It's the week of the opening of the General Assembly in New York and midtown Manhattan is in its usual state of General Assembly chaos with street closures and traffic jams as the leaders of the world try to convene and sort out global problems even more urgent than said chaos.
Taoiseach Simon Harris is in town for the big week as is Tánaiste Micheál Martin. President Biden will be delivering his final address as leader of the free world to the assembled nations.
On Monday, Harris was interviewed by Christiane Amanpour for her PBS show. Harris spoke about the Middle East, Ukraine and the United Nations itself and did so with evident command of all these matters.
Also in town was President Michael D. Higgins ,who last weekend addressed a United Nations summit devoted to nothing less than the future of our planet and its people.
And it was President Higgins - who on Monday night was the recipient of the Eugene O’Neill International Public Service Award presented by the Irish American Writers & Artists Association at an event in the Irish Arts Center in New York - who was generating the biggest headlines back in Ireland.
This over a letter he penned to the new Iranian president a while back.
Said letter reached the public domain, according to the president, as a result of the Israeli embassy in Dublin circulating it.
On Monday afternoon, President Higgins gave a press conference at Fitzpatrick's Manhattan Hotel and during it he was challenged by reporters to substantiate his claim that the letter had been circulated by the Israelis who, not surprisingly, are not happy with the idea of a letter of congratulation to the leader of Iran in the first place.
It was put to President Higgins that his letter had first seen the light of day because the Iranians had posted it online. Reports state that it did not stay online and was later removed.
The president held to his position and said he had no regrets over sending what was a "formal" letter from one head of state to the other.
Suffice it to say, and with diplomatic relations between Ireland and Israel already frosty to say the least, the last thing that the other visiting Irish leaders wanted was a distraction such as this.
That said, the letter from Higgins was only one among a number from EU capitals to Tehran. And it has to be pointed out that Ireland does have diplomatic relations with Iran.
The Irish president concluded his note with “my very best wishes for your endeavours, your hopes and all the challenges we face at this difficult time when we struggle for peace."
And so say all of us.
The problem for the Irish government is not the letter per se. The sending had the approval of the Department of Foreign Affairs. The department, according to President Higgins, provided material for the letter, but he himself penned it.
No, the problem is the broadside from Higgins directed at the Israelis.
As the Irish Times reported "there are frustrations at the President’s judgment at a time when Ireland is trying to bring maximum pressure to bear for a ceasefire in Gaza and another front to the war appears to be opening in Lebanon – and a sense that he gave Israel a free hit to take the moral high ground with its denial of involvement in the letter’s release."
Meanwhile, at the United Nations.
