Obama's Nobel Prize makes no sense, says Ahern
on 03/11/2009 00:00:00
The Nobel Committee created a stir last month when announcing Mr Obama as the 2009 laureate, despite the fact he had been in office less than a year.Although Mr Ahern was once thought to be in the running for a Nobel for helping to bring peace to the North, he never won the award.
And in a new interview, he says he cannot understand how Mr Obama won it.
Asked by Time magazine if he felt Mr Obama's award was premature, Mr Ahern responded: "I just don't understand. If there's an award for a person doing good mood music, sure. I'd definitely give Obama two of them. But I thought the Nobel Prize was for great achievements, not just the Peace Prize, but in science and literature.
"I could imagine going in front of the Nobel Committee and saying 'Listen. I've a great idea and I'm going to invent it in two years' time. Will you give me the award?' It doesn't make any sense. In fairness to the man, he's probably embarrassed himself."
Mr Ahern does praise the president elsewhere in the interview, however, saying Mr Obama "genuinely is trying to hold out the hand of friendship" to other countries, particularly in the Middle East.
It was precisely for this reason that Mr Obama was selected for the Peace Prize.
He was chosen because of his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples", according to the Nobel committee.
It said it had attached special importance to Obama's vision of, and work for, a world without nuclear weapons.
John Hume and David Trimble jointly won the Nobel Peace Price in 1998 for "their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland".
It's thought Mr Ahern was put forward at least once for the award, but the Nobel committee does not name those who have been nominated unsuccessfully.
"The committee does not itself announce the names of nominees," the Nobel website states.
"In so far as certain names crop up in the advance speculations as to who will receive the year's prize, this is either sheer guesswork, or information put out by the person or persons behind the nomination.
"Information in the Nobel committee's nominations database is not made public until after 50 years," the website stated.