US: US Ambassador James Kenny talks to Deaglán de Bréadún, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, about Northern Ireland, Iraq and George Bush's 12-hour Irish visit in June.
George Bush has been to the movies lately. His favourite film of the moment is Osama, which he watched at the suggestion of the First Lady.
Recently shown in Dublin, this documentary drama is the story of a young Afghan girl who tries to pass herself off as a boy. Under the Taliban regime, women and girls were not allowed to work, and impersonating a boy was the only way the film's heroine could hope to feed her family. When the Taliban asked what her name was, she responded with the topical pseudonym, "Osama".
During the St Patrick's week events in Washington, President Bush recommended the movie to the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and others who met him in the Oval Office. It was being shown in the auditorium of the State Department at lunch-time last Friday. Mr Bush obviously regards it as an affirmation of his decision to bring about regime-change in Afghanistan.
The new US Ambassador to Ireland, Mr James Kenny, told me the story, sitting in his office overlooking the traffic in Ballsbridge.
Mr Kenny took up his post as ambassador last October. But his Irish roots go back a long way. His grandfather, John J. Kenny, was born in Swinford, Co Mayo, and spent some time in England before entering the United States through Ellis Island. ("You can go on the Ellis Island website and see his signature," says the ambassador.) Mr Kenny's grandmother was US-born but her parents were born in counties Mayo and Sligo, respectively.
Traditionally, the Irish ambassadorship has gone to fundraisers for one or other of the main parties and Mr Kenny is no exception to this. But he says his political interests range wider than helping to bankroll Republican Party candidates.
He got involved in politics at 16 and now keeps a close eye on political developments back home and in Ireland.
Asked about his role in the Northern peace process, he says: "When I'm asked to get involved, I get involved, and intimately." He sees the US role as "more of an outside monitor to keep the parties at the table talking".
"President Bush wants us to make sure that the full implementation of the Good Friday agreement goes forward." But the ambassador warns against complacency: "There's very few times in history you get an opportunity, like you have right now, presenting itself." The importance of seizing the moment in Northern Ireland is repeatedly stressed by the ambassador. "The parties in the North have an opportunity to help this process go further right now. I would like to see that they grab that opportunity, because I don't know when it can come around again."
He notes that last summer was the quietest for years in the North and says people should not sit and wait for years to see what happens in the peace process: "You've got to grasp, where you've got an opportunity." There had been "a huge investment in time and effort" by the two prime ministers, despite the other demands on their time. The US president is also "intimately involved". He says that, during discussions in the Oval Office, people were greatly impressed by Mr Bush's detailed knowledge of the current situation.
I put it to him that Mr Bush was not known for his close involvement in detail but the ambassador thinks we have the wrong impression of the man: "I wish I could introduce him to all the people in Ireland individually and I think they would change their opinion on the US and this president immediately." The president is, of course, coming to Ireland on June 25th and 26th but only for 12 hours. This will not detract from the value of the visit, according to the ambassador: "A president's time is extremely, extremely valuable." Mr Bush would be staying overnight on June 25th and attending the EU-US Summit on the morning of June 26th.
"He has to run to Turkey for NATO right behind this meeting," Mr Kenny says. "This meeting was one that I wanted to see happen here in Ireland, as US ambassador, because of the importance of our EU relationship, and it's going to happen. That's the great news."
Arrangements for the presidential visit, including location, were still being finalised: "It hasn't been all worked out. We haven't signed any papers, we haven't signed a contract. We are working on it diligently." He gives short shrift to those who seek to make an issue out of the security precautions for the president's visit. "I think we are missing the point here. I see all this ink being spent on this subject. The point is, the president's coming to Ireland to work on the relationship with the EU. Security issues are something we do not discuss, the Secret Service does not discuss them, I am not going to discuss them. They aren't important to what this is about."
As he sees it, the hype about security is starting to get out of control: "We hope it stops." After all, he pointed out, there have been previous presidential visits by Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy.
The Irish authorities were supreme: "The president is the guest of Ireland and we will go with what they want us to go with." The proposed protests don't bother him: "In America, we have protesters also. That is our democracy and that is what they are allowed to do. They can protest if they want, that's their right." Mr Kenny was in the Oval Office last week with the president and the Taoiseach. "These two men are very comfortable with each other and I think the relationship is very good," he says. There was "a lot of good discussion".
Asked about the controversy over the use of Shannon Airport as a transit facility for US military aircraft and personnel and whether the Government here acted as a true ally and friend of the US, he replies: "The Irish Government did, yes. I will say they did." There had been street protests but, "The Irish Government, yes, they did act as a friend." I asked him how the US Government would have reacted, in the event of the Shannon facility being withheld. "I am sure the US government wants to have a good relationship and be able to do these things between our two countries. I think we would have tried to negotiate."
He finds that "as you travel outside the sphere of the media in Dublin", the issue of Iraq is only one among many topics that come up in conversation. Last December, for example, he attended a "very moving" ceremony in Athenry, Co Galway, to commemorate the crash landing of a B17 bomber in 1943 with three senior US officers on board. The top brass were quietly spirited across the Border. "Ireland has always helped the US in these situations." But terrorism rather than Nazism is the current preoccupation. The ambassador sees it as a clear-cut situation: "I don't think we have choices here. We are going to have to deal with it on an everyday basis."
On September 11th, 2001, he was working in his office in the family construction business in Chicago. Given that his own company puts up high buildings, the collapse of the World Trade Centre was a major surprise: "The biggest shock I have ever witnessed was that." He believes people should take a more long-term view of the post-war situation in Iraq. The country had a new currency already, whereas in post-war Germany this took four years. There were improvements in healthcare, education, infrastructure and the area of women's rights, but this sort of thing did not get much media coverage.
People should step back and see the situation in perspective: "Democracy doesn't happen from one day to the next, democracy is a moving target that you work on to make better and better and better if you can." Even within the US, democracy was still being fine-tuned: "It is not a one-day event."