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Remember George, quiet diplomacy
Ireland’s premier Bertie Ahern shocked his nation last week when he announced that he was resigning.
The explanation given: Ahern was troubled that friends, colleagues and his former girlfriend all had to endure difficult testimony on his behalf during an investigation of his finances by a government-named tribunal.
But seeing as how the decision came not long after Youngstown’s former mayor, George M. McKelvey, was named a U.S. observer to the International Fund for Ireland, could there be another reason for Ahern’s departure?
Is it possible that Ireland’s premier received a video of McKelvey’s appearance with President Bush at the Air Reserve Station in Vienna Township in the fall of 2004 and got worried?
The video is a classic because it not only shows McKelvey in his off-the-deep-end glory, but has President Bush with a look that can best be described as Neumanesque (as in Alfred E. Neuman.)
As the Democratic mayor of Youngstown at the time, McKelvey had grabbed national media attention when he endorsed Republican Bush in his re-election bid.
Thus, when Bush made a campaign appearance at the reserve base, it was McKelvey who introduced him to the largely Republican gathering.
Banshee cry
It’s an introduction that will forever be etched in the memories of objective observers. He screeched, bellowed, howled, brayed at the moon (O.K., not the moon) and let out his famous banshee cry.
And, for the exclamation point to his introduction, he grabbed a couple of sheets of paper on the lectern, balled them up and flung them on the floor.
Secret Service agents tensed up and Bush could be seen slowly backing away.
It was a Kodak moment.
No matter how many times you watch the video, it never gets old.
There always was speculation that McKelvey was gunning for some kind of job with the federal government after his term as mayor ended in 2005. Only the most gullible believed him when he said that his endorsement of Bush not only reflected the personal relationship they had established, but was designed to put the Mahoning Valley on the White House’s radar screen.
Thus, while it has taken about two years since his departure from City Hall, McKelvey has finally been rewarded by Bush for his support.
The announcement that he had been appointed a U.S. observer to the International Fund for Ireland gives him status without any real responsibility.
He will be a non-voting member of the fund’s board in Ireland. Britain and Ireland created the fund in 1986 to promote economic and social advancement and to encourage contact, dialogue and reconciliation between nationalists and unionists in Ireland.
The United States has given the fund $421 million through the U.S. Agency for International Development, which announced McKelvey’s appointment to the board.
While the ex-mayor will not be paid, he will travel to Ireland four times a year. He will issue reports on those visits to UDAID and the state department.
But because he is such an unknown on the international diplomatic scene, it’s possible that Ireland’s premier, Ahern, received a briefing package on him. And included in the package was the McKelvey-Bush tape.
Recurring nightmare
And, it’s also possible that after the prime minister had seen McKelvey’s performance, he had this recurring nightmare: George M. McKelvey, attending a fund board meeting, starts an argument between the Brits and the Irish (over ... Bitters vs. Guinness?) and suddenly the Good Friday peace accord of 1998 unravels.
Seriously, though, President Bush has done his friend Georgie a huge favor by appointing him to the fund board. It will give the former Democratic mayor, county treasurer and city councilman a chance to find a new home.
After all, he has become persona non grata in the Mahoning Valley.
It’s one thing to throw your support behind a Republican president you believe is a good guy; it’s another to bite the hand (Democratic Party) that has fed you for so long.