This article is from page 12 of the 2006-08-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
FORMER Russian President Boris Yeltsin returned to Moscow on Sunday following a three-day private visit to Clare, part of which he spent shark-fishing off the west coast.
Mr Yeltsin’s last visit to Clare made international headlines when an Taoiseach, two ministers, a guard of honour and an army band were left standing on the tarmac at Shannon Airport. Yeltsin had agreed to make a stopover on his way back to Moscow from the US, but it was more like a sleepover as the Russian leader failed to appear from his aircraft, sparking a minor diplomatic incident.
On September 30, 1994, Albert Reynolds and the Irish and Russian greeting parties were left standing for over an hour as Mr Yeltsin’s plane inexplicably circled Shannon Airport. They then waited for a further 15 minutes after it landed, before they were told the president was too tired, and then too ill, to see them. It was rumoured that the vodka-loving leader had enjoyed his favourite tipple on the journey from Washington. He finally appeared in Moscow to set the record straight, saying, “I just overslept. The security services did not let in the people who were due to wake me”.
Mr Reynolds denied at the time he had been snubbed saying, “I completely understand. Mr Yeltsin was acting on the orders of doctors who said it would be better for him not to get off the plane. He suffers from bad blood pressure. When a man is ill, a man is ill”.
Mr Yeltsin arrived in Shannon on Thursday, almost 12 years after that diplomatic gaffe. On this occasion, there there were no dignitaries to meet him.
The former President was whisked off amid tight security to the fivestar Dromoland Castle where he stayed for three nights. Mr Yeltsin travelled to the Cliffs of Moher on Thursday and enjoyed a day’s sharkfishing on Friday off the Clare coast, breaking for lunch on Inis Oír. His boat, skippered by local man Willie O’Callaghan, returned to Liscannor shortly after 6pm.
Three officials from the Russian Embassy were on hand to meet Mr Yeltsin, who smiled and waved to a dozen or so onlookers. Although frail and requiring assistance alighting from the boat, Mr Yeltsin was in good spirits, sitting at the front of the private coach which awaited him and waving for photographers as he was driven away.