Gathering the politicians with Irish roots

A very good suggestion emanated from Kenmare senator, Mark Daly and several colleagues this week when they suggested that the 2013 Gathering celebration be used to bring politicians in other countries who have Irish connections or roots here on a trip to Ireland next year. Consider the impact of  the visits of all the US presidents with Irish links here over the years, not least those of JFK, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.

There could hardly be a better way to promote Ireland and sell the message that we are open for business and trying to recover our economic sovereignty by gathering foreign political leaders who have ancestors or family links in Ireland to a meeting with our own leaders as part of the Gathering. And there are plenty of such politicians overseas, one of which I would like to mention here.

The McEllistrim dynasty from Ballymacelligott near Tralee is one of the longest-established and most successful political dynasties in Ireland, returning not only three successive generations to Dáil Eireann but also electing numerous local authority members since the 1890s.

Rep. Eugene L. O'Flaherty

One of their number – a first cousin of the former TD, Thomas McEllistrim and nephew of the former junior minister of the same name, would be well entitled to an invitation to the type of event Senator Daly and others have in mind for The Gathering. Eugene L. O’Flaherty (pictured) is a member of the Boston House of Representatives, as a member for the Second Suffolk Representative District of Massachusetts. As a youngster, he cut his political teeth in the general election campaigns of his uncle in Kerry North in the 1970s and later with his cousing in the 1990s.

O’Flaherty’s maternal grandfather, Johnny Morgan from Dublin spent time in jail after the 1916 Rising with Thomas McEllistrim Snr, a veteran of the War of Independence and the founder of the McEllistrim dynasty. O’Flaherty was kind enough to co-operate with the writing of my book on Kerry’s political dynasties last year and in Heirs to the Kingdom, he tells how his experiences of election campaigns in Kerry decades ago whetted his own political appetite.