One of the things that is interesting in Ireland is how much attention that the chattering classes pay to a thing that gets barely any attention, at least comparatively, in other countries – the UN General Assembly.
Consider, for example, that yesterday afternoon the Irish President – head of state – and Taoiseach – head of Government – were in New York to listen to the various speeches by the UN Secretary General and others. Then consider the state of affairs in our nearest neighbour: The King (head of state) was in his palace at Clarence House conducting his usual business, and the Prime Minister was at the Labour Party Conference explaining why somebody else buys his wife’s clothes for her. Apparently, Starmer will drop into New York for a few hours on Friday to make a speech, before going home again. Our lads are there all week.
It is not just in Britain that the Assembly is of lesser importance. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping both dispatched underlings to listen to the speeches. President Biden is dropping by to make a speech as part of his retirement tour, as is Ukraines Vlodymyr Zelensky as part of his give-me-more-guns tour, but by and large few countries take the whole thing as seriously as Ireland does. President Macron of France skipped it entirely, last year.
There is, of course, a case for attending: There are few if any other occasions when senior diplomats from so many countries around the world gather in one place. For a country like Ireland, one might argue that the opportunities for networking and building relationships with places like Kiribati and Equatorial Guinea are vital, and cannot be replicated elsewhere. If the whole thing was simply regarded as that – the equivalent of a global tech conference for statesmen – then we could perhaps understand it.
What the UN General Assembly clearly is not, however, is a forum for global decision making of any significance. Indeed, it is difficult to think of even one major decision of ultimate importance made by that body across seven decades of annual general assemblies.
In any case, even if we were to assume it to be an event of diplomatic importance in terms of networking and relationship building, that is the reason that the country has a foreign minister, and a whole department of foreign affairs. Micheál Martin should certainly be in New York – as he is. It’s less immediately obvious why Mr. Harris and President Higgins are there at all.
Ireland has no hope of significantly influencing global events on its own. This is not a controversial statement – it is the very argument our politicians make to us every time there’s an EU referendum. That we must be in the club. That we must pool our sovereignty with other EU states to make an impact. That we must support a common EU and foreign policy precisely because little old Ireland couldn’t hope to accomplish anything of note on the global stage as a relative minnow in world affairs.
Curious, then, that this is reversed when it comes to the UN General Assembly, when we must send the three most senior leaders of the nation, all at once, to listen to the speeches and press the flesh. It is by the very admission of the Irish political class a hopeless activity – even moreso when you consider that Ireland’s stances on various global issues at the UN are at odds with those of other EU member states. We’re not there with our sovereignty pooled – we’re there as the minnow.
It’s hard to conclude that this is all for the benefit of an international audience, and is not based on more parochial concerns. Why is the Taoiseach attending an event that his own foreign Minister could comfortably handle? Because why give Micheál Martin the chance to rub shoulders with Joe Biden and promulgate his views on Gaza and Lebanon, when Mr. Harris could do it himself?
Note well, for example, who has been leading the domestic news bulletins this week on the UN General Assembly, which is ultimately a matter of Foreign Affairs. The actual Minister for Foreign Affairs has found himself relegated to bit-part player, between the President’s demented accusations of Israeli sabotage of his diplomacy with Iran, and Simon Harris’s furrowed-brow stern lectures about global peace and harmony. The Tánaiste has largely been reduced to standing in the background and nodding his approval, like a lesser Burke family member during an Enoch video.
There is, as readers know, a general election coming up in a few months. Simon Harris is many things, but he is not a man to forget a lesson.
Whether you attribute any of this to coincidence or strategy is up to you, but before the local and EU elections Mr. Harris found that he could garner significant positive press coverage for grandstanding on the global stage, specifically in relation to recognising Palestine. This in part helped tamp down conversation about perhaps more troubling domestic issues. It is no coincidence, I think, that as the election approaches he is taking another opportunity to promote the Simon Harris: Global Statesman brand.
And it doesn’t hurt that the Fianna Fáil leader, whose official remit all this stuff is, has to stand there and watch. Perhaps on this occasion this is all innocent – we can only speculate. But you shouldn’t fail to observe to whose advantage it all plays, domestically.