By choosing a foreign stage to denounce Ireland's abuse of alcohol,President McAleese has reinforced the "drunken Paddy" stereotype, arguesMiriam Donohoe.
For generations, the Irish have been stuck with the "drunken Paddy" tag abroad. The tens of thousands forced to emigrate to the US and Britain in the lean economic years helped to reinforce that view of us, with the Irish emigrant being marked down as a hard-drinking, laid-back, under-achiever. Happily, the Celtic Tiger and economic boom helped change that image. We have emerged as a self-confident, prosperous country, which has taken its place proudly on the world stage. "Dynamic" has replaced the word "drunken" in many people's perception of us.
But there is no denying that prosperity has brought problems. With more disposable income and an increased standard of living, alcohol consumption in Ireland has increased 46 per cent in the past decade. Binge drinking amongst our young is a frightening scourge. So we were all nodding our heads furiously in agreement with President McAleese when she commented on our drink problem and the "dark side" of the Irish economic revival at a conference in the US this week.
In a speech at the opening of the Re-Imagining Ireland conference in Charlottesville, Virginia, she called for an Ireland which would cease to tolerate this "stupid behaviour". The "wasteful abuse" of alcohol and its first cousins, drugs, "chart a misery and malaise so utterly unnecessary that we need to re-imagine an Ireland grown intolerant of behaviour which it has benignly overlooked for too long", she said.
I am an admirer of President McAleese. She is an intelligent woman who has done us proud in her five-and-a-half years as head of State. I saw her operating at close quarters when I covered her official visit to Thailand and Malaysia last October, and was hugely impressed with how she carried herself. She was a true ambassador for our country. I agree with everything the President said in Virginia. But I take great exception to her washing our dirty linen in public in the US.
Did I get something wrong here? Was this conference not intended as a "reflective re-envisioning of Ireland", an exploration of "the meaning of Ireland for the world as a modern and prosperous yet traditional culture"?
The President devoted 17 of the 18 paragraphs in her speech to Ireland's achievements in the last decade. Her bombshell was paragraph 10.
Our drink problem has been well highlighted over the last 12 months. We have been treated to an excellent Prime Time exposé of our drinking culture, a series in this newspaper on alcohol abuse, and lots of comment from politicians and opinion-formers about the need for action. But we do not have to share our problems with an international audience. What business is it of Americans, even Irish- Americans, how much alcohol we consume here? Would George Bush come to Ireland and relay a message to Americans that they eat too many burgers and run the risk of obesity?
A few weeks ago, the President made similar remarks in Kilkenny, branding our attitude to alcohol "ridiculously unhealthy" and "sinister". Those remarks got some coverage in the print media, but obviously not as much as the President would have liked. Using a stage abroad to repeat her views smacked of opportunism.
The President has to decide early next year if she will go forward for a second term of office. Maybe she reckoned it would do no harm to say something newsworthy, with speculation rife that Michael D. Higgins is thinking of running for the presidency. If the President is serious about what she says, she could lead by example by taking some anti-alcohol stances of her own.
Fine Gael's John Deasy was pooh-poohed when he suggested that the Government should set a good example by banning alcohol at State receptions. Maybe the President can take a lead there and not provide alcohol at receptions in the Áras.
And the President will take her place in the front pew of the Ard Comhairle for the All-Ireland Hurling Final in Croke Park in September. The hurling championship is sponsored by Guinnness. Why not take a stand on that, and not attend and earn some public admiration in the process?
It will come as no surprise to the rest of the world that we're fond of the booze here. It is not that we are trying to hide the fact; nor should we. But we don't need our main ambassador lecturing us on our problems from thousands of miles away. The President should be using her trips abroad to promote Irish tourism and business, and to spread the word that we are a country to be reckoned with.
In this instance, her contribution to the alcohol abuse debate was more about making news than making sense. What we need is action on our drink problem, not soundbites on an inappropriate stage that reinforce the "drunken Paddy" stereotype we have been trying to shed.