Make 2012 'O'lympics' Irish, says Johnson

THE CONSERVATIVE mayor of London Boris Johnson came to Trafalgar Square yesterday for the St Patrick’s Day festival, but he did not conquer.

Urged by the master of ceremonies to offer “a huge cheer for the one and only Boris Johnson”, the crowd offered a lacklustre welcome, including boos at the front of the stage.

Johnson congratulated Ireland on winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup “but also, of course, on discovering oil” – referring to the Providence Resources find off Cork.

“We are here today to celebrate the contribution of the Irish community to London, aren’t we?” said the mayor, who funds the annual party. “And I don’t speak of St Columba, or Oscar Wilde, or all those who helped embellish our great city culturally and physically, I have today a particular debt that I wish to record,” he said.

Here, the crowd went quieter, unsure of what he was going to say next. Johnson proceeded to praise the new Routemaster bus, which offers 12 miles to the gallon and restores the “hop-on, hop-off” service. “But the best feature of all about this bus is that it was made, it is being made, it will be made in ever-greater quantities, in Ireland,” he said. The bus is built in Ballymena, Co Antrim.

By now Johnson was flagging and he knew it, so he drew on this summer’s Olympics: “Let’s put the spirit of the Irish community into those games, my friends. Let’s put the apostrophe into O’lympics.”

Johnson drew anger last week for alleging that a St Patrick Day’s dinner was funded by ratepayers and promoted Sinn Féin – a claim for which he later apologised.