Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE GHOSTS OF Irish poets were invoked yesterday as outgoing US president Barack Obama presented his vice-president Joe Biden with his nation’s highest honour.
Obama surprised Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Bestowing the honour on his loyal lieutenant with a distinction.
In the emotionally charged ceremony yesterday, both men thanked and complimented each other over the time they spent in office together.
And what better way to give an occasion a sense of majesty and importance than by quoting Irish poets?
Biden has been known to drop a line or two from Irish poet Seamus Heaney from time to time, so Obama decided to pay respect to his vice-president by co-opting the words of his own Irish poet.
“As Yeats put it – because I had to quote an Irish poet, and Seamus Heaney was taken:
‘Think where man’s glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends’.
The line was taken from Yeats’ The Municipal Gallery Revisited – which details the poet’s visit to what is now named the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin.
There Yeats sees pictures and paintings of notable people and friends he has had throughout the years and reflects on times gone by.
Not to be outdone, Biden – on accepting the honour – quoted his old favourite, Heaney.
“And Seamus Heaney in one of his poems said – when you can find someone who says it better, use it – he said:
‘You carried your own burdens, and very soon, the creeping symptoms of privilege disappeared’.
That line is taken from Heaney’s poem From the Republic of Conscience, which was published in 1987.
The poem was written at the request of the then-head of Amnesty International Ireland Mary Lawlor, in order to mark International Human Rights Day in 1985.
The bestowing of America’s highest honour caps what has been an amicable relationship based on mutual respect while the two served in office.
But the honour and their lasting relationship may be just cold comforts set between the two men as things are due to change, change utterly when incoming president Donald Trump takes the reins of the US next week.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I so would
Yep thinking the same, just wonder what the girlfriend looks like……
The guy must be hang like a donkey because it sure isn’t his face they are going for……..
Or his dyed head.
or his lifts.
Mao: “I want to know your secret”
Kissinger: “My secret, Mr President?”
Mao: “How a fat man gets so many girls?”
Kissinger: “Power, Mr. Chairman, is the ultimate aphrodisiac.”
-Stone’s Nixon(1995)
Why is this news?
We all already know politicians have no integrity, no sense of honesty or even loyalty.
Riveting stuff ! Just joking
Sexy biatch tbf
A standing Mickey has no conscience…
Classy bird
Why thank you kind sir,one tries one’s best.
and spread legs, apparently to feminists, have no blame.
Maybe Ms Trierweiler should ask the only class act in this sorry tale, Segolene Royal for advice.
How is this any of our business and since when is Closer magazine a valid source of information? I’m seriously concerned about the integrity of the Irish media at the moment.
The role of the media is to report the news.
The reader then decides if it is any of their business or not.
Ms Trierweiler is on the French taxpayer dime and is/was designated First lady of France.
Ah now California don’t be so naive, you really think the media is that impartial? Come on now…
About as impartial as you
I will decide what is newsworthy for me.
if you don’t want to read about it, then don’t click on the link but you don’t get to decide what others can read.
Don’t be ridiculous I’m not deciding what others can read, I’m merely stating that its fodder news and as I said it makes me doubt the integrity of our media, especially when there is a lot not being reported on that, to me, is much more important.. This is a bigger issue than Hollande and his affairs and if you don’t see that well there’s not much I can do about it.
Fodder news?
The integrity of a leader? A cheat? Someone who leaves the mother of his three children?
The media’s integrity is always doubted when it’s a story you don’t like to hear or a belief you had, gets challenged.
You are also describing a false choice. Stories that matter(subjective) are reported. The reporting of one does not stop the reporting of another.
“bigger issue than Hollande and his affairs ”
‘Their’ affairs. There was two in the bed.
“if you don’t see that well there’s not much I can do about it.”
Oh please, Bill Burr’s “If you can’t do the math on that…”
“Stories that matter are reported.” That’s the most naive statement about the media I’ve ever heard. Stories that sell are reported. Seriously California…
You are through the looking glass, Rosy.
Nice tin hat btw.
Your wan is a bit of a ride.
1 woman should be more than enough for any man. He must be a sucker for punishment.
I’ll bang her if he doesn’t want to.
Hollande only has one mistress. We are all being screwed by Irish Politicians!
What is it that makes Hollande irresistible?
I’m gonna guess his millions… ;)
He isn’t a millionaire though.
He’s a career politician & though comfortable, he’s not super rich.
I guess he has a tongue that never tires.
Sure all she would have to do is talk french !
Speak…
If Hollande is as dedicated to the wellbeing of the citizens of France, as he is to fulfilling his personal sexual appetite on a a-la-carte basis, does he turn up in a motor cycle helmet to screw them too?
Pig
Did you just walk past a mirror?
Harsh. Trierweiler is not that bad.
The French don’t care what others get up to in their personal lives. Nor do I.
you clicked on a linked to a story and commented.
You care, you simply don’t like the fact that you do.
No. I don’t care and I clicked on it so as to post what I did.
Would you like my browser history too? There’s plenty of links in there I don’t care about.
Sarcozy is behind all this
I thought the French were all liberal and open minded to the extent that affairs are mandatory. Wouldnt have expected the wife to get in a tizzy over it, sure its normal there.
have your say