Archive for the ‘Queens Visit’ Category
World’s Most Famous Heads of State in Ireland.
The Queen has arrived and so too has a milestone in the process of reconciliation between our two countries. I warmly welcome the British Head of State and believe her visit is long overdue.
I am very privileged to be meeting both Queen Elizabeth and President Obama at functions I will attend in the next few days. The Queen’s itinerary has been published but the final details of President Obama’s visit is a ferociously well guarded secret.
In a professional capacity I am working the members of Moneygall community. Normally this too should have stayed secret until Ollie Hayes the publican in Moneygall told RTE’s John Murray on his radio show last Friday morning. Now everyone knows, thanks Ollie.
Anyway what is my role? For Henry Healy, a relative of Barak Obama who lives in Moneygall, for John Donovan, who owns the ancestral home and for Canon Stephen Neil, the genealogist who established the link between County Offaly and the US President, next Monday is monumentous. These three men will each be interviewed over a thousand times by the world’s media between, say, Saturday and Wednesday next.
I don’t think people have any idea how big an international story this is. My team and I will be on the ground in Moneygall to help them cope with the media tsunami that is about to hit them. It is important that the spokespersons in Moneygall do themselves, their village and Ireland justice. It will be a fantastic few days for Ireland having the two most widely recognised heads of state in the world meeting the warm and friendly people of Ireland and pictures of it all beamed around the world on TV.
As a result of my involvement I have been invited to attend an “intimate function” with the US President but if I told you the details of that here now his secret service would have to shoot me so I will tell you all about it in my next bog update!