Border poll is not high on our list of priorities

So Shane Lowry upstaged Donald Trump in Doonbeg by winning the Irish Open in the most spectacular style. Lowry, it appears, had been dealing with some ghosts from earlier in the year when he gave up winning leads in two major competitions, the Dubai International and the Cognizant Classic, both important big prize money tournaments. The Offaly man was in a winning position going into the closing holes of both tournaments but failed to finish with a win. It had haunted him in more recent competitions when he failed to show the skill that he possesses.

That was not to be the case in the Irish Open. On home soil and playing in a tournament close to his heart, Lowry played superb golf to put himself in contention on the final day when Mr Trump helicoptered in to present Lowry with the Irish Open trophy. If people had doubts about Lowry’s golf because of those collapses early in 2026 they were pleasantly dispelled in Doonbeg. Despite the distraction of the President of the United States prowling around Doonbeg, Lowry was the epitome of a professional and not alone cruised to a win but set a record winning score in doing so.

Maith thú Shane. Then, with Mr Trump looking on and listening in, he spoke with humility and confidence about what it meant to him to win on his home soil, what part his family played in his life and how important family was to him. As I mentioned last week Lowry’s victory was mightily received by the Irish public and not just those with a passion for golf. The country celebrated with Lowry as they did with Katie Taylor in Croke Park a week earlier and indeed as they did with Mayo some weeks ago. Some of Mayo’s football heroes also got in on the act in a tribute to Lowry whose uncle Sean played for the county in the mid-1980s.

Now, Mr Trump is never going to be completely upstaged. He was a model of presidential respect in his meeting with the steely-eyed Catherine Connolly who put her doubters to flight with an exemplary display of presidential probity and presenting Mr Trump with a St Bridget’s cross (a neat stroke emphasising the importance of women in Irish culture), a book on the voyages of St Brendan and, another neat stroke, a book of Belfast poet Michael Langley’s writings which included the poem 'Ceasefire'. I’ll refrain from suggesting that President Connolly gave him a lecture on the genocide in Gaza but she got her point across and let him know the Irish people’s view on the normalisation of war. Time to put a stop to that.

As would be expected Mr Trump set the cat among the pigeons when he declared (what every right-thinking person accepts) that he would like to see a United Ireland. He took the simple view that Ireland is one country and, by extension, the northern six counties is a bit of an anachronism. His straight talking on the topic shook our Taoiseach Micheál Martin and, no doubt, quite a few Irish people who have yet to come to grips with the thought of a reluctant and recalcitrant Unionist community joining our sophisticated republican society.

The reaction from our Unionist friends and the tory conservatives across the water was as predictable as it was critical. Mr Trump was told to keep his nose out of Britain’s affairs. But while keeping their noses out of Britain’s affairs the US would be welcome to provide assistance in the event that Argentina ever sought to take back their Falkland Islands which the UK colonised in the dim and distant past. The Brits won’t let go of the Falklands without a fight as we here well know. But there is oil in the waters surrounding the Falklands and Mr Trump is a man not averse to hijacking anywhere there is oil.

Mr Trump’s remarks on a united Ireland shook the Unionists and loyalists out of their reverie following Andy Burnham’s comments that a referendum on a border poll was off the table. Burnham has enough problems on his plate without having to deal with a border poll. He has ten years of a disastrous Brexit issue to deal with along with a failing UK economy and an increasing problem of migration to contend with. He could do with a border poll like a hole in the head.

Sinn Féin’s clamour for a border poll now seems to me another mistaken tactic at a time when there is no need for the party to be so bullish. People generally are fed up with the current government. FF/FG have been in power for more than a hundred years and people are browned off. There is a general sense that it is time for them to spend a while in opposition. The country is not doing too badly but, for a great number of people, times are hard. The Government might argue that the cost of living has much to do with the wars in Ukraine and, more particularly, Iran but that is of little comfort to taxpayers and ordinary folk who look around and see Ireland with more billionaires, per capita, than any other country in the world. The country’s wealth is not being shared equally. A border poll is not very high on anyone’s list of priorities.

Sinn Féin would do well to settle down and mend fences with Labour, the Soc Dems, the Greens (just in case) and even People Before Profit/ Solidarity, if those nutcases can be tamed into considering how best to get together, in the interests of the country, and generate practical proposals that might appeal to the people. Shouting and casting stones is no alternative to sound practical politics especially coming up to election time.

Mary Lou McDonald has capable and sensible people in the likes of Eoin Ó’Broin, Matt Carthy, David Cullinane, Louise O’Reilly, Rose Conway-Walsh, Martin Kenny, Claire Kerrane and Mairéad Farrell who need to be given the opportunity to impress. Pearse Doherty is obviously a capable performer and spokesman but somehow he comes across as a cantankerous critic and his message gets lost. He should be toned down. We need to see more of Sinn Féin than images of Mary Lou and Michelle O’Neill posing for cameras. There will come a time for that and a concentration on a border poll but now is not the time. The time now is for real politics, not showboating. It is the duty of the opposition to oppose but not all opposition has to be destructive. There is room for constructive opposition.

Micheál Martin is being made look good by Sinn Féin and, as the polls suggest, he is doing a good job. He even gets on with Mr Trump. He feels secure at the moment but, come the New Year when his stint as President of the European Union comes to an end, his backbenchers will begin the muttering campaign, the odd criticisms of his leadership style will grow and his demise as Fianna Fail leader could come sooner than expected.

I found it interesting that while the President of the Council of the European Union, Mr Martin, was doing his best to keep the US on an even keel with Europe and even getting a tariff reduction on Irish whiskey, the EU Commission President, Ms von der Leyen, was doing her best to undermine Ireland’s efforts by buttering up to Canada and inviting the Maple Leaf country to become an associate member (which does not exist!) of the EU. I have been of the view for some time that Ms von der Leyen needs to have her wings clipped. Her position on the genocide in Gaza is atrocious. Far from having her wings clipped, she is absorbing power to herself, stripping responsibility for the EU’s diplomatic and defence portfolios from the Estonian Commissioner Kaja Kallas. Von der Leyen is becoming a dictator and there’s not a peep out of Mr Martin or indeed any of our brilliant MEPs.