Jimmy Carter, it’d be true to say, had a good innings – he died the other day at 100. While he was just a one-term president – he lost to Ronnie Regan – and he made mistakes, like his attempt to intervene in Iran when America tried to rescue embassy staff. But throughout his long life he emerged as a thoroughly decent human being who lived to serve others. How many of us can say that?
2024 saw the death of several other notables, among them OJ Simpson (remember that chase down a highway with helicopters bringing live images of the chase?). OJ was acquitted of the murder of his ex-wife and her lover,but was convicted when he stole some memorabilia which he claimed was his. He got a huge fine and nine years in jail. From glory on the American football field to ignominy in a US jail.
And there were others, like Ethel Kennedy, who had eleven children and whose brother in law AND husband were assassinated. But she soldiered on.
Finally, the dog that didn’t bark in the South’s election in 2024 – anti-immigration. The polls before the election showed it as No 1 problem; as it turned out, it didn’t really feature, and unlike several other European countries, no far-right people were elected.
Join us and let’s raise a glass to departing 2024 and grit our teeth as we face 2025.
Addressing the Oireachtas JFK quoted David Lloyd George’s 5 foot 4 speech for Little Belgium, and, at the time I was surprised nobody threw anything at him.
His greatest hero was Winston Churchill (who idolised Mussolini). His sister Kathleen not only married
into the British aristocracy but joined in bun fights, throwing food about, strange behaviour for someone
with an ancestor who left Ireland in the 1840s. I know the ancestor was not an unskilled peasant but
a cooper, a skilled tradesman unlikely to starve anywhere.
JFK understood the anti-colonial Asians but had no sympathy for the Irish struggle.
He was a lesser man than many he was addressing – De Valera and Frank Aiken, for insyance.
Robert Brennan, brilliant writer of the best election manifesto in world history, father of a beautiful
daughter who wrote for the New Yorer and ancestor of Roddy Doyle.
As Minister in Washington, Robert Brennan used reminisce with friends about the Gaeliv Revival,
the revolutionary years and the Civil War. His secretary, for enjoyment, sat in and reproduced them
in shorthand .
Published under the title ALLEGIANCE they are a joy to read, for Brennan was one of the wittiest
movers and shakers in HISTORY.
They should be reprinted .
If Bobby Kennedy had lived and been elected President in 1968 I doubt the Brits would have dared to
shoot civil rights activists in Ireland. Now there’s a thought worth debating..
Jimmy Carter seemed to me to be a thoroughly decent man. I read somewhere that he had to sell his peanut farm in order to take up residence in the White House. How times have changed. Bobby Kennedy would have been a great President, he was supposedly more of a political animal than his brother.