Can we get Obama to pronounce it right? Is Féidir Linn!

BARACK OBAMA’S famous ‘Is Féidir Linn’ moment during his speech in Dublin in 2011 went ahead only after frantic efforts to ensure he got the pronunciation right, according to his former speechwriter.

‘I was preparing for that speech and I read through a bunch of Irish news just to see what the craic was before he was coming over,’ said Cody Keenan, a former speechwriter for Mr Obama, on RTÉ’s Marian Finucane Show yesterday.

He said: ‘I saw that someone had been printing up “Is Féidir Linn” T-shirts and I said, let’s just do it, let’s have him do it.

‘It was a frantic dash that morning to find as many Irish people as we could to help him get the pronunciation down.’

Mr Obama told crowds in Dublin six years ago that when faced with doubters saying that dreams could not be achieved, the correct response was: ‘Is Féidir Linn, Yes We Can.’

Asked if Mr Obama would return to Ireland, Mr Keenan said: ‘He has an open invitation to play golf. I suspect he’ll want to go back at some point. I don’t think there’s anything on the books at this moment.’

Mr Keenan will be speaking at the Kennedy Summer School in New Ross, Co. Wexford, on Friday, September 8.