Two days at the heart of Europe

YOU don’t see very many jeans and jumper rig-outs in the European Parliament building in Strasbourg. The ushers who glide to and fro across the huge chamber bearing important documents (and sometimes cups of coffee) are the best dressed of all. They wear tailcoats and have an impressive brass chain of office around their necks.

All the ambitious young men and women who form the bureaucracy are in the standard uniform of sober suit and well-shone shoes.
But the glorious exception to this sartorial conformity wears corduroy jeans, trainers and a jumper that has seen better days, to judge by the holes at the elbows.
At least that’s what our nearest resident MEP, Luke “Ming” Flanagan was sporting when he met a small group of Irish journalists in a café in the parliament building.
Fair play to Luke, he hasn’t dropped an iota of his Castlerea identity. But like all politicians, he is prepared to adopt his views to circumstance. More of that later.

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ENTERING the parliament for the first time is a slightly intimidating experience. You have been pre-approved, you have supplied your unflattering passport-style photo, but you have to queue up, have your bags checked, be scanned and frisked in the style of the most secure airport you can imagine.

Then, having been given your visitor’s badge, you step into an oval courtyard surrounded by what looks and feels like a hollowed-out circular skyscraper. Very impressive, and it should be, when you think that it represents the collective representation of the European Union’s 508 million citizens.
Our group spent a full day there, and still could not puzzle our way towards an exit by the end of it.

Read the full feature in this week's edition of The Tuam Herald