsequent career did not live up to that significant achievement.

Part of that reason was that Ray mastered the art of spin and of appearing to be on every side of an issue simultaneously a little too well. This is certainly true of his political career, which has seen him zigzag from liberal Democrat to Republican and, if he is to be believed, back to Democrat again now.

Along the way Ray tried to be too clever by half, and his immigration op-ed is a precise example. At the end of the piece Ray writes that we can “count him in” when the effort for immigration reform resumes.

The sad fact is that there was a time that Ray could have been counted on and counted in, but he point blank refused to be. That was last year when he was chosen as grand marshal for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City, an important position which gave him access to national media at a critical time for the immigration movement.

ILIR Vice Chairman Ciaran Staunton, a long-time friend of the former mayor, pleaded with him to mention the plight of Irish immigrants in his acceptance speech and also in subsequent interviews with the media.

Ray uttered not a word, fearing that his comments might upset the parade organizers who continue to refuse to acknowledge the Irish undocumented. After that we at ILIR pretty much counted Ray out.

Ray spoke at one ILIR meeting in Boston where he was made feel very welcome. To the best of my knowledge he did not attend any other meetings.

He was the only invited speaker at that event apart from former Congressman Bruce Morrison, a Democrat. At the time I think he was still a Republican, so perhaps we had the balance right.

If he had attended more meetings he might have noticed the presence of men such as Republican Senators John McCain and Sam Brownback, and Grant Lally, head of Irish American Republicans and president of ILIR. He might also have met Congressman James Walsh as well as other Republican representatives.

Far from being a one-party organization, ILIR from its inception took every opportunity to reach out to both parties. Indeed, McCain more than once held up the organization as a model of bipartisan support and was quoted at a rally in the Bronx, where over 1,000 attended in his honor, that ILIR had changed many minds in his own party in Washington.

So Ray may not think it was significant to get leading presidential contenders such as McCain and Senator Hillary Clinton to ILIR rallies, but I have no doubt that the key American politicians thought it was, especially given the extensive coverage ILIR received.

ILIR has nothing to apologize to Ray Flynn for in its efforts to legalize the Irish. Perhaps he might reexamine his own role.

As I’m at it, in his Echo piece Ray also refers to his role in Northern Ireland as one of the originals who met with then candidate Bill Clinton to kick off the American role in the peace process back in 1992.

He mentions that he and Paul O’Dwyer were present at this meeting, but curiously, not that I was the other person there at the Sheraton Hotel meeting in New York when Clinton first encountered the Irish American community.

Ray rightly takes credit for helping set up that critical meeting, but goes on to infer that he played a major role afterwards. He did not.

He was invited by me to be part of a small but influential Irish American delegation that eventually played a major role in securing the IRA ceasefire and the American role in the peace process. The story of that delegation is told remarkably well by Irish Times journalist Conor O’Clery in his book Daring Diplomacy, as well as in a subsequent PBS documentary.

Actually, Ray refused to take part in the delegation despite originally pledging to do so causing me much heartache in the process.

I believe his intentions are good but when it comes to delivering Ray is more talk than action sad to say. His record as against his rhetoric reflects that.

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