The real Enda Kenny?
It has been almost three months since Enda Kenny dropped the news that he would be stepping down as leader of Fine Gael after serving them as best as he could for 15 years.
Kenny took over Fine Gael at a horrible time in 2002 just after a General Election where the political party had suffered one of their worst ever elections.
An enthusiastic Mayo man replaced Michael Noonan shortly after, promising to “electrify” Fine Gael and to build them back up to become a powerful party once again.
He did as he promised he would and when he led Fine Gael into Government in the spring of 2011, it was a real ‘Where were you?’ moment for the man from Castlebar.
Kenny was a man who suffered many setbacks in his time. Before he took over in 2002, he had run alongside Noonan in the previous Fine Gael leadership election.
Noonan saw this as a cheeky move from the relatively unknown TD at the time and as a result chose to leave Kenny stewing in the back benches.
In 2010, as the wheels came off the Fianna Fáil Government, their main opposition party were just waiting in the wings to attack.
However, instead of attacking the Government, they decided to attack themselves and civil war began within the party between Kenny and Richard Bruton.
Kenny always seemed to get poked at and if he wasn’t getting punished for his actions in the Dáil, he was getting stick for his actions outside of the Dáil.
Especially as Taoiseach.
He was portrayed as this sort of buffoon who would go around fist bumping and high fiving randomers – the wannabe cool dad type.
Kenny was anything but this and I was lucky enough to meet him quite a few times in my life during his time as Taoiseach.
The then Taoiseach was even at my graduation from school and that was the first time I ever met him in person. He was a very different character to the one that was visible on television.
He greeted everyone with a firm handshake, asked us all our names and what we planned to do after school and legitimately seemed to take interest in our hopes and aspirations.
It wasn’t just a quick meet and greet photo opportunity, he even spent ten minutes talking to one of my classmates about Mayo’s chances in the All-Ireland that year.
Maybe it was because there were no cameras around but he was a lot more refined and down to earth, he seemed to be more natural, and not what he thought the public wanted him to be.
I hadn’t thought about it much until I came across this article in the Philadelphia Enquirer by a political reporter called Ruth Stoolman.
Stoolman had come across Kenny on her trip to Ireland, a trip which she had promised to her husband would involve “no bickering and no politics.”
I really hope she kept the other promise.
She was in a popular pub in Dublin and was told that Kenny was in the room across from her. She was introduced to him and just expected a quick hello and a photo to follow suit.
However, much like our graduation, Kenny was in no rush.
They talked for nearly an hour and a half, to the point where everyone else in Kenny’s company forgot that the ex-Taoiseach was even there.
Speaking about the meeting in her article, Stoolman said:
“He was open and candid, not totally surprising given the occasion. A charming and well-educated man, he recited Tennyson and Yeats and quoted President Kennedy from his speech to Congress about going to the moon.
“We spoke about the importance of family, having fun, and following your dreams. Robert asked if he was writing a book. (Absolutely not, he said.) And yes, we talked politics. We even sang a few Beatles tunes.
“He was so easy to talk to, witty and funny. He was genuinely interested in our lives and our trip. At one point, I almost forgot who he was and was simply enjoying joking with an amiable Irishman. After a while, even his aides, driver, and other handlers ignored us and went on with their own conversations.”
The Enda Kenny who spent the majority of his term throwing his fist in the air in public as if Mayo had just scored a monster point in Croke Park is not the same person when he is out of the spotlight.
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