World of Politics with Harry McGee

I was in Galway on Friday for the second day of the Consultative Forum on International Security, organised by the Government. There was always going to be some interest in it given the subject matter, but its existence would have been confined to a relatively small group – until the intervention of President Michael D Higgins made it go stratospheric.

It was like the Oprah Effect, except for a political event, not a book. The issue dominated the political agenda for the whole week – well, until Ryan Tubridy’s wages blew everything else out of the water on Friday.

If Higgins hadn’t intervened, the event would not have been exactly obscure, but it would have been another of those earnest and worthy events. Instead, there was a real atmosphere of anticipation in Cork and also in Galway.

Not just from the participant, but also from protesters. There were maybe about 60 people gathered outside UCC on Thursday when I arrived. And there were others inside.

As soon as Micheál Martin began speaking, a man from the Cork Neutrality Group looked to make a point of order. Then five members of the Connolly Youth Movement stood up and barracked Martin for ten minutes during his interview.

The five students shouted out slogans ad nauseam for about ten minutes, claiming that the whole event was designed to hurtle Ireland towards NATO.

In a confrontation with the hecklers who interrupted his speech, Martin told them he had grown up in Cork and had attended UCC.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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