The whole room was abuzz with excitement and chatter as audience members waited for Samantha Power to come in. The room was unsurprisingly packed, despite the terrible weather, as a plethora of guests awaited the discussion. Having spoken to Trinity earlier in the day, Power was visiting the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) to receive the Emily Winifred Dickson Award which recognises women who have made an outstanding contribution to their field. Power is the first recipient of this award since the unveiling of Dickson’s portrait as a part of RCSI’s partnership with Women on Walls, a campaign led by Accenture, which seeks to exhibit powerful female leaders.
The event opened with a heartfelt introduction by Professor Cathal Kelly, the CEO of RCSI, who called Power “a powerful advocate for justice and a role model,” who reflects the values of RCSI. The on-stage conversation was hosted by presenter Miriam O’Callaghan and the entire event, despite the size of its audience, took on a very personal and conversational tone. There was a keen focus on Power’s recent memoir, The Education of an Idealist, which Colm Tóibín called an exploration into the “development of a young woman’s inner strength and self-knowledge”. Power’s book hit shelves in September of this year to a largely positive reception. Barack Obama called it “a must-read for anyone who cares about our role in a changing world” and in the New York Times Book Review, Thomas L. Friedman surmised that it was an important book that dealt with her family story, diplomatic history and moral arguments seamlessly and with “unblinking honesty”.
Power’s personal and political history is a varied one. She became a Pulitzer Prize winning author in 2003 for her book A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. She subsequently appeared in the TIME 100 in 2004, whereafter became Barack Obama’s human rights advisor, and in 2013 she became the youngest United States Ambassador to the United Nations in history. With an incredible history of political achievement, it is understandable why this political powerhouse was received by such an appreciative audience.
Despite her impressive resume, the emotional core of this discussion came not from the retelling of Power’s political dealings in Washington, but from tales of her early life in Dublin. Power spoke jovially and amiably, seemingly delighted to be back in front of an Irish audience. She spoke fondly of her early childhood in Ireland, having been raised here before emigrating at age nine to Pennsylvania with her mother, brother, and stepfather, Eddie. Power spoke openly of her father’s struggle with addiction and remarked that she frequented Hartigan’s pub as a child, while her mother overcame numerous adversaries to pursue her medical dreams, eventually going on to attend University College Dublin for medical training. Power readily told of the dissolution of her parents’ marriage and the family’s consequential emigration.
Upon speaking with her mother prior to drafting her memoir, Power explained that she didn’t fully understand until twenty five years later that they really weren’t going back home. Power clearly still has an affinity for Ireland and said she had every belief those two decades ago that she would still be spending all subsequent holidays in Ireland despite the move. As it turns out this was not the case. She joked of her family’s “pathetic paradigmatic Irish lifestyle,” where they went to a pub in Pennsylvania and had bangers and mash every Friday. One amusing anecdote Power mentioned was a bit about her first day of school when she had showed up in white socks, a tartan skirt, and loafers while all of her other classmates wore jeans. In that moment she had a distinct feeling of not belonging. It wasn’t until her mother bought her a few relevant sports sweatshirts (which she noted as having been alternated accordingly) that she began to acclimate to American culture.
Power admitted that in her early years she was indifferent to the world of foreign politics. Her epiphany moment came while she was interning for CBS sports. It was here that she witnessed the video footage from the protests in Tiananmen Square where Chinese forces attacked protestors, an event which caused her to recognise the gaps that she had in her knowledge. Power admitted to getting back to campus after this incident and immediately subscribing to the New York Times.
Education clearly played a huge part in Power’s intellectual development. In the past, she had taken a Chinese history class and an American foreign policy class in order to understand what was happening in the world. Power knew that she wanted to be responsible for change no matter how miniscule the difference made might be. After graduating from university in 1992, she moved to Berlin to teach English and remembers a sense of liberation there after the Cold War. She remembers reading the The End of History and The Last Man by Francis Fukuyama, a book which discusses the inevitability of progress and the acknowledgment of human rights. Power admits that she did not feel like she had anything to offer despite furthering her own political knowledge, but she knew she wanted to help in any way she could. Her next lucky break, as she referred to it, came in the form of an internship in Washington, D.C. at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she met Carnegie president, Morton “Mort” Isaac Abramowitz, who had been the US Ambassador in Turkey while the Kurds were being slaughtered in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War. Abramowitz had been pivotal in convincing President Bush to create a protected zone in Northern Iraq. Power joked that while she did not impress him all that much and was called Susan for most of her time there, she walked away from the internship with something which supplemented her personal growth, the American “can do-ism”. She says this leadership continues to influence her, calling Abramowitz “incurably constructive” especially amidst what she called a skittish government hesitant to assert American power and leadership.
From there Power went on to become a political journalist and war correspondent and notes the importance of remembering the people on the other side of the foreign policy equation. She knew that from the outside, trying to make a difference would be like “trying to push water uphill.” Her speech was littered with incredible advice on behalf of someone who has made multiple major career decisions. She recommended that while making big career decisions, one should not come from a maximalist point of view and should instead try to look for a potential learning curve. She added the importance of looking at a situation and thinking: if all you get out of an opportunity is ‘x’, will it be worth it? She said that she now knows this is the “growth mindset”. Furthermore, Power shared her belief that simply having that impulse to get involved and contribute, whether within the realm of climate change, the displacement of immigrants and refugees, or racial inequality, is of the utmost importance. She added that she understands that this impulse can often be overshadowed by one’s belief that he or she is too small to make a difference.
Power’s political achievements and advancements are numerous, and one of the most interesting things that I took from her talk was her friendship with former US president Barack Obama, who she referred to as a bright light in the dark. She spoke of how some of Obama’s achievements are not considered as such because they were preventative, and thus not considered a part of his political triumphs, such as his efforts in the Ebola crisis in which he sent three thousand troops and health workers into the eye of the storm. Aside from all of these endeavours, she says he gave her personal advice, and jokingly encouraged her to be more “functional” in her personal life. This was also where she ultimately met her husband, Cass Sunstein, through an accidental email fill. She distinctly remembers calling Obama when her and Sunstein were dating and the former president joking that Sunstein was a “total slob”. Immediately after, the line went dead and for thirty minutes that was all that had surmised Obama’s thoughts of her prospective soulmate until finally the 44th president was able to call back from rural Iowa on his campaign trail to tell her that Power’s love interest was wonderful and warned her not to mess it up. In an anecdote which had the audience in stitches, Power told the story of when she and her husband went to a dinner at the White House for the first time at which Sunstein nervously spilled a glass of wine. She also recalled a time when Obama took a phone call from Eddie, Power’s stepfather who was babysitting for the evening, and coached him through feeding the couple’s young baby. She jokingly added that her stepfather always uses this incident as his go-to anecdote.
The RCSI event, despite its setting, felt exactly like a fireside chat and afforded audience members with an incredible insight into this remarkable woman’s personal and political life. Samatha Power was not only one of the most impressive speakers that I have ever had the good fortune of meeting, but also the most personable. She seeks to make public service more accessible to young people and provided a rather chilling statistic: while 9% of Obama voters voted Trump in 2016, 7% stayed home. Power believes that the number one indicator of whether humanity is headed for downfall is voter engagement. She alluded to voting involvement as being a key factor in eliciting change. Her Irish roots were highlighted after the discussion during her book signing when she stopped to talk to every person despite the massive queue. Talking afterwards with Cathal Kelly, the RCSI CEO, he remarked that she had refused dinner, choosing instead to stay and talk with the people who had come out to hear her speak. It was an inspiring and life-affirming event which would inspire any young person thinking of getting into politics to just go for it.
