Why was Brian Cowen & Mairead McGuinness at the Presidential inauguration of...

vicwatson

Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia on 25th January 2004 ?


Definitely saw Cowen and almost 100% sure it McGuinness sitting right behind him at the inauguration, they showed the clip twice.

It was on a prog on Putin and Russia tonight at 21.00 on BBC Four, anyone else see it? -

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01bfwf1/putin-russia-and-the-west-2-democracy-threatens

And how did they end up being there in Georgia? Perhaps invite via EU or ...?

https://www.rferl.org/a/1051322.html

For Forks Sake

Cowen was Minister for Foreign Affairs. Or maybe someone told him there was a free bar.

McGuinness, I'm not sure, as she had only just been elected MEP.

vicwatson

For Forks Sake wrote: »

Cowen was Minister for Foreign Affairs. Or maybe someone told him there was a free bar.

McGuinness, I'm not sure, as she had only just been elected MEP.

Almost sure it was her but her wiki page says she wasn't elected till something like July 2004 ?

As for Cowen would all MFA get invited to the likes of the President of Georgia's inauguration?

Sierra Oscar

It would be pretty standard for a Minister to attend events such as these and represent Ireland, even more so if it's a Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Sure former Minister for Defence James Tully was lucky to escape alive after attending the annual Egyptian military parade when President Sadat was assassinated in 1981. Tully was injured by shrapnel, he was standing with Sadat in the reviewing stand as a guest of honour when the attack unfolded.

recedite

Sierra Oscar wrote: »

It would be pretty standard for a Minister to attend events such as these and represent Ireland...

Sure former Minister for Defence James Tully was lucky to escape alive after attending the annual Egyptian military parade...

Its not standard practice to attend foreign military parades.
Or terrorist sponsored conferences. However, some politicians will go to these events, and purport to represent Ireland when they are really doing it in a personal capacity. We can only blame ourselves for letting them get away with it, by not caring enough about these things.
Here is the Mayor of our capital city, wearing his chains of office, attending an anti-Israel Islamic event in the West Bank last week.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin has denied being anti-Semitic after he was criticised by the Irish Jewish community and Israel’s prime minister for attending a conference in Palestine this week.
The Sinn F councillor Me Mac Donncha returned home on Friday after being informed by Israeli authorities at Ben Gurion airport that if he wished to return to the country he would have to seek special permission.
He rejected criticism for attending a conference this week in Ramallah that featured a large banner with an image of Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the pro-Nazi Palestinian mufti from the 1930s and 1940s.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/i-m-not-anti-semitic-lord-mayor-of-dublin-says-after-palestine-trip-1.3460728

recedite

As for Cowen attending the Saakashvili event, that was perhaps excusable at the time, although it looks bad in hindsight. Back in 2004, Saakashvili was the darling of the west.

In the early part of this millennium, he was an international icon of the movement toward reform and democracy, a favorite of U.S. presidents and European leaders. Today, Mikheil Saakashvili is under siege, as his popularity wanes and criminal charges stack up against him in two countries.

He transformed the Georgian military from being a soviet style Warsaw Pact army to being a branch of the US army, and then embarked on the ill fated invasion of South Ossetia in 2008, sparking a war with Russia that ended in defeat and disaster for Georgia.
I see he has recently got back into Ukraine where he intends to stir up more trouble.

blanch152

recedite wrote: »

Its not standard practice to attend foreign military parades.
Or terrorist sponsored conferences. However, some politicians will go to these events, and purport to represent Ireland when they are really doing it in a personal capacity. We can only blame ourselves for letting them get away with it, by not caring enough about these things.
Here is the Mayor of our capital city, wearing his chains of office, attending an anti-Israel Islamic event in the West Bank last week.


https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/i-m-not-anti-semitic-lord-mayor-of-dublin-says-after-palestine-trip-1.3460728

There is a difference between a gob****e of a Mayor thinking he is representing Ireland and a Minister of Foreign Affairs whose job it is to represent Ireland.

recedite

I don't know much about James Tully or his relationship with Sadat if any. But I'm saying it was not a requirement of standard protocol to attend Sadat's military parade, it would have been a political decision.
Sadat was somebody who stood up to British imperialism, as per the Suez crisis. He also stood up to the Islamic fundamentalism being exported from the Gulf states. And he was part of the broader secular Arab nationalist movement typified by the Baath party. Of the various Baathist type leaders; Sadat, Gadaffi, Saddam Hussein, Assad Senior, only the latter managed to avoid being murdered. That was because Assad senior arranged for Russian naval and airbases to be established in his country, which afforded him the kind of protection his son is still benefiting from.

1981 was the era of the Maze hunger strikers and Margaret Thatcher.
I can see why Ireland might have wanted to make a political statement in solidarity with Sadat and his efforts to establish an independent nationalist secular Egypt in the face of hostility coming from some powerful forces and influences.

Saakashvili on the other hand, is not somebody worthy of respect.