Will I go or will I stay? Enda’s last speech gaffe
A SPEECH by Enda Kenny was hastily withdrawn yesterday after it publicly confirmed his departure as Taoiseach. An advance script was circulated ahead of his address to the American Ireland Fund dinner in Washington DC. It declared that it was ‘my last with you as Taoiseach’.
Within minutes, however, the Department of the Taoiseach issued a ‘correct version to be used,’ adding: ‘Important, please disregard earlier version.’
This version did not contain the line that the dinner – his seventh with the same organisation – would be ‘my last with you as Taoiseach.’
The original was his first confirmation that he is departing, though it didn’t contain any details or time.
The Taoiseach’s spokesman, Feargal Purcell, said that sending out the speech with the departure reference had been his mistake.
The speech ‘was not approved by the Taoiseach, hence the requirement to reissue the correct speech’, he said.
But in the revised speech Mr Kenny, who is due to meet US President Donald Trump today, also sounded a melancholic note when he said that Ireland and America had a long and special relationship, ‘one that goes wider and deeper than the politician who brings the shamrock to Washington’.
And he noted: ‘We politicians are immaterial to that Irish-American relationship, because it is one of hope and history, affection and trust, family and friendship.’
Asked why the line had been taken out, Mr Kenny told journalists: ‘The speech that you got is not the speech that I’m delivering. That’s why.
‘I’ve already explained to my own parliamentary party my intention (to resign) and how I intend to go about that.’
Pressed on why the line had been excised and what meaning could be taken from its deletion, the Taoiseach responded: ‘Because it shouldn’t have been in there. That’s why.’
Mr Kenny spoke as the American Ireland Fund honoured US Vice-President Mike Pence, along with peacemaker Senator George Mitchell and Ireland’s retiring Ambassador to the US Anne Anderson. The Taoiseach was gushing in his praise of the vice-president.
Mr Kenny said: ‘We take special pride in the fact that, for the first time in the history of this great republic, one Irish American has succeeded another in the office of vice-president.
‘From what I am hearing, Vice-President Pence has been a regular – in fact I would say a diligent – visitor to Ireland. He has spoken beautifully about his trips to Ireland as a teenager, helping out on the family farm in Sligo, and the family pub in Clare.’
Ahead of today’s meeting with the US President, Mr Kenny said he would be ‘raising with Congress and with President Trump himself that the necessary work be done for our undocumented to come in from the cold, and feel the warmth of this great country they have made their home.’
Yesterday, the former leader of Ukip Nigel Farage said he hoped the first thing Mr Kenny would do after meeting Mr Trump would be to apologise for saying ‘vile things’ about the billionaire businessman during his campaign last year.
Mr Farage – a close ally of Mr Trump, told RTÉ Radio 1’s Today With Seán O’Rourke that the president ‘won’t have forgotten that’ comment.
‘How much more insulting can you be than to call someone racist?’ said the British MEP who led the Brexit side to victory in last year’s referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU.
The comments were put to Mr Kenny yesterday, but he replied, ‘I haven’t come to America to answer to Nigel Farage.’ Last June, the Taoiseach branded Mr Trump’s controversial comments ‘racist and dangerous’.
‘It’s not the speech, that’s why!’