The Visit of Obama

Yesterday the President of the United States, Barak Obama (or O'Bama as he claimed he wanted to be known as), visited Ireland. 

Recently this country has had its troubles.  There is the big one, the collapse of the economy with thousands out of work and many empty houses after the housing bubble burst.  This has led to an international bail out, a change in leadership and many disillusioned people.  Also there have been attacks on police officers, general unrest, etc.

Then the Queen of England went to visit to re-establish relations with our long distant neighbour.  This seemed to do the trick but many Irish people were kept well back and every event was staged to keep her away from trouble a this was still such a contenscious issue. 

But hero of the hour Barak Obama turns up and the crowds go wild!  He can claim a distant ancestor lived in Ireland and he met his eighth cousin yesterday.  He also had a pint of Guinness in a pub named after him, had his car get stuck on a ramp that collapsed as 'The Beast' tried to pull off and spoke in Dublin in front of hundreds, if not thousands of people and came across as very charismatic.

Now there are two ways of looking at this.  One is that this was a wonderful thing for the people of Ireland as they could briefly take their minds off the troubles and have a moment of joy and fun.  The other is that this is not putting the focus where the real issue is.  There are thousands of Americans who can claim Irish ancestory and there is an election coming up next year that Mr 'O'bama' would like to win again.

So good thing or bad thing?

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