“Michéal Martin ate steak while in the US this St.Patrick’s day”
Absolutely not. Ireland is punching above its weight (the weight of a 5 million people country at the periphery of an economic superpower of 450 million citizen) in diplomatic terms and that in great part because of its special relationship with the US. Its worth spending on.
Mr. Varadkar’s diplomacy skills are questionable.
Every year the journalists report on the basically insignificant cost of these trips as if it mattered. I think the amounts are within their understanding while numbers in the millions let alone billions are too abstract to relate to.
The fact that so many major nations designate a day to celebrate the culture and heritage of a small island of 5 million people and seek to engage diplomatically with its elected representatives is a brilliant thing.
We get far more from the negligible St. Patrick’s day expenditure than most people realise.
Surely it’s just Biden fetishising his Irishness à la JFK and not inherent “diplomatic success” on Ireland’s part? All disappears with a new president (assuming they’re not “Irish” too).
It’s the only bloody good thing this government has done
It’s a great example of soft power. The fact we can major global landmarks to be lit up green for Patricks Day is bonkers
I was walking back to my office in London yesterday. Saw a screen with BBC news’s in one of the buildings I walked past. The banner going across the screen was “US-Ireland” relations. I know US-Ireland relations affect US-UK but even still, it’s strange to see a country as small having as much influence as we do.
St Patrick’s day has become a huge marketing exercise for Ireland & as often in marketing campaigns there is a cost involved. The returns come indirectly & over time. It’s a soft story for the home press to snipe at Govt. & an easy way for people with perhaps valid complaints about the Govt. of the day to complain.
The UK use their Monarchy & the USA uses its military & $$$. The Russians used their oil & Gas. We the Irish use our people & our diaspora.
The impact of & the positive attention our small nation with next to no natural resources & a population of just under 5million people has on the world stage is outsized because we maintain connection to the diaspora & expand on that with friendly out reach. So the cost of a few public officials travel provided there is no abuse is not much in the grand scheme of things. There are other more waste full & corrupt matters I’d like to hold our public officials & representatives to account for.
There’s a huge portion of this sub who are amongst those head the balls.
Morons.
I think that it was totally unnecessary to send Every Single Minister off around the world, and I wish they would just take the fucking train or bus once in a while when they’re going across the continent, but these trips are useful. Ryan, for example, was off looking at wind energy batteries for storage in China, which could help with intermittency issues. (He also complained that we were robbed at the Oscars in front of a crowd of dignitaries, which is true, but diplomatically unhelpful.)
I used to work in DFA (moved elsewhere in the civil service) so have been on the inside of the Paddy’s Day Madness, albeit not in the glamour locations. Let me tell you as much of a stress as it is organising the visits it really is that one day of the year Ireland gets access to top level decision makers in toner countries, whether they’re the political, business or cultural sectors.
And they’re demanding schedules when ministers are away, regardless of the location. They don’t get time to do the tourist spots and they’re lucky if they have an hour to themselves each day, most of which from my experience of non-Paddy’s Day visits involves ringing your spouse and seeing how the kids are, and, following up on constituency matters too.
I don’t say this as being supportive of the government, I do disagree with their decisions in a lot of areas but ministers do work hard when they’re abroad. More importantly, they’re great in helping close the deal for the likes of enterprise Ireland as a minister tends to make investors feel important and people are people so do appreciate the attention. I sometimes think we could do the visits better but that’s a personal opinion and maybe use it as an opportunity to drive opportunities in new areas but that’s more me than anything else.
Diplomatic “soft power”.
Just look at how much money the UK spends on the Royal Family to secure soft power. We spend nearly nothing and end up with so much more of it.
>unparalleled diplomatic success
OK.
Can you translate that success into euros and demonstrate to me how its higher than a) what we spend on international trips on the day and b) the cost to the country of having 1 whole week where no minister (and a significant number of civil servants) does a tap of the work they were elected for
Sending Eamonn Ryan to the shops for milk would be an enormous waste of money…..
If anyone has a subscription to The Economist, or knows how to get past paywalls, I strongly recommend reading this [article](https://www.economist.com/europe/2020/07/18/how-ireland-gets-its-way) entitled “How Ireland Gets Its Way”. It talks about the strength of our diplomatic core and how we seem to punch above our weight globally. I’d post the full article but i no longer have a subscription.
