Mo Bhroin, Mo Bhroin... Ah, Those Mandarins!

By Patrick Hurley

An Irish consul general once addressed a New York County Cork Association Banquet. In an endeavor to flatter, he explained that upon reviewing his predecessors' files, he discovered a note elaborating that as one of the most vital organizations, the Cork Association should be afforded appropriate recognition at every opportunity. Now, Cork people do not easily succumb to blandishments. The cynic in us realized that other organizations like - God forbid - the old rivals, the Kerrymen, would be similarly wooed. Ultimately, the good diplomat's words were infinitely more illustrative about the modus operandi of the mandarins of Iveagh House - Ireland's Foggy Bottom - than about the Rebels.

This tendency of Iveagh House to look back in the files for a way forward reinforces an obvious contentment with the status quo and a reluctance to evolve. The ex-Irish public service minister, John McGuinness, identified this sclerosis as being endemic to the senior civil service. Politicians will come and go but the "permanent government" of the senior civil service, or, in this case, the mandarins of Iveagh House, are the real power. They rule forever. So... if you are wondering why Irish foreign policy in the US has never advanced further inland than the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport.

Iveagh House has never accepted that the era of "Camelot" is o'er and that Senator Kennedy's "dream" has metamorphosed into a nightmare. The mandarins' inability to countenance political reality has been exacerbated by an obvious disdain for all shades of the American right - "those conservative extremists" - among the Irish intelligentsia. In recent years, Iveagh House has refused to restrain its surrogates in their vitriolic attacks on representatives of conservative and moderate philosophy.

That Iveagh House is so divorced from the real politik of the Irish American community is incredible. The mandarins regularly trot out the same tired old leftist line up, the dysfunctional Kennedys, the Clintons, Senator Dodd, the New York City Council speaker, Christine Quinn, et al as the ideological representatives of Irish America. The Democratic Party, as it moved radically to the left, long ago abandoned Irish-American values. The Irish-American community is now - as it always was - firmly ensconced on the center-right of the political spectrum. Your average Irish American identifies more with the agenda of the New York State Conservative Party chairman, Mike Long, and Congressman Peter King than with the ideology of the small, though disproportionably vocal, Irish-American left.

Iveagh House fell asleep at the wheel and missed the turn. Uncle Teddy, with all his radical and personal baggage, is a comical buffoon. The dysfunctional touch football-playing clan provides an endless source of material for comedians and satirists. Mr. Dodd is the consummate Washington insider, gaming the system for himself. And does Iveagh House really believe that Irish-American suburbia identifies with the radical agenda of Ms. Quinn?

The failure to appreciate the political evolution of Irish America has resulted in an ill-informed Irish political class and citizenry. Iveagh House's continued insistence to set its compass by the far left - exacerbated by the vitriolic anti-American philosophy of the Dublin 4 intelligentsia - has had real adverse consequences. Mainstream Irish politicians rail against the American effort in the War on Terror. Then, incredibly, the same politicos land in Washington, DC and plead a special case for Irish illegals.

Absolutely no sense of quid pro quo! In fairness, you can't expect a taoiseach or a foreign minister to be intimately familiar with the minutiae of Irish America or the broader American landscape. In the game of "Yes Minister," the politico lands and is handed the script - colored as it is with ideological and institutional biases - by "our man" in wherever.

A prominent Irish academic recently bemoaned the deficiency in Ireland's comprehension of the US and of its Irish-American cousins. So, while reports of the youthful alcoholic indulgences of George W. Bush will trip easily off the tongue of your average Irishman - "an alcoholic, idiot, and junkie," apparently - not too many will be knowledgeable on Ted Kennedy's rendezvous with criminality at Chappaquiddick, his other misadventures or, indeed, the many indiscretions of other members of the dynasty.

While Irish-American federal agents, police officers, and servicemen and women do what is necessary to defend the U.S. and Western civilization from radical Islam, thousands of Irish take to the streets of Dublin to protest the American war effort. Iveagh House's astounding failure in comprehension has left Ireland at the nadir of its influence in the U.S., grasping with desperation for 3.6% Obama and the radical left.

The left couldn't give a whit about Ireland. Despite its own delusions to the contrary, Ireland is firmly part of the contemptible Anglo-Western World. An Irish opposition T.D. recently revealed that there was genuine concern as to whether the traditional St. Patrick's Day White House invite would be forthcoming to the taoiseach. To the mandarins' great relief, it did arrive, though very late. What would have been a profoundly embarrassing though illustrative incident was narrowly avoided. Illusions regarding Ireland's favored status were surely dispelled with President Obama's announced intent to eradicate corporate overseas tax havens, a move that would be devastating for US investment in Ireland. In fairness to Mr. Obama, he did not "target" Ireland. It's just that - light bulb! - 3.6% Obama does not care about Ireland. It is not even on his radar screen!

Do the mandarins really believe that the left is concerned about "legalizing the Irish"? The left's immigration rationale amounts to a lawless open-borders policy, which would culturally and economically emasculate the US and render it defenseless.

The Irish might have been legalized by some discreet, nuanced, legislative initiative. However, such manner of relief would have been inconvenient. The left needs the Irish as cosmetic dupes to advance its grand design. In any case, the shenanigans of Iveagh House and its surrogates in recent years, in alienating the Irish-American community, has indefinitely postponed any such benevolent initiative.

As politicos are wont to do, Senator Schumer will continue to throw the red meat of amnesty to the baying open-borders cabal and their Irish apparatchiks. However, with the economy in the doldrums and millions of American citizens unemployed, Mr. Schumer will also ensure that such efforts quietly come to naught. That wily politician has no intention of committing his party to a politically suicidal initiative.

As the Obamanites increasingly expose their impotence, buyers' remorse is already gripping the electorate. The 2010 congressional elections loom, foreshadowing new opportunities for Irish America. Is Iveagh House ready to get with the program?

Mr. Hurley blogs at irish-american-news-opinion.blogspot.com