There’s an argument that the most powerful Irish person in the world, until February, was Morgan McSweeney. The former chief of staff to British prime minister Keir Starmer is credited as the architect of winning his stonking parliamentary majority in the 2024 general election, and steward of the Labour administration’s unfortunate efforts to do politics of any sort. The Co Cork man resigned after taking “full responsibility” for advising his boss to send Peter Mandelson to Washington.
The Macroom Machiavelli was mostly a back-room operator who made few public appearances, so it came as some surprise this week to hear his accent as he revealed what he felt he knew about the Mandelson situation to MPs over the course of a few hours of grilling.
John Rentoul at the London Independent heard merely a “soft sibilant Irish accent”.
The Guardian’s John Crace, with a slightly more developed ear, interpreted a “generic middle-class Irish accent with a hint of Cork and Scots, rarely raised much beyond a whisper”, suggesting the out-of-work eminence grise could work for RTÉ. Scottish journalist Ross McCafferty said it was “best described as Cork-ney”.
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Overheard is semi-fluent in neutral workplace London English, having had to navigate pronouncing the word “butter” in upmarket Kensington on occasion. We heard fluctuations in McSweeney’s speech, from the pan-Irish accent you might get from a non-populist rural TD to some thoroughly anglicised vowels on words such as “wrong” and “talk”. There are touches of Cork still, from Keane-ish uptalk at moments of mild frustration to occasional lapses into de, dere and dese.
About what you’d expect from a Macroom man almost twice as long in London as he was in Cork. We’ll call it a Westmunster accent.
Basic income, complex admin
Panic stations in recent weeks, as would-be recipients of the Basic Income for the Arts scramble to find proof of their commitment to creative pursuits.
Membership of a professional organisation, of course, has no relation whatsoever to the quality of the prose poems, bog oak carvings and expressive solo dance performances produced by Ireland’s aesthetes. But try telling that to a Government department.
The Department of Culture’s guidelines run to 7,000 words, which is almost twice as long as James Joyce’s Two Gallants, by way of comparison, and almost seven times as long as this column.
“Applicants will need to provide three approved proofs of their professional artistic practice in order to demonstrate eligibility,” cry the civil servants. Such approved proofs include things such as council bursaries, having an agent, reviews of your work, and evidence of renting a studio. But the quickest to put your hand on, for many, is membership one of 13 professional organisations.
Or so it would be in theory if you could find your card, both sides of which must be uploaded in a single document to satisfy the bureaucrats. Cue hundreds of people seeking a card.
The Irish Writers’ Union, for example, contacted members reassuring them that treasurer Tadgh is working hard to issue proof while attempting to interpret evolving supplemental missives from the department beyond the initial 7,000 words. But things seem hardest at Visual Artists Ireland, which had to rebuke its erratic genius membership for misbehaviour.
“We understand the frustrations at these delays and we can assure you that our team has been working as hard as we can to meet your needs,” Visual Artists Ireland told its daubers and carvers, possibly keeping them at bay with a chair. “However, it is wholly unacceptable to verbally accost or disrespect VAI staff members, whether over the phone, email, or social media.”
The deadline is May 12th, in case you need to start sending some emails.
Edelman’s omerta
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent, philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once wrote. Words on which the PR firm Edelman may have been reflecting this week.
Former Fianna Fáil TD Jim Glennon revealed himself last Sunday (after days of being pursued by reporters) to be the politician who offered a character reference for Daniel Ramamoorthy, who was sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two years and four months in prison for sexually exploiting a child, with a lesser concurrent sentence for child pornography. The statement came from Q4PR, a rival comms shop to Edelman, the one where he worked for 18 years, from 2008 until last month.
At a Court of Appeal hearing against the severity of Ramamoorthy’s sentence last month, Judge John Edwards said the reference from the former TD did not stand out from others, and denied an application to name Glennon. Aware that the former rugby international and PR professional was the former TD in question, The Irish Times contacted Edelman several times by many methods, calling and emailing various figures at the company over the course of several days. At this point, it was not public knowledge that Glennon no longer worked for Edelman, as it later emerged.
One query went in on Tuesday, April 21st, with various follow-ups in the following days failing to induce the usually responsive communications professionals to communicate. It was not until Glennon himself issued his statement that they spoke up.
“We can confirm that Jim Glennon was previously a non-executive chairman of Edelman Ireland,” Edelman chief executive Darragh Rea said in a statement on Monday morning. “His tenure had already ended prior to us becoming aware of this matter, last week. Due to legal uncertainty, we refrained from engaging with media on this matter. We have not advised Jim Glennon in relation to this matter.”
How was anyone to know he had already departed – in a “mutual ending” – from Edelman without being told? “Mr Glennon had a non-statutory role (ie part-time, non-exec) and we ordinarily don’t make any external announcement on such changes,” said Rea in response to a further query.
Michael D Higgins gives back
Fresh on the heels of the projected exchequer surplus being revised up to €9.2 billion, news of another windfall emerged last week. Michael D Higgins, the spoken-word poet and former president of Ireland, disclosed that he returned €2.6 million of his salary to the State over the course of his 14-year tenure.
The figure emerged in the official Áras Year in Review 2025 document looking back on Higgins’s final year in office. But just in case anyone missed it, the man himself issued his own press release to an array of journalists highlighting the key details.
“In recent days, the former president has returned to the exchequer €384,467 of the 1938 allowance allocated to him over the course of his second seven-year term,” reads the statement. The allowance, enshrined in law in 1938, allows €317,000 a year for entertaining dignitaries and other expenses at the Áras.
Issuing accounts showing where it went was itself an innovation of Higgins’s in 2018, when he returned €238,443 at the conclusion of his previous term.
Added to €1,310,491 in Oireachtas and ministerial pensions and €689,474 in pay returned to State coffers over the period, that makes €2.6 million untaken. The sum, were the Government so inclined, could provide Basic Income for the Arts to an additional 50 or so ambient harpists and painters of horses. Or it could expand the fuel support package by 3 per cent.
Either way, good to have options.
