Phoenix Park runners jostle for position

It'll be a while yet before the Bush administration turns its attention to the nomination of ambassadors. And, even though it's a plum job, a while longer before he gets to thinking about who to put in the Phoenix Park. But horses are under starter's orders and the jostling for position has already begun.

It's a job that used to be an easy reward to a political backer and of little political importance, but the Clinton commitment to the peace process and the two last incumbents, Jean Kennedy Smith and Michael Sullivan, have transformed it. And a well-organised Irish-American lobby will make a new administration very uncomfortable if it sees what it regards as an inappropriate appointment.

One of those actively making his name known in Irish-American political circles is the controversial multimillionaire Republican from California, Tom Tracy, against whom the Irish Voice's publisher, Niall O'Dowd, has let fly a warning broadside in the paper's current edition.

Mr O'Dowd's views will be taken seriously in Washington, certainly an important factor in Mr Tracy's decision to launch legal proceedings against him. The publisher is well-connected in the Irish community and is highly regarded as an important driving force in the attempts by Irish-Americans to engage and maintain the engagement of the White House in the peace process.

Mr Tracy is a fourth generation Irish-American with unusual politics. Although nursed like most other Irish-Americans on the mother's milk of nationalism, in the early 1990s, on one of his many trips to the North, Mr Tracy became convinced that the Unionist case had a right to be heard, became a strong public critic of Sinn Fein, and has since then given strong financial assistance to the FAIT campaign against IRA violence. He publicly attacked President Clinton for giving Gerry Adams a visa and has denounced the Provisionals for punishment beatings.

He denies that such views represent anti-nationalism but Mr O'Dowd claims that "Tracy would certainly be the choice of the British government if they had a say".

But though he may want the ambassador's job, and have strong political credentials, it's difficult to believe that Mr Tracy could be appointed by a Bush administration seriously concerned about domestic Irish-American fall-out. Irish-American Democrats would rally to give him a roasting before congressional approval hearings. And Irish-American Republicans, who are no less committed to the nationalist cause, would certainly break ranks to oppose him, senior members say.

What then of the alternatives?

The front-runner, several Republican sources claim, is Peggy Noonan, if she wants the job.

Ms Noonan, once a CBS broadcaster, now a conservative columnist, was speech-writer and special assistant to president Ronald Reagan from 1984 to 1986, later writing a successful book about her experience, What I saw at the Revolution. In 1988 she was chief speech-writer for George Bush when he ran for the presidency. She is understood to have maintained a close contact with the Bushes.

She has written movingly about her roots and her affection for Ireland. "Ireland spooks me in a way that I enjoy," she told one interviewer. "Some part of my brain vibrates on this island. There's something so preternaturally gorgeous, not only about the physical landscape, but about the people. It's as if they really were made like God makes snowflakes. They're all different. And frequently eccentric . . ."

Irish-American campaigners, however, would prefer a nominee who had a profile on Irish issues, says Jack Irwin, assistant on Irish affairs to New York's Republican governor, George Pataki. And another New York activist from the Irish Republicans for Bush group, Jeffrey Cleary, makes a strong case for Mr Pataki's former legal partner and then counsel to him in office, Michael Finnegan, now a successful managing director of JP Morgan on Wall Street.

Mr Finnegan, a second-generation Irish-American, has been awarded medals for his services to New York and to the Irish community and is a member of the board of UCD. He knows the politics well and is described by Mr O'Dowd as "a superb choice".

Mr O'Dowd also mentions approvingly Jim Nicholson, the outgoing head of the Republican National Committee - "knowledgeable and smart" - Frank Duggan, head of Irish-American Republicans, and the Pennsylvania governor, Tom Ridge.

The Wisconsin governor, Tommy Thompson, who played an important part in getting what activists see as an important statement on the peace process into the Republican platform, was appointed to the Bush cabinet yesterday.

Remember, one Republican warned me, however, that the current, highly thought-of US ambassador to Ireland, Mike Sullivan, then the governor of Wyoming, was never even on media radar screens when he was appointed.