A Fry Up With the President

This morning, I did that rarest of things: got up early and put on a suit. I did so because I was heading to the Four Seasons Hotel, to have breakfast at a function co-sponsored by the Vancouver Board of Trade and Enterprise Ireland. Irish President Mary McAleese was over with a bunch of Irish companies on a trade mission, and she spoke at the breakfast.

She was an articulate speaker, and responded to a number of questions with aplomb. She remarked that she’d never been to Vancouver, but had lots of relations on the east coast. “They made it to the shore at Halifax and clung to it for dear life”. Later, in responding to a question about the new Irish entrepreneuralism, she said that “we didn’t see the Industrial Revolution coming, and missed it by a very large Irish mile.” Who can blame them? They were under England’s boot at the time.

The hotel served what’s commonly known in Ireland as a ‘fry up’. It’s considered an essential hangover cure. I wasn’t familiar with what a ‘farl’ was, so I had to look it up.

I should clarify, for those unfamiliar with Irish politics, that the President is more or less equivalent to Canada’s Governor General. The position has plenty of clout, but few constitutional powers. Here’s the Wikipedia entry on the presidency. The country’s equivalent to our Prime Minister is known as the Taoiseach. Currently, that’s Bertie Ahern. That said, the Irish President does get this awesome house in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.