George Hook discusses Irish connection to U.S. politics

The Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics, and Democracy hosted Irish radio host George Hook for a lecture entitled “Campaign 2016: A View from Abroad.” Hook’s talk concerned the strong Irish connection to politics in the United States, both historically and in the 2016 election.

Throughout his talk, Hook emphasized how the Irish people are more strongly connected to American politics than other countries in Europe. He noted that after President John F. Kennedy was elected, the Irish felt “connected by an umbilical cord to the White House” because Kennedy was an Irish Catholic. Hook explained how the Irish found other ways to connect themselves to other presidents, joking that they even managed to find a connection to President Barack Obama.

Hook explained that one reason the Irish are interested in and informed about United States politics traces back to the mass immigration from Ireland to this country. He shared that amidst the flood of immigration, the area in which the Irish “ultimately came through was politics, specifically the Democratic party.” At the time, Ireland relied heavily upon remittances from Irish who had emigrated to the United States. Therefore, the Irish public took interest in American politics because it played a large role in their economic success.

Shifting his focus to the present day, Hook discussed views on the media. He claimed that while the media is very focused on American politics, it is “uniformly liberal and therefore supports the Democratic Party.” According to Hook, the media exclusively focuses on the benefits of Hillary Clinton and the negatives of Donald Trump. He went so far as to say that the Irish newspapers portray the controversy over Clinton’s emails as simply a matter of “switching her Blackberry for an iPhone.”

Aside from Ireland’s historical ties to the Democratic Party, Hook attributed media’s favorable attention toward Hillary Clinton to President Bill Clinton’s successful Irish diplomacy. In the 1990s, President Clinton sent Senator George Mitchell to Ireland to help resolve the Troubles, the decades-long, asymmetrical armed conflict over Irish reunification. Mitchell was instrumental in negotiating the Belfast Peace Agreement, also known as the Good Friday Agreement, which largely ended the Troubles. Hook believes that this makes President Clinton hugely popular to this day, which “naturally” benefits Hillary Clinton.

Continuing with his discussion of the media, Hook explained that in Ireland, the government prevents broadcasters from expressing certain opinions on the radio. According to Hook, this has prevented the emergence of conservative radio stations. For instance, he claimed that Irish newspapers have contributed to Ireland’s being “the most radicalized feminist country,” and that the columnists of these papers are “women [who] all are voting for Clinton”—if they would be able to vote, because as non-citizens they cannot. Hook said that based on the views of Irish female media commentators, the Irish people assume that all American women will vote for Clinton. During the question-and-answer session, this claim drew a reaction from parts of the audience; one Irish audience member objected to Hook’s view regarding Irish people’s notion of Clinton’s support.

Hook continued speaking about media’s liberal bias, sharing that he is the only commentator to predict Donald Trump could win the election. He has gone so far as to bet “two hundred bucks at six to one odds” on a Trump victory. He believes that, above all, the news media and the pollsters both in Ireland and the United States do not have accurate information to predict a winner of the election.

Hook then moved to his personal views of Irish politics, which he sees as entirely liberal and growing ever more extreme. He cited examples ranging from a political party in Ireland publicizing its belief that the “greatest thing that ever happened is the Trotskyite revolution in Russia” to the laws mandating that a certain percentage of a political party’s candidates be women. He said this radicalization is highlighted by the prime minister’s pre-election commitment to a Cabinet that is equally balanced in regards to gender, even though most of parliament is male.

The question-and-answer session included topics such as the Brexit vote and its impact on Ireland, the changing patterns of immigration in Europe, and the prospects of Irish reunification.