One hundred Gaelic footballs, a rubber glove covered in shoe polish and erasing any trace of the name “Monica” from the streets of Ballybunion, Co Kerry, were all part of a successful plot to lure Bill Clinton to see a half-finished statue of him playing golf.
A play running in Dublin this week retells the bizarre events which led to a sitting US president stopping off in the seaside resort during a 1998 visit to Kerry after finalising the Good Friday Agreement. In the middle of attempts to impeach him over the Monica Lewinsky scandal, President Clinton visited the town and its golf course following an intense local campaign.
A Statue for Bill Clinton, written by Tom McEnery, the former mayor of San Jose, California, is running at O’Reilly Theatre, Dublin, until August 13. Its lead character is Jackie Hourigan, a publican who met Mr Clinton and was part of the bid to invite him.
Mr McEnery said: “For a president to change his route would normally take a papal edict and an act of God, it’s a great story.”
He said that the scandal surrounding Mr Clinton at the time did not matter to locals. It was later reported that fights would often break out in Mr Hourigan’s pub over whether Mr Clinton should be honoured.
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The story began during Mr Clinton’s 1995 visit to Ireland. The president had planned a round of golf with Dick Spring, the former tánaiste, in Ballybunion but changes to his schedule scuppered the plans. Mr Clinton vowed to return, suggesting it may only happen if a peace deal was signed in Northern Ireland and he had an excuse to visit again.
Frank Quilter, a local businessman and Fine Gael politician, had organised for a group of locals to see Mr Clinton when he visited College Green in Dublin and hold up “Ballybunion backs Clinton” posters.
Mr Quilter and John Hannon, a local Fianna Fáil politician, were subsequently invited to the 1996 Democratic Party Convention in Chicago and asked to bring their banners. At the event Mr Quilter handed out 300 business cards for his local hotel, which read “Atlantic Hotel, only 3,720 miles from Chicago” and gave every politician he met a small bag of sand so that they had “a little bit of Ireland”.
On their return to Kerry, they launched a campaign to lure back the president. Kerry footballers kicked 100 balls with “Ballybunion Backs Bill Clinton 96” into the Atlantic from the local beach as part of a competition. The first American to find one on the east coast of the United States would win a free holiday to Ireland.
A story, which Mr Quilter denied, circulated saying that he posted a football to a friend in Boston who later came forward as the winner so that he would not have to pay the airfare.
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After the 1998 Good Friday Agreement was signed, President Clinton said he would make good on his promise and visit Ballybunion golf course after a trip to Belfast and Dublin. However, there were no official plans for him to go to Ballybunion. Nevertheless, Mr Quilter was certain that the president would not let them down a second time. “We’ll never see a poor day again,” he said. “I feel it in my bones. People will flock to Ballybunion as they have never done before. This is going to be mega.”
Colour posters of Mr Clinton were hung from the lampposts and stars and stripes banners from homes and businesses.
Monica’s, a local hairdressers which had been closed for several years, had the name above the door changed to “The President’s Shop”.
A sculptor was also commissioned to create a bronze statue of Mr Clinton playing golf after Mr Quilter raised €20,000 from local businesses.
The Department of Foreign Affairs was adamant that there were no plans for Mr Clinton to visit the town because Irish officials felt that it would be inappropriate for him to visit to see a statue of himself. When a member of Mr Clinton’s secret service heard about the statue, however, the motorcade made a detour, leaving Air Force One waiting on the tarmac of Shannon Airport.
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Mr Clinton expected to see a 7ft bronze effigy outside the local Garda station but what awaited him was a plaster of Paris replica covered in shoe polish because there had not been enough time to finish the real one. The hand also fell off and was said to have been replaced with a stuffed rubber glove covered in shoe polish.
Mr Quilter, who owned a roller skating rink and nightclub in the town, later sold about 3,000 commemorative Clinton postcards, because he said “the Americans are a fright at wanting souvenirs”. In 2000, Mr Quilter sold his nightclub for €2.5 million, telling an American golf magazine that Clinton’s visit had probably added about half a million to its value.
President Clinton spent a total of two hours in the village.