UNDER THE circumstances and given the venue, there was only one thing to do. So they filled to him the parting glass and raised it in his honour. To Garret . . .
Enda Kenny and David Cameron arrived at the St James’s Gate brewery yesterday morning as news of the death of Dr FitzGerald was announced on radio. The Taoiseach had been informed of his passing at 6am, two hours earlier.
He was a little late for their appointment – the leaders were attending a business conference in the Guinness Storehouse – detained by the first of many interviews he would give yesterday about his friend and former colleague.
The two prime ministers toured the brewhouse operation before breakfast and, while it was far too early for them to start behaving like children in a sweetshop, they displayed all the curiosity one might expect of two boys in a brewery.
Their journey of discovery began in the fermentation plant, a vast hall of industrial pipes and vats where the visitors oohed and aahed and pretended to understand what was going on.
They crossed to the brewhouse via a long service tunnel which runs under James’s Street. Dating from Victorian times, the tiled walkway with its line of overhead hurricane lamps provided a wonderfully atmospheric setting as they walked through the gloom. All that was missing was the fog.
But the operational heart of the brewhouse brought them bang up to date. The room is dominated by a wall of screens showing the progress of the brewing process.
“Is this the control room?” asked Cameron, wide-eyed.
“Houston!” exclaimed Kenny.
“What are the big tanks?” asked David, peering through the glass at the stainless steel vats.
Enda was mesmerised.
Colin O’Brien, operations manager at St James’s Gate, told them he was going to start a special brew in their honour. It would be a very small batch and ready in nine or 10 days.
“A slow Guinness,” chortled Enda.
The manager pulled a lever. The screen began to light up.
“Here we go!” whooped Enda as brew number 1505 began its journey through the pipes.
He wondered if the finished product might be called “Cameron’s Brew”. In the fullness of time, they can expect a case of customised cans – no kegs.
The prime minister went over to the four master brewers behind the control desk. “Do you brew every day of the year including Christmas?”
Enda was mesmerised.
“Every brew is precious,” murmured Cameron as he left the room to view a display of the raw materials used to make a pint of stout. Enda began chewing on the grains of roasted barley as David sniffed a glass of green hops.
“Coffee, it tastes like coffee,” said the Taoiseach, asking about the secret ingredient that goes into Guinness, the “concentrate”. He was given the deaf ear.
Cameron had a good laugh. Taoisigh and prime ministers always think they have to know everything, but they never will. “You always want to know where real power lies – this is one of those moments you realise it’s not with you.”
The last few days have provided a delicious PR coup for Diageo, the Guinness parent company.
One day the British Queen, the next a Taoiseach and prime minister. Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and British foreign secretary William Hague also attended the meeting with business people.
Both leaders reflected on the speech given by Queen Elizabeth at the previous night’s State banquet.
“I think it was a remarkable contribution in what was a remarkable State visit,” Enda said. “I thought her words were very warm, very heartfelt and extremely thoughtful,” said David.
The Taoiseach took the opportunity to say a few words about Garret FitzGerald. “He will be missed by Ireland, he will be missed by Irish people but he will be missed most especially by his beloved followers in the Fine Gael party.”
Cameron described Dr FitzGerald as “a statesman as well as a politician, someone who is in politics for all the right reasons, and someone who made a huge contribution to the peace process in bringing reconciliation for all that had happened in the past.
“I hope, today of all days, with the State visit and the warm relationship between Britain and Ireland, that he can see that some of his work has been completed.”
After their meeting, the two leaders repaired to the Gravity bar and they filled the parting glass.
