Tilting at windmills like a Celtic Quixote

WHEN the Skibbereen Eagle newspaper grandiosely announced in 1898 that it was keeping an eye on Tsar Nicholas of Russia, it became a byword for an inflated sense of self-importance. There has been more than a touch of Skibbereen about Independent TD John Halligan’s plan to travel to North Korea with two of his colleagues, Transport Minister Shane Ross and Disability Minister Finian McGrath, to broker a nuclear peace deal between the rogue state and the USA.

Mr Halligan has had cultural ties with North Korea in the past and wants to parlay this flimsiest of relationships into an attempt to rein in Kim Jong-un when all international attempts at diplomacy, even from close ally China, have failed. Leaving aside for a moment this breathtaking chutzpah, it also betrays a singular lack of understanding of how the Department of Foreign Affairs works. Having the three amigos ride into town to do the work of the sheriff is not going to work, as Taoiseach Leo Varadkar clearly understood when he said, tongue firmly in cheek, that he wouldn’t like to see anything ‘beastly’ happen to the men if they travelled.

Self-promotion is part and parcel of modern politics, but this is quite extraordinary by any standards. As an independent TD, outside the party system, Mr Halligan’s only job is to speak for his Waterford constituents in matters of national governance, especially in the area of healthcare. They do not want to see him swanning off to Pyongyang, even at his own expense, when there are much more pressing issues to hand he actually could help solve – cardiac care for the region, a fair share of the national investment cake, and the homelessness and housing crises that bedevil every urban area in the country.

These are the things he should be concentrating on, not tilting at windmills like a Celtic Don Quixote on a mission as risible as it is futile.