Swedish Commissioner: Mary Robinson for EU Foreign Minister

[Apparatchik]

Robbo got her fingers burnt in Geneva.

She didn't. She was asked by the then Secretary General to assume an advocacy role rather than the more passive role of her precedessor. She did that and Kofi Annan was blunt in praising her for doing exactly what he wanted. He wanted her to use the position to promote a human rights agenda publicly, and criticise the human rights records of states from the US with its death penalty to China and far east dictatorships. She did that as he told her to. His intention was for her to define the principles of human rights, then be succeeded by a diplomat to implement the principles less confrontationally. The game plan followed was exactly what Annan asked. He described her as a "spectacular success".

You really think anyone but you buys hackneyed PR b*llocks like that?

[cactus flower]

I remember a time when Robinson's predecessor went nowhere other than Portmarnock golf club where he reduced his golf handicap to zero in 14 years.

If you think that then your memory is faulty, to say nothing of your research.

Hillery was an extremely active president. He travelled the length and breath of the country. He couldn't get the publicity for it because the government wouldn't let him hire a press officer. They wouldn't hire a telephone operator, so the army had to man the phones in the Aras. They gave him an entertainment budget to cover a full year's state entertainment of people that was less than UCD gave some of its student societies.

He was more constitutionally active than any of his predecessors. He referred more bills to the Supreme Court than any of his predecessors. He hosted more state visits than any of his predecessors.

He had a low handicap in golf because he always was good at it. One top international player said that Hillery was a natural who could have turned pro and would have won the top awards.

The reason the public didn't know all he did was because he had no backup, no media staff and the media had no interest in him. Robinson when she read the files of all he had done, was astonished. He was far far more hard working than was realised.

You should write a book of Irish Presidents, I'd buy a copy

[NotDevsSon]

Robbo got her fingers burnt in Geneva.

She didn't. She was asked by the then Secretary General to assume an advocacy role rather than the more passive role of her precedessor. She did that and Kofi Annan was blunt in praising her for doing exactly what he wanted. He wanted her to use the position to promote a human rights agenda publicly, and criticise the human rights records of states from the US with its death penalty to China and far east dictatorships. She did that as he told her to. His intention was for her to define the principles of human rights, then be succeeded by a diplomat to implement the principles less confrontationally. The game plan followed was exactly what Annan asked. He described her as a "spectacular success".

You really think anyone but you buys hackneyed PR b*llocks like that?

People who know how the role works, do. Idiots like you, with a superficial impression of everything and practical knowledge of nothing, don't.

The first high commissioner, José Ayala-Lasso, was involved in setting up the office and bedding it down. But he was roundly critised for following too low-key and too technocratic an approach. Kofi Annan headhunted Robinson to assume a high profile advocacy role. He asked her, and her team, to use the office as a bully pulpit to outline fundamental principles on the office and its role to the world and populations. He specifically wanted her to give a right kick up the arse to various countries over their human rights record, and remind everyone of the UN's human rights role. Annan was very satisfied with her role, and when she planned to retire after one term, talked her into extending it. If she had wanted to stay a full second term he made it clear he would be delighted. When she left, he appointed Sergio Vieira de Mello to take on a different role, as a lower profile figure charged with putting the advocacy role Robinson had achieved into a bureaucratic framework, so that the principles defined in her term would become the benchmark of the office's works. De Mello unfortunately was killed by terrorists in Iraq barely a year into office. (He was in Iraq as the Secretary General's personal representative, on leave of absence from the HR role.) Louise Arbour has been high commissioner since 2004.

[smiffy]

Well, I don't know...She insulted the Irish people by abandoning the Presidency to go off and take a desk job in Geneva.

I wasn't insulted. Also, does the President not have a desk?

[Apparatchik]

Well, I don't know...She insulted the Irish people by abandoning the Presidency to go off and take a desk job in Geneva.

I wasn't insulted. Also, does the President not have a desk?

Maybe the High Commissioner gets a high chair.

[Lord of Kerry]

Well, I don't know...She insulted the Irish people by abandoning the Presidency to go off and take a desk job in Geneva. Maybe is she was EU Foreign Minister she'd leave if offered a chance to operate the McFlurry machine in McDonald's in O'Connell Street. Evidently she can't be trusted to stick with a job.

What a stupid post, Mary Robinson did more for the Presidency than anyone before her or since for that matter. I would contend that Mary McAleese has done tremendous damage to the presidency with unnecessaryily controversial remarks and turning the role of the president into a trade delegation leader and honorary degree collector, Not to mention the fact that she is effectively unelected. To leave the job a few weeks early can hardly be seen as an insult after the years of hard work she had put in a has done since for various organisations

There ia no shortage of national insults coming from FF and their contempt for the people

You'd never know maybe Bertie might quit and head off to Europe although I certainly wouldn't consider that an insult!

[cactus flower]

Well, I don't know...She insulted the Irish people by abandoning the Presidency to go off and take a desk job in Geneva. Maybe is she was EU Foreign Minister she'd leave if offered a chance to operate the McFlurry machine in McDonald's in O'Connell Street. Evidently she can't be trusted to stick with a job.

What a stupid post, Mary Robinson did more for the Presidency than anyone before her or since for that matter. I would contend that Mary McAleese has done tremendous damage to the presidency with unnecessaryily controversial remarks and turning the role of the president into a trade delegation leader and honorary degree collector, Not to mention the fact that she is effectively unelected. To leave the job a few weeks early can hardly be seen as an insult after the years of hard work she had put in a has done since for various organisations

There ia no shortage of national insults coming from FF and their contempt for the people

You'd never know maybe Bertie might quit and head off to Europe although I certainly wouldn't consider that an insult!

Mary has that irritating aura of blind self confidence that comes with the nanny and the rest of the privileged package. But as a President she was a trooper and was the only one who went out there week in week out into communities who had been left/put outside the loop. And I remember the morning of the election result, overhearing one suited tin god from our town say to another "You didn't vote for that b****h did you", and I felt proud of all of us who did.

[JRichards]

Apart from left wing fanatics and Gender Equality extremists, Robbo enjoys very little support. She has already alienated the USA and the Irish voters.