Prioritising soft power could be a huge boost for Ireland
Last Friday, US President Joe Biden departed the country via Ireland West Airport, concluding his recent trip to our shores and also the endless stream of news app notifications my phone was getting about every single place he visited along the way.
According to the notification pile-up at least, it seems Biden made good use of his time here, appearing across Belfast, Dublin, Mayo and Louth over the course of his well-documented and much-publicised trip. His visits to Mayo and Louth in particular were among the more popular news stories doing the rounds, his Irish roots having been traced back to areas within both counties, and Biden, in true ‘yank’ form, being eager to claim his Irish heritage.
There’d also been invites extended to the American President to add Galway to his list of places to see during his visit, after it was reported that genealogist Megan Smolenyak had identified another branch of cousins of Biden’s in the area. But needless to say, an appearance in the city of the tribes by the American politician didn’t end up happening. Still, while Joe never made the trek, the city is not at a loss for visitors from across the pond.
Walking along Shop Street, through Eyre Square, or around Galway in general right now, the familiar sound of an American accent seems to be cropping up more and more. Like Biden, many of them seem to be making the visit to pay homage to their Irish roots; such as the two ladies who stopped me the other week to ask me to take their picture in front of the ‘Tribes of Galway’ banner with their mother’s maiden name on it. Similar once again to Biden’s remark last week that visiting Ireland felt like ‘coming home’, they told me their trip was going well and our country felt like a second home to them.
It’s nice to see how much so many of our tourists from across the pond value our comparatively little country and whatever ancestral links they may have to it… even if it is often joked about how some Americans with even just the slightest hint of Irish ancestry seem to cling on to it like bragging rights.
But for the most part, our perception as a sort of ‘homeland’ for many Americans does a lot of good for us – Biden’s trip and the benefits for Ireland that a visit by such a high profile figure alone naturally entails being a prime example of this. The same went for other visits by Biden’s predecessors: like, for example, Obama, whose 2011 trip to our island also included making a stop at his ‘ancestral home’ as it were, in this case Moneygall in Offaly.
Beyond the big and sometimes controversial examples of US presidents’ visits, this idea of Ireland as a homeland in general affords us a lot of soft power on the global scene that should not go underestimated.
More and more recently, we are seeing just how much of an advantage prioritising the soft power at our disposal could be. Just look at the amount of exposure the country garnered from this year’s raft of Irish Oscar nominations. In addition to the obvious short-term benefits of such exposure, these accomplishments serve to legitimise our future artistic projects abroad.
And just like continuing to invest in the arts will doubtlessly do wonders for our international recognition and soft power sway, it seems to me that so too would encouraging the widely dispersed diaspora of Irish and ancestrally-Irish people to visit the ‘old country’ and engage in the culture.
Being the relatively small country that we are, it can be easy to feel like we often get lost on the international stage. But there does truly seem to be a general affinity and sense of connection established among the yanks (affectionally dubbed) when it comes to Ireland that can’t be denied. I noticed it again while visiting Dublin last week to see American band Paramore perform at the 3Arena, when frontwoman Haley Williams addressed the crowd saying, “Jumping across the pond, it feels like home”. (This was, funnily enough, before a little snafu later in the concert when, in setting up for a cover of The Cranberries’ ‘Dreams’ to honour the late Dolores O’Riordan, Williams accidentally seemed to imply we were part of the United Kingdom before being met with a round of ‘boos and rushing to clarify, “I know you’re not the UK!”).
At the end of the day, it’s my opinion that nurturing the perception we seem to have as a home-away-from-home or homeland to those with family roots here, and staying true to the inviting culture we evidentially present to our tourists, could do a world of good for us – both in terms of international attention and investment, and also in terms of fostering our relationships and standing with other countries, all while still honouring our own culture and Irishness.
