Bernie Sanders brought his 'resistance' message to Dublin (after stopping by the Aras)

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Irish outreach

The ‘outreach’ to convince Sanders to appear in Dublin began with a call to his wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, host for the evening David McWilliams explained to the crowd, ahead of last night’s much-anticipated Dalkey Book Festival event at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre. O’Meara Sanders has strong Irish roots, McWilliams said – and had managed to convince her husband to add the country to his itinerary.

Taking the stage to a rapturous reception, the Senator told the crowd that Jane had taken a genealogy test that day – and that it had turned out she was 96% Irish. As he put it, “more than the average Irish person in Ireland”.
The couple had paid a visit to the Phoenix Park to visit President Michael D Higgins during the afternoon, we were told. But unfortunately, we never got to hear what was discussed.

He then joined McWilliams for an interview for an hour or so. That was billed as the ‘sit-down’ part of the evening – but Sanders (yet again confounding expectations) took to his feet whenever he was asked anything and instead stalked the stage, addressing the crowd and even engaging in brief conversations with audience members.

In one of the lighter moments of the night, he was asked about the famous moment when a small bird somehow managed to fly down onto his podium mid-speech at a campaign rally last year. He recalled: ”We spent months training that bird.”
And, of course, there was the obligatory question: would he run for the presidency in 2020?
The answer: “Honestly, I don’t know.” (Admittedly, it would have been a strange choice of timing and location for a major campaign announcement). Asked whether he would consider running as a third-party candidate in the next general election, he said it was unlikely. “The decision I have made right now is to open up the Democratic party and bring millions more into it.”

http://www.thejournal.ie/bernie-sanders-dublin-speech-3427188-Jun2017/

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