The Minister meanders west

General Richard Myers is in Ireland today. He is the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff -- it's his job to bite his tongue as Dubya presents the circular logic of why there are now and always have been enough troops in Iraq ("because if there weren't enough troops, the generals would have asked me for more troops" -- but the generals know that without a change in policy, there are no more troops).

Anyway, consistent with previous evidence of touchiness over the role of Shannon in the GWoT, it looks like the Minister for Defence, Willie O'Dea, was planning to receive a courtesy visit from Myers and then bailed:

[ireland.com, subs. req'd] A meeting between Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea and US Joint Chief of Staff [chairman] Richard Myers will not take place, a spokeswoman for the minister said this afternoon.

This morning a spokesman for the Department said General Myers would discuss areas of "mutual interest" with Mr O'Dea in the Department's offices on Infirmary Road.

However, this afternoon the spokeswoman said an official meeting was "never on the cards" and that General Myers would have paid a courtesy call on Mr O'Dea, had the minister been in Dublin. He will not be in Dublin today, it has emerged. .... Mr O'Dea's spokeswoman... said he had appointments in Longford and Mullingar and would not be returning to the capital today.

Now, this has the all the hallmarks of the old Bush trick of suddenly being out of town when a potentially embarrassing ally is in town -- Bush father and son both have a strange proclivity not to be in Washington during pro-life marches, for instance. And how can Minister O'Dea not be aware of the fabulous improvements in Irish roads in recent years, meaning that Mullingar and Longford are just not that far from Dublin anymore -- especially for a ministerial motorcade?

But perhaps Willie is a literary romantic at heart, because being away from Dublin in Mullingar is of course one element in Ulysses:

In silence they drove along Phibsborough road. An empty hearse trotted by, coming from the cemetery: looks relieved.

Crossguns bridge: the royal canal.

Water rushed roaring through the sluices. A man stood on his dropping barge between clamps of turf. On the towpath by the lock a slacktethered horse. Aboard of the Bugabu.

Their eyes watched him. On the slow weedy waterway he had floated on his raft coastward over Ireland drawn by a haulage rope past beds of reeds, over slime, mud-choked bottles, carrion dogs. Athlone, Mullingar, Moyvalley, I could make a walking tour to see Milly by the canal. Or cycle down. Hire some old crock, safety. Wren had one the other day at the auction but a lady's. Developing waterways. James M'Cann's hobby to row me o'er the ferry. Cheaper transit. By easy stages. Houseboats. Camping out. Also hearses. To heaven by water. Perhaps I will without writing. Come as a surprise, Leixlip, Clonsilla. Dropping down, lock by lock to Dublin. With turf from the midland bogs. Salute. He lifted his brown strawhat, saluting Paddy Dignam.

Could it be that the Minister's day trip is by barge along the Royal Canal?

UPDATE 25 JULY: Minister O'Dea would have more credibility with our story than his actual one; the meeting cancellation flared up as an issue over the weekend and the Minister now claims that he was in Mullingar and Longford later than his original schedule because he was "unwell" in the morning. The alternative, and highly plausible interpretation: Bertie decided to cancel the meeting (Irish Times, subs. req'd):

[O'Dea spokesman] described as "absolute rubbish" a claim by Fine Gael defence spokesman Billy Timmins, that the visit was cancelled on the instructions of the Taoiseach's office. Mr Timmins said the US authorities were "extremely angry at the abrupt cancellation of the meeting". He said: "I believe it was an act of great discourtesy to the government and people of America."