Another day, yet another standing ovation
Friday April 25 2008
Bertie isn't flying to America next week. He's walking there, all the way across the top of the Atlantic waves. Or at least that's the inescapable conclusion one is left with after listening to two days of his praises being carolled across the rooftops of both the lower and upper Houses of the Oireachtas.
On Wednesday, the Dail chamber was awash with admiration -- apart from Caoimhghin O'Caolain's ungracious remarks -- for the Taoiseach, and yesterday it was the turn of the Seanad to extol his virtues and talents.
All the senators were on their best behaviour yesterday when the Taoiseach made his entrance. He opened his speech by remarking on the "generally calmer atmosphere that prevails here, relative to the other place", diplomatically omitting to mention the ructions that had broken out in the Seanad the day before over the cost of certain tribunals, and which had led to two suspensions of the sitting.
Leader of the Seanad Donie Cassidy reached heights of lyricism usually only found in chick-lit or Westlife ballads. "It has been our privilege and pleasure to observe the unrivalled standards of statesmanship and political skills that have made him one of the most highly respected statesmen in the world," he declared with all the awestruck fervour of a young wan addressing Nicky, Mark, Kian or Shane.
So impassioned was Donie that he failed to spot the Cathaoirleach gesturing him to wrap up his rhapsody.
Fine Gael's Frances Fitzgerald paid tribute to the "grace under pressure" Bertie displayed when he continued to immerse himself in the Good Friday Agreement negotiations in the week of the death of his mother. "Today is the day we thank you," she declared.
Even the pragmatic Green Party senator Dan Boyle was in a small fever of approval, and hailed him as the architect of the social partnership -- a sort of Gaudi of pay-talks.
But speaking on behalf of the independents, Senator Joe O'Toole wasn't to be out-extolled, and he strayed perilously close to Donie-speak in his assessement of Bertie's inner being.
"I see him as a republican in the true and purest sense," he mused. "A Tone republican with a vision of Catholic, Protestant and dissenter together in a country with a fair and equal society."
Astonishingly, there was no sign of swelling in the vicinity of Bertie's head in the face of all these compliments. He sat quietly through one last eulogy from Labour's Alex White - "One can only stand up and wonder at his ability to turn adversity to his own advantage. I find it extraordinary" -- before he made his escape.
He left the Seanad to the thunder of yet another standing ovation -- the way things are going these days, he probably half expects the clientele of Fagans to rise and applaud every time he walks through the pub door.
But this proliferation of paeans to Bertie begs one question -- if he was such a deadly Taoiseach, why were so many members of the chorus up to recent weeks calling for his now-sainted head on a platter?
