Speech at the Community Reception McCaw Hall
Seattle, 22nd October 2015
A dhaoine uaisle, a chairde.
Tá an-áthas orm bheith anseo libh.
It is a delight for me and for my wife, Sabina, to be here with so many members of the Irish community in Seattle and indeed from all over the Pacific Northwest. May I thank Philip Grant, Consul General, for his kind words of introduction.
Visiting, Seattle, the Emerald City, is a great way to start this trip, my first to the west coast of the United States as Uachtarán na hÉireann, President of Ireland. The Irish community in Seattle, although smaller in size compared to other major US cities, is especially vibrant and cohesive. I know that this community supports a wide range of organisations covering culture, sport, business and immigration, and I look forward to meeting members of the community involved in all of these areas during my visit here.
Irish emigrants have made this city their home for over 160 years and most of those who helped build Seattle in its first 50 years were first or second-generation Irish.
Thomas Burke has been called “The Man who built Seattle”. Born in New York of Irish immigrant parents, Burke became one of Seattle’s greatest civic leaders, championing higher education, railroads, and the cultural growth of his adopted city.
This heritage of leadership is carried on today by Irishmen such as Father William Treacy and proud Irish-Americans such as Mayor Ed Murray, whose four grandparents were born in Ireland, and who himself lived in Ireland for a year back in the 1970s. More than 800,000 Washingtonians listed themselves in the census as being primarily of Irish ancestry – there is surely more than one reason why Seattle is known as the Emerald City!
According to records, approximately one in twelve land claims in Washington Territory in 1856 was made by an Irish-born settler. After the Famine, inspired by the frontier spirit, many more came to the northwest working as labourers in railroad construction, coal mining and logging. Others came when gold was discovered in the Klondike. By the turn of the 20th Century, the Irish in the Pacific Northwest ranked just behind the English and the Canadians as one of the largest immigrant groups in the region.
Now we see a new generation of migrants, educated in our universities in the fields of engineering, science and technology, ready and eager to make their contribution to building the future. The recently established Irish Network Seattle, a business-focused network, has attracted a newer wave of young Irish born that have moved to the area to work with Microsoft, Amazon and other tech firms.
These modern day pioneers represent a new, innovative and forward-looking Ireland, yet remain firmly aware of the long tradition of great achievement by Irishmen and women who preceded them. They appreciate too the interdependency that creates a global responsibility to deliver their efforts in a sustainable way that will enable future generations to inherit our planet.
The talent of our Irish graduates has been recognised for many years. One of Washington’s native sons, Bill Gates, saw in Ireland an educated and engaged workforce of inspired innovators and strong partners. Today, Microsoft has a thirty year history in Ireland. This afternoon, I had great pleasure in meeting many Irish women and men at Microsoft’s Headquarters.
In this magnificent McCaw Hall here tonight, there are so many individual stories of emigration, so many connections to Ireland. I know that there are people here from every part of the island. There are many others who have family roots back in Ireland and I thank you for keeping the connection to Ireland alive and vibrant. Many people here continue to work tirelessly to promote Irish culture in all its forms, including our language, our music and song, our film and theatre, our sports and our rich literary tradition. I am thankful to those of you who have taken on the role of custodians of our culture here, ensuring that it is understood and cherished by the upcoming generations of Irish Americans and indeed by American society more generally.
Only this morning I visited Skyline High School to see their Gaelic games skills programme, which forms a core part of the school’s Physical Education. It is heart-warming to see that our national sports continue to appeal and to be expanding so far from home, and not only being participated in by those of Irish descent, but by so many young citizens of the United States. I’m sure you’re all looking forward to next year when Seattle hosts the North American GAA Championships.
Our cultural heritage and the expression and development of it must be recognised as one of our most vibrant and enduring assets and one of our great contributions to the world. It has also been a great source of linkage, strength and solace for the generations of women and men who have left Irish shores to carve out lives in distant lands. Some left of necessity and others by choice, but most retained contact with their own heritage through forming strong Irish communities and providing each other with support.
As a nation, we have faced many challenges and periods where we relied on our friends and family abroad in our times of need. This help has come in many forms, from the millions of letters sent home with contributions to help those left behind, to the political support for our struggle for independence and the formation of a new State.
In recent decades the peace process has been a shared success of the Irish in Ireland and the Irish and the friends of Ireland, abroad. More recently, our economic challenges have again required us to travel a difficult and painful road in order to regain our economic sovereignty.
In our times of difficulty, the US and the Irish-American community has shown its deep commitment and support for Ireland, with so often influential members of the Irish-American family volunteering themselves as advocates, intermediaries and advisors and in that way contributing innovative ideas and initiatives to bring about positive change. During our recent past, US investment in Ireland has continued to grow, even during the worst economic times, providing a vital sign of confidence internationally in our eventual recovery.
While there is much more to do to secure a sustainable and wide-spread recovery for all of our people, the trend is very encouraging with both growth and employment rates being revised upwards. There are varied reasons for that but it is partly down to the efforts and sacrifices of the Irish people, who have proven their resilience and fortitude during this testing time.
This ability to adjust to and make the best of difficult circumstances is a clear link between the Irish of today and those Irish pioneers who came to the west coast to make a better life for themselves and to contribute to making their communities more caring and accepting. I am delighted to have this opportunity to meet so many of you here and I am proud, as part of your extended Irish family, of the contribution you have made and are making to building a better future for us all.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh agus beirigí libh mo bheannacht ó chroí.
