Why Flatley Was Right

Ireland Calling with John Spain

Why Flatley Was Right

November 22, 2007

by John Spain

THE reaction here to the speech given by Michael Flatley at the U.S.-Ireland Forum dinner in New York over a week ago hosted by Irish America magazine, sister publication of the Irish Voice, the American Ireland Fund and University College Dublin has been very illuminating.

Illuminating, that is, about the level of snobbery here and the amount of politically correct distortion that passes for comment in the Irish media, not about Flatley.

I’ve never been a fan of the Lord of the Dance on stage. His shows are too far over the top for my taste.

But I’ve always admired his achievement as an individual, not just in making his way out of the rougher side of Chicago when he was a youngster, but in persevering later on when things turned against him.

It had to take courage to want to be a professional dancer in Chicago when he was a kid, especially when his father wanted him to be a boxer. And it had to take extraordinary courage later on when, having created the sensational Riverdance, he was dumped out of a show that was already becoming an international phenomenon.

And let’s be clear about this. In spite of all the waffle about the wider Riverdance concept being created by others and the propaganda about the show being bigger than any individual, the truth is that this was just a smokescreen to hide the fact that Flatley had been shafted over money.

The whole personality and attitude of Riverdance, as well as the dance steps themselves, were pure Flatley. It was he who had liberated Irish dance from the straitjacket. There would have been no Riverdance without him.

To be dumped like that just when fame and fortune was within his grasp must have been crushing beyond imagination. A lot of other people — most other people — would have collapsed under that kind of pressure, not least because of the absolute injustice of what had happened.

But Flatley picked himself up and got on with it. And succeeded against the odds, succeeded to a degree that rivaled and maybe even surpassed the success of those who had got rid of him out of Riverdance. He deserves respect for that, whether you like his shows or not, whether (like me) you find them too crass or gaudy or not.

So when he talks about the ingredients that go into achieving success, he deserves to be listened to with respect, and not with the sneering condescension that his speech provoked in the Irish media.

What he said made a lot of sense, particularly since the Irish economy is now at a turning point and confidence is all-important here right now but seems to be in short supply.

“For the first time in our history, we’re in the lead,” Flatley said. “It’s our responsibility to carry the torch now, to pass it on to our children and to give them options moving forward. It’s time for us to reach for the stars, step on the gas and try and do something new and to dream big.”

It’s the kind of in your face American confidence that people on this side of the Atlantic find slightly embarrassing. It makes them uncomfortable. So they sneer and poke fun at Flatley’s oily chest and perma tan.

And, of course, Flatley made it even worse by going on in his speech to question the value of the new multi-cultural Ireland, an attitude that will not be tolerated by the politically correct media here. That was unforgivable and that was the real reason there was such an outpouring of scorn here on Flatley.

“When is the last time you ordered a coffee and heard an Irish person taking the order from you?” he asked. “We are in close danger of losing the very thing we stand for and the very thing we came here to celebrate today, Irishness,” he told his audience.

He is, of course, absolutely right, and you don’t have to be in the tourist business to known that. The level of immigration into Ireland in such a short space of time (now up to 14% of the population) is unprecedented internationally and will have a profound effect on Irish society.

Whether it will be good or bad is at least open to question, as are questions about whether a proportion of the immigrants that are coming will be drain on us rather than a positive input into our society.

But even to raise questions like this, as Flatley did, is to invite scorn and ridicule here. The Irish Times sneered that he sounded “like a certain breed of taxi driver,” showing their snobbery and bias at the same time. Other papers followed suit.

In spite of the reaction, what Flatley had to say about the Irish economy, about the importance of confidence and where we need to go from here is at least worthy of serious consideration. There is so much negative talk here at the moment that we may indeed dig ourselves into a slump.

Up to now it’s been easy, with cheap labor, a building boom and everyone on a high of Celtic Tiger confidence. In future, we’re going to have to be more inventive and show more leadership, but we are starting from an excellent base, as Flatley was saying.

As one commentator here put it recently, it’s not a question of the glass being half full or half empty, the glass is almost entirely full and it’s twice the size it was 13 years ago. Our rate of growth has been the envy of the world.

We have come a long way. We have changed, even changed utterly, and any analysis of where we can go in the future should recognize that transformation. Our boom may be slowing, but we can still progress in the years ahead if we raise our expectations and raise the sophistication of the game we play on various levels, technological, financial, educational and so on.

And even our slowing boom still has legs. We will have 5% growth this year and between 3% and 4% is forecast for next year, which is still well ahead of the European average forecast for next year of around 2.5%.

But in the future it won’t be about making easy millions from construction. It won’t be about cheap imported labor, much of it unskilled. It will be about Irish intelligence, innovation and effort.

There’s a lot of dancing to do yet. You’re right there, Michael.

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