Begging hands reach out for some US money

April 1994

HONORARY citizenships, Ogie Moran, free whiskey and memorabilia all popped up during a three-day conference for the local authorities of Ireland at the Brandon Hotel, Tralee.

US Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith was no sooner made an honorary Kerry citizen by Tralee Town Council Chairman Cllr Jim Finucane, than she was presented with a bronze sculptor of the Jenny Johnston, a coffin ship used to transfer her fellow Kerry citizens to the States during the famine.

There were silver cuff-links for Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dick Spring, as well as several off-the-cuff offers of honorary Kerry citizenship.

The US ambassador was here to tell the delegates about the International Fund for Ireland, set up in 1988 to promote co-operation, reconciliation and development in the areas most affected by violence in the North over the last 25 years.

Word of American money for redevelopment must have leaked to the bar as the hall visibly filled up with the 440 delegates and their spouses for the Ambassador’s speech.

International Fund for Ireland Chairman William T McCarter, was quick to dampen the enthusiasm pointing out that the £225m fund was only available for Northern Ireland and the border counties.

This didn’t stop several southern delegates from seeking money. One elderly Longford councillor grabbed the microphone to ask if Mr McCarter would give money for a girl guides centre and youth hostel in Longford because “after 50 years of asking, and even with Albert as Taoiseach,” the girl guides “didn’t even have a cupboard”.

McCarter told her that unless Longford became a border county his hands were tied. Not to be outdone, Cllr Christopher McCaughan, from the Moyle District in Antrim, called for funding for a plan to link Antrim’s Ballycastle marina all the way down to Dingle marina.

A bemused Mr McCarter replied: “My name is Gerald not Jesus!”