Man of mystery Paschal joins secretive pow-wow
PASCHAL Donohoe has always had a smiley secretive air about him.
Even though he is easily one of the brightest and bubbliest politicians of his generation, with his “hello everybody” catchphrase, he’s also always sporting a cute little grin that seems to suggest he knows more than he’s letting on.
And he definitely does now after this weekend because our very own Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery, spent the weekend swapping secrets at one of the most exclusive, elite, mysterious gatherings on Earth, the Bilderberg meeting.
As Austin Powers might say, “oh behave, Paschal”.
For those that don’t know about it, the Bilderberg is an annual get-together of the great and good of international diplomacy, big business and the intelligence community – and our Paschal.
It attracts some crowd, with this year’s list a who’s who of some of the real movers and shakers wielding real “soft” power in the world. It included the Google supremo Eric Schmidt, Goldman Sachs President John Waldron, ex-european
Commission boss Jose Manuel Barosso, BP chief Bernard Looney and the head honcho of CHATGPT, Open AI CEO Sam Altman – with AI sure to be central to a lot of conspiratorial chinwags.
And then there’s granddaddy of them all at Bilderberg, Henry Kissinger.
The man behind the throne of at least two US Presidents has been a regular and typifies the behindthe-scenes power brokers that like to call Bilderberg their spiritual home.
The former US Secretary of State and special adviser to countless US Presidents, who turns 100 this week, has been coming to Bilderberg since the first meetings in the 1950s.
The annual bash is the stuff of conspiracy theorists’ dreams, with rumours of the global elite who are invited to the exclusive soiree laying out their plans for world domination to each other over cocktails.
The organisers themselves salivate over the covert nature of proceedings. This is how they proudly describe it: “The Bilderberg Meeting is a forum for informal
discussions about major issues. The meetings are held under the Chatham House Rule, which states that participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s) nor any other participant may be revealed.”
If you really go down the conspiracy theorists’ rabbit hole, you’ll find claims that the meeting is just a cover for the lizard-skinned rulers to drink blood at midnight rituals while divvying up the world’s resources between them. The shindig has been going for nearly 70 years now and every year it gathers up to 150 invitees to a location, where behind closed doors they chat (and plot) for three to four days.
When they come out the other end they tell nobody what they talked about, with the omerta agreed meaning there are no resolutions, no votes, no press releases for a curious media dying to find out what went on behind closed doors.
Our Paschal will be right in the thick of it this year in his capacity as head of Eurogroup, the gang of finance ministers from all the countries that use the euro.
The Dublin northsider has a decent fashion sense, so I can’t imagine him going full Austin Powers with a flowerpower suit or flares.
But you never know, we know he’s mad into the music of the era, so he might decide to get groovy in Lisbon.
There are actually two more Irish who got the golden ticket to go to Portugal, our junior sports minister, Thomas Byrne and the high-flying Michael O’leary.
The Ryanair boss will no doubt savour the chance to wing it with all the business big-wigs.
Claims the meeting’s just cover for lizard-skinned rulers