Fàilte Barack O’Bama

Ireland welcomes back 44 (Tickets now on sale)

Private citizen Barack Obama will return to Ireland for a one-night-only pubic appearance in late September. He last visited Dublin 14 years ago during his first term as President. It’s not likely that when he returns this year he’ll have time to stop on the R445 road at Junction 23, just off the M7 Motorway in Co. Tipperary…

or see these.

Or return to Fitzgerald’s Pub in Moneygall, Co. Offaly, ancestral home of his great, great, great maternal grandfather Fulmouth Kearney.

“What a thrill it is to be here. There are millions of Irish Americans who trace their ancestry back to this beautiful island. Part of why this makes it so special is because the Irish influence on American culture is so powerful in the arts, in politics, in commerce. And with that, let me have a pint.”

On September 26, Obama will appear at the 3Arena along the Liffey River in Dublin. Tickets go on sale today (July 10). The cheapest seats in the 13,000 capacity venue will cost $30 (25 euros). The REALLY GOOD seats will cost $2,400 (2086 euros) and include early entry, commemorative tickets, a copy of his memoir Promised Land and a post-speech function that features a full bar and live music. The priciest ducats will only be sold in pairs. If you pay top dollar and clear security you might get a photo with the 44th POTUS.

How much he will be paid for this Q and A session and one two nights before in London is known only to those who need to know. Based on past performances, it will be more than the $400,000 still being reported as Obama’s fee per speech. That number was published right after his presidency in 2017 when it was reported he’d receive $1.2 million for three speeches to groups of Wall Streeters.

His buddy Bruce reportedly knocks down $1m to $3m per show, but that includes merch sales and as The Boss, of course, he has to pay the band and massive support staff. Beyonce’s one night fee can reach $5m, it is said.

A President cashing in after serving in the Oval Office is nothing new. Ronald Reagan (40) supposedly once received $2m for a single event. Bill Clinton (42) reportedly once took home $750,000 for a speech. George W. Bush (43) has a standard fee of $150,000.

(What Joe Biden (46), the most Irish president since JFK (35), would receive for a post presidency speech in the land of his ancestors seems a moot point.)

These fees will be long forgotten when the legacy of a Commander in Chief is considered. But, what do you think? Good for Obama and the rest of them making money off their services to the nation? (That $400,000 fee in Obama’s case matched one year’s salary as POTUS.) Or, is an occasional road show in first class conditions unbecoming for a former leader of the free world?

To which I would say, “What would Jimmy Carter do!”

Last time in Ireland Obama gave a free speech to thousands

23 May 2011 - College Green Dublin, located near Trinity College and the Bank of Ireland. The statue of Henry Grattan on the left was erected in 1880 to honor a Protestant member of the Irish legislature who fought for freedom from Great Britain. Native Catholics were barred from elected office and all sorts of other activities under the Penal Laws of the day.

Irish roots discovered

Barack Obama has said he didn’t realize he had any Irish in him until he ran for President in 2008 and staff volunteers did his genealogy. In 2011, when he was running for a second term, he leaned into his newfound heritage.

“It’s not going to win him the election,” said retired Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.), an Irish American revered by Irish special interest groups. “But it will firm up some support, and tone down some of the opposition. The Irish people are great for photo ops because they will be in good spirits. They will be yelling and carrying on.”

Obama was reelected to a second term 18 months later. (Obama 51.1%/332 electoral votes. Mitt Romney 47.2%/206 electoral votes.) Did his trip to Ireland help with the “Irish vote” in America? It didn’t hurt.

Clockwise - Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny introduced Obama. The speech wasn’t one of his best, by the way, but it didn’t seem to matter, especially when he threw in a few Irish Gaelic lines. Afterwards he did what politicians do with cute kids. (She would be approximately 20 years old today.) Obama was briefed by Kenny on Ireland’s national game, hurling. He brought his family along in 2011.

From Obama’s speech at College Green. “Our spirit is eternally refreshed by Irish story and Irish song; our public life by the humor and heart and dedication of servants with names like Kennedy and Reagan, O’Neill and Moynihan. So you could say there’s always been a little green behind the red, white and blue.”

Further reading

The man asking Obama questions will be Fintan O’Toole, author and Irish Times columnist. His most recent book is We Don’t Know Ourselves - A Personal History of Modern Ireland. The political is very personal as O’Toole, born in Dublin in 1958, attempts to make sense of all that has happened since he was born that has moved Ireland from an economic also ran into a modern European nation.

“The transformation of Ireland over the last 60 years has sometimes felt as if a new world had landed from outer space on top of an old one.”

I would pay to see O’Toole. Just not top dollar.

DISCLAIMER - Though I hold a leadership position with the Portland Hibernian Society, any opinions given at Gallagher’s Irish Celtic Corner are strictly those of the author and no one else.

Post 41