Larry Donnelly calling the US shots
REPORTER DAVID MEDCALF TALKED TO PUNDIT LARRY DONNELLY. THE BOSTONIAN SPOKE ABOUT BEING AN AMERICAN IN WICKLOW AND HELPING TO RUN THE KENNEDY SUMMER SCHOOL. AND THERE WAS NO AVOIDING THE TOPIC OF DONALD J TRUMP
LARRY Donnelly admits staying up late last Wednesday night into Thursday morning, watching events in Washington DC unfold on television. Then he was up early after very little sleep, fielding calls from RTÉ News and from a bunch of local radio stations all keen to learn his views. So what was the verdict of Ireland’s favourite commentator on all things USA on the storming of the Capitol by Trump-supporting extremists?
‘It’s just shocking,’ he says, along the line from Wicklow Town, before admitting: ‘I never thought it would get this far.’ The mob that broke into his nation’s parliament he describes as very crazy people: ‘It is as though they are living in non-reality.’ The riot represents the departing President’s legacy, with Larry predicting that the images from the disturbance will be how his term in office will be most remembered.
How come an academic from Massachusetts is the person the media turn to so readily whenever the affairs of the United States demand explanation to an Irish audience? The 46-year-old tells how he was born and raised outside the very Irish city of Boston, a product of an Irish-American family steeped in politics.
His late mother hailed from Glasgow but she had Cavan roots while, on his dad’s side, the contacts through his paternal grandfather were with North Galway. The family came back regularly to Scotland and Ireland on vacation when Larry was a boy.
In his neighbourhood, he was unusual in not having a parent born on the Emerald Isle: ‘Ireland was very much in the foreground when I was young.’ The Donnelly/Kelly clan from which he sprang was well known in the city, their fame flowing from great-uncle Frank Kelly who served as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. He also held the post of state attorney-general and he was the youngest city councillor ever elected.
Frank’s brother John Kelly was a councillor too and he might have become the city’s top man when legendary incumbent James Michael Curley was clapped in jail. However, the honour passed John by as he was under indictment himself.
Best known of the family’s succeeding generation was Congressman Brian Donnelly, remembered for the Donnelly visa programme which allowed Irish citizens access to jobs in the US. Meanwhile, Brian’s brother (Larry’s father) was energetically active behind the scenes in Boston politics, a true blue Democrat with moderate centrist leanings. Larry raised eyebrows when he threatened to swing towards the rival party.
‘I am now a Democrat,’ he stresses. ‘But when I turned 18, my act of teenage rebellion was registering as a Republican to the horror and shock of my entire family. I came back into the fold a few years later.’
The Donnellys and Kellys were swimming in the same political pool as the Kennedys and Larry says he has met several of JFK’s tribe over the years. Strangely, most of these encounters have been back on the ould sod, through his involvement with the Kennedy Summer School which convenes annually in New Ross.
In his eyes, the Kennedys were always national figures while most of his relatives concentrated on local matters: ‘We felt that sometimes they took their eye off the ball on what happened in Boston, in Massachusetts.’
Larry studied law and after graduating became a practising attorney, though he quickly became frustrated with legal work, determining to find something else to fill his life. He toyed with the idea of migrating
to the country of his forebears and made the move when a professor under whom he had studied put out a call.
A fellowship requiring an American lawyer to teach legal skills, writing, research and analysis had come up at NUI Galway. The professor reckoned that his former pupil would fill the bill: ‘To put it bluntly, I started off on a one-year visiting fellowship and after that they couldn’t get rid of me.’
He has been here ever since the year 2001, most of the time at NUIG though he took two years off for an assignment in Dublin. Along the way, he has acquired an Irish wife, in the form of newscaster Eileen Whelan, and an Irish son. He is happy to call Wicklow home though the demands of academia dictate that he often spends two or three night a week in the West, at least when not in lockdown.
While he may be two decades this side of the Atlantic, Larry retains a compulsive interest in the political scene back in America: ‘Obsession is not too strong a word,’ he readily admits. ‘Politics is what I wake up with every morning and what I go to bed with every night, what I think about an awful lot during the day. It’s sad but it’s true.
‘I’m a lawyer by trade and I lecture in law but law has always been very much the day job. It pays the bills. Politics has been what most animated me and moved me.’
In his younger days he ran for local office and he assisted in running various campaigns. Though he lives abroad, he has retained his US vote which he exercises dutifully at every level from his local council all the way up to choosing a president: ‘I still very much keep an oar in and I still advise candidates for local office from time to time.’
From his remote standpoint, he watched the Trump presidency unfold with some degree of horror: ‘He’s a narcissist, someone who does not have the temperament to be president of the United States, and that is abundantly clear.’
But Larry has never taken up the cudgels as a mindless Trump basher in his punditry. He has consistently pointed out to anyone who will listen that The Donald’s success at the polls reflects the fact that millions of citizens have been left behind in the march to cash in on new technology while manufacturing has been largely contracted out to other countries.
‘Trump dug into that and he appeals to a let’s-turnback-the-clock America where things were simpler,’ he muses. ‘Make America Great Again was an absolutely perfect political slogan because people could read into it whatever they wanted. As a matter of raw politics, it was genius.’
The result of the president’s populist breaking of the mould has brought about an extraordinary realignment of American politics. New man Joe Biden has signalled his intention to strike a very different tone and Larry Donnelly expects that Ireland will not be overlooked.
‘Biden has a very real commitment to Ireland by his Irish roots and Ireland can only benefit,’ he predicts, before adding: ‘I hope he can at least restore civility to the tone of politics.’
Turning to his life in Ireland, Larry reveals that he met wife-to-be Eileen at a party in Galway which she attended with her good friend and fellow broadcaster Teresa Mannion. She persuaded him to re-settle in the town where her parents live and it is a decision emphatically not regretted.
‘I have fallen in love with the place, it is absolutely fabulous. We talked about maybe moving to Dublin or maybe Galway but now we have our own little guy. He is eight and he is at school in the Gaelscoil and he loves it. This is a wonderful place for him to grow up so I think we are here for the long haul.’
He retains a strong interest in Galway GAA, not least because his cousin Paddy played minor football for the county: ‘Boston is pretty much Galway West and the vast majority of us in Boston have Galway roots.’
However, he says he now shouts for Wicklow whenever he gets the chance and he has pledged allegiance on the club front to Saint Patrick’s. While his son kicks ball with Wicklow Rovers, Larry (off a handicap of 20) and his stepson may occasionally be found enjoying the sea breezes at Wicklow golf club.
He and Eileen love heading inland to walk around the glories of Glendalough, drawn in part by the fact that sister-in-law Betty runs the Wicklow Heather restaurant in Laragh.
He has lured many of his American friends to Wicklow, visitors who never previously lingered on the east side of the Shannon whenever they were in this country. They too have been captivated by the splendid Wicklow scenery when Larry has shown them around.
The election of Donald J Trump gave him a considerable boost as a media performer and he now expects to have a lower profile once the new administration is bedded in. In the meantime, here are some final thoughts on the fallout from last week’s disturbances in Washington, which have thrown the Republican party into a dilemma.
‘They have a big challenge on their hands,’ reckons Larry. ‘What they need to do is take the way Trump re-defined conservatism and find a messenger who is much less divisive.’ Only if they do so will we find out how much the appeal Trumpism stems from policy and how much it rests on the oversized personality of the billionaire from New York.
WHEN I TURNED 18, MY ACT OF TEENAGE REBELLION WAS REGISTERING AS A REPUBLICAN – TO THE HORROR AND SHOCK OF MY ENTIRE FAMILY