In post-Brexit Brussels, the Irish are sought after as English-language wordsmiths, spokespeople and all-round communicators
There is still no answer to the famous question of who speaks for Europe. But whoever’s talking, the chances are their words were written by an Irish person.
Ireland dominates the ranks of speechwriters and spokespeople in the EU institutions, a trend that has become all the more apparent in the post-Brexit era, when British officials have either fled or secured an Irish passport themselves.
“We have been sending scribes across Europe since the Dark Ages,” said Thomas Byrne, Ireland’s minister for European affairs, who is playing a leading role during Ireland’s six-month presidency of the Council of the EU.
That trend has not changed in 21st-century Brussels, where the presidents of all three main EU institutions now employ an Irish speechwriter.
