Enda, you're a credit to yourself
Does Enda not know the truth about the Irish, asks Brendan O'Connor
RYAN Tubridy summed it up in one, and echoed what we were all thinking when he jokingly asked Enda Kenny on Friday night if by any chance he had been a teacher in a previous life.
Of course, as we all know, once a teacher always a teacher, and when Kenny came on the last Late Late Show of the season it felt like he was coming on to give us all our end-of-term report. And somehow, as teachers tend to do, Kenny managed to praise us while managing to make us feel bad.
Kenny's key message was that, amazingly, we had managed not to disgrace ourselves when the Queen came. We are all "a credit" apparently. No one shamed our nation. And Kenny seemed relieved, almost surprised, about this. He had clearly expected us to disgrace ourselves. He was like a Muinteoir who had just had the Cigire in and was congratulating the class on not being their usual messy selves, for being on their best behaviour while the Cigire was here.
It makes you wonder what Kenny must think of us. Was he expecting us not to be a credit? Was he expecting us not to welcome our nearest neighbour graciously? Was he expecting us not to enjoy the Queen and to be fond of her and her pleasantly eccentric husband?
Does Kenny not know the truth about Irish people? That we love the English? That most of us have lived there at some point or another? That we all have friends and family there? That we recognise they are our nearest neighbours, our closest friends? Obviously Kenny does not know this. Kenny seems to still think we regard England as the enemy. Perhaps because it is Kenny's own class, the political class, who have kept up most of the ridiculous Anglophobia that survives in this country. And his other class -- the teachers -- have done their bit down the years too.
Kenny seemed to think that it was only over the few days she was here that we learnt to like the Queen. Clearly he has never seen Irish women avidly consuming royal news and pictures in Hello!. And where was he when the recent royal wedding became a de facto national holiday in this country?
What century are Enda Kenny and his people living in, that they are so surprised we didn't disgrace ourselves in front of the Queen? Indeed, the only shame about the Queen's visit is that our Government encouraged the people of Dublin to stay at home rather than to come out and welcome her. Cork, without even trying, managed to win the visit hands down by doing exactly the opposite.
Indeed, the only people I heard of cringeing during the recent state visits were cringeing at Enda Kenny.
It is we who are relieved that Kenny didn't disgrace us. It is we who were holding our breath for the last couple of weeks wondering if Kenny would make eejits of us all. It is we who should have been on the Late Late on Friday giving Kenny the report card -- "Amazingly, you didn't completely disgrace us during the Queen and Obama. You are a credit to yourself."
Originally published in
