World of Politics with Harry McGee

Eaten bread is soon forgotten – and so are political ‘events’, whether they are hugely positive or critically detrimental. Because a week on, any controversy is already receding, and so conversely are the positives. A month later it is a distant memory. A year later it’s completely forgotten.

An awful lot can happen in the five-year term of a Government. The point is that individual moments, which seem so important at a particular time, don’t actually influence the outcome of an election, unless in a tiny subliminal way.

So let’s have a look at some of the big moments of the past week or so and see how they will play out.

Joe Biden’s trip to Ireland

We have the ironic phenomenon of the President of the US making his longest foreign trip to the smallest country he has visited during his term of office.

It was noteworthy that Biden spent only one day North of the border and three days in the South, two of them among his ancestral relatives in Co Louth and in Co Mayo.

Of course, there were the important and pro-forma moments – the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement and the speech to the Joint Houses of the Oireachtas.

But Biden was not one of the architects of the historic 1998 agreement although a fierce supporter, proud as he is of his Irish-American heritage.

What played back in American was his more personal pilgrimage, discovering his family tree and roots in both counties, visiting the shrine in Knock, and, of course, the rally in Ballina.

A political journalist colleague from Newstalk, Sean Defoe, devised the brilliant game, Biden Bingo. It was based on Defoe’s prediction of what he would say, what he would do, and who he would quote during his visit.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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