Me In front of the White House

I can only imagine the level of security involved behind those fences ~ in contrast there's this poem we had to do in school by the Irish poet Paul Durcan in which he describes him and his girlfriend in the long grass out back of Áras an Uachtaráin(the residence of the Irish President) basically snogging on a summers day.

Here's the poem.

When I was a boy, myself and my girl
Used bicycle up to the Phoenix Park;
Outside the gates we used lie in the grass
Making love outside Áras an Uachtaráin.

Often I wondered what de Valera would have thought
Inside in his ivory tower
If he knew that we were in his green, green grass
Making love outside Áras an Uachtaráin.

Because the odd thing was – oh how odd it was –
We both revered Irish patriots
And we dreamed our dreams of a green, green flag
Making love outside Áras an Uachtaráin.

But even had our names been Diarmaid and Gráinne
We doubted de Valera’s approval
For a poet’s son and a judge’s daughter
Making love outside Áras an Uachtaráin.

I see him now in the heat-haze of the day
Blindly stalking us down;
And, levelling an ancient rifle, he says, “Stop
Making love outside Áras an Uachtaráin”




1. obviously we Irish have a less deferential attitude to our leaders
2. i always did think Pres. Eamon De Valera was a damn killjoy
3. our president isn't defended by a)a secret service b)huge friggin banks of machine guns and c)doesn't even have a fancy nuclear bunker under the stairs.
4.  our president can't even get to DEFCON 1 since we don't have those sort of weapons and the worst he can do is send a strongly worded letter to offensive individuals and take their president off his Christmas card list.