17 comments
“Michéal Martin ate steak while in the US this St.Patrick’s day”
Absolutely not. Ireland is punching above its weight (the weight of a 5 million people country at the periphery of an economic superpower of 450 million citizen) in diplomatic terms and that in great part because of its special relationship with the US. Its worth spending on.
Mr. Varadkar’s diplomacy skills are questionable.
Every year the journalists report on the basically insignificant cost of these trips as if it mattered. I think the amounts are within their understanding while numbers in the millions let alone billions are too abstract to relate to.
The fact that so many major nations designate a day to celebrate the culture and heritage of a small island of 5 million people and seek to engage diplomatically with its elected representatives is a brilliant thing.
We get far more from the negligible St. Patrick’s day expenditure than most people realise.
Surely it’s just Biden fetishising his Irishness à la JFK and not inherent “diplomatic success” on Ireland’s part? All disappears with a new president (assuming they’re not “Irish” too).
It’s the only bloody good thing this government has done
It’s a great example of soft power. The fact we can major global landmarks to be lit up green for Patricks Day is bonkers
I was walking back to my office in London yesterday. Saw a screen with BBC news’s in one of the buildings I walked past. The banner going across the screen was “US-Ireland” relations. I know US-Ireland relations affect US-UK but even still, it’s strange to see a country as small having as much influence as we do.
St Patrick’s day has become a huge marketing exercise for Ireland & as often in marketing campaigns there is a cost involved. The returns come indirectly & over time. It’s a soft story for the home press to snipe at Govt. & an easy way for people with perhaps valid complaints about the Govt. of the day to complain.
The UK use their Monarchy & the USA uses its military & $$$. The Russians used their oil & Gas. We the Irish use our people & our diaspora.
The impact of & the positive attention our small nation with next to no natural resources & a population of just under 5million people has on the world stage is outsized because we maintain connection to the diaspora & expand on that with friendly out reach. So the cost of a few public officials travel provided there is no abuse is not much in the grand scheme of things. There are other more waste full & corrupt matters I’d like to hold our public officials & representatives to account for.
There’s a huge portion of this sub who are amongst those head the balls.
Morons.
I think that it was totally unnecessary to send Every Single Minister off around the world, and I wish they would just take the fucking train or bus once in a while when they’re going across the continent, but these trips are useful. Ryan, for example, was off looking at wind energy batteries for storage in China, which could help with intermittency issues. (He also complained that we were robbed at the Oscars in front of a crowd of dignitaries, which is true, but diplomatically unhelpful.)
I used to work in DFA (moved elsewhere in the civil service) so have been on the inside of the Paddy’s Day Madness, albeit not in the glamour locations. Let me tell you as much of a stress as it is organising the visits it really is that one day of the year Ireland gets access to top level decision makers in toner countries, whether they’re the political, business or cultural sectors.
And they’re demanding schedules when ministers are away, regardless of the location. They don’t get time to do the tourist spots and they’re lucky if they have an hour to themselves each day, most of which from my experience of non-Paddy’s Day visits involves ringing your spouse and seeing how the kids are, and, following up on constituency matters too.
I don’t say this as being supportive of the government, I do disagree with their decisions in a lot of areas but ministers do work hard when they’re abroad. More importantly, they’re great in helping close the deal for the likes of enterprise Ireland as a minister tends to make investors feel important and people are people so do appreciate the attention. I sometimes think we could do the visits better but that’s a personal opinion and maybe use it as an opportunity to drive opportunities in new areas but that’s more me than anything else.
Diplomatic “soft power”.
Just look at how much money the UK spends on the Royal Family to secure soft power. We spend nearly nothing and end up with so much more of it.
>unparalleled diplomatic success
OK.
Can you translate that success into euros and demonstrate to me how its higher than a) what we spend on international trips on the day and b) the cost to the country of having 1 whole week where no minister (and a significant number of civil servants) does a tap of the work they were elected for
Sending Eamonn Ryan to the shops for milk would be an enormous waste of money…..
If anyone has a subscription to The Economist, or knows how to get past paywalls, I strongly recommend reading this [article](https://www.economist.com/europe/2020/07/18/how-ireland-gets-its-way) entitled “How Ireland Gets Its Way”. It talks about the strength of our diplomatic core and how we seem to punch above our weight globally. I’d post the full article but i no longer have a subscription.