REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A LUNCH HOSTED BY CONGRESSMAN RICHARD NEAL BARNEY ESTATE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A LUNCH HOSTED BY CONGRESSMAN RICHARD NEAL BARNEY ESTATE, SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS
Congressman Neal, distinguished guests, friends.
Thank you for the welcome which you have extended to Martin and to me, along with our delegation here today. It is such a pleasure to come to this beautiful estate. Arriving here, I could see why the scenery and surroundings of western Massachusetts enjoy such renown. This place, situated as it is on the edge of Forest Park and close to the magnificent Connecticut River and the Berkshire Hills, is rightly praised and visited. There can hardly be a nicer place to join you for the traditional start of Summer on this Memorial weekend.
I understand that 27 States in the Union have a Springfield, but that Massachusetts has the original! I am sure that you all agree. Springfield has another original also, in the form of your distinguished representative, Congressman Richie Neal. As Chairman of the Friends of Ireland, and as a Member of Congress for over twenty years, Richie has been an extraordinary friend of Ireland.
I know that many of you share an Irish heritage, a love for our history and traditions. Richie exemplifies that for you in his work for Massachusetts and through his utter commitment and dedication to the Peace Process. The United States has played a unique role in Ireland’s path to peace and prosperity. The leadership of Richie Neal has been central on that journey, a journey that continues on its way as we speak, a miracle of healing and durability. We know, Richie, how proud and committed you are to Ireland. Today, however, it is very important that you know how very proud we are of you, for your public service and for all that you have done for Ireland.
That sense of heritage, and our sense of place, is vitally important to us all. While we grapple with the global economic challenges before us, with the dispersal of jobs, often of families, with the dramatic changes of many traditional structures, that sense of place provides a compass, a guide and a direction, in a rapidly changing world.
Not far from here, in Elms College, historians have examined our shared emigrant history, as villagers in rural Ireland or perhaps from the remote Blasket Islands left their place, showing deep courage as they journeyed in fear and in hope to the United States. Many of those emigrants, among them most of my great grandmother’s many brothers and sisters, settled in Massachusetts, this most Irish of the states in this great country.
Here in Springfield, in Holyoke and the surrounding area, they not only built new lives and livelihoods, learned to love their new homeland and give it their hearts, they also kept a part of that heart for Ireland, her people, her heritage, her future. From here they replenished the wells of Irish culture and wove the music, dance and literature of Ireland into the story of America. From here they built the lives that would inspire those still struggling in Ireland. From here they sent back their dollars and cents to a poor and oppressed Ireland, a lifeline to a future that has now seen Ireland become a place of peace and prosperity. You know these things because this is the story of your people, of the legacy they gave us of a shared past and a shared present.
On the Monday in which we mark Memorial Day, it is timely to remember what they achieved and the legacy which they left to us. I am very conscious, by your very presence here today, that you cherish that legacy. I believe also that, as we come to terms with the economic pressures around us now - the pressures that are affecting so many families here and at home – that this is a good time to re-dedicate ourselves to those values of kinship and caring, of helping each other and in community, in the kind of active citizenship that would make them proud.
One of your finest writers from Massachusetts, Ralph Waldo Emerson, once said that “America is another name for opportunity”. That opportunity and that vital sense of place remain, in a very tangible way, here in Springfield.
I thank you for all that you do, and that you continue to do, for Ireland and for our heritage. I hope that you will visit us soon again, and appreciate your welcome to this special place.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go leir.