REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE TO THE IRISH COMMUNITY, BUTTE, WEDNESDAY, 17 MAY, 2006
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE TO THE IRISH COMMUNITY, BUTTE, WEDNESDAY, 17 MAY, 2006
Dia dhíbh a cháirde go léir. Ta an-áthas orm agus m’fhear chéile Máirtín bheith anseo i Butte. Míle bhuíochas díbh as an gcuireadh agus an fáilte sin.
Good evening everyone. Many, many thanks for giving us such a warm Irish welcome to Butte, America.
This time last year I visited Seattle and was amazed and delighted to discover that a number of Butte’s finest had travelled such a distance to meet me. You told me I really ought to see Butte for myself and so here I am to freshen, in this generation, the generations-old links of kinship which bind us to one another.
Your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents took the road less travelled when they ventured to Butte. They shunned the well-worn path to Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and New York. Those who came to Butte came, like so many millions of others, out of economic necessity and out of oppression at home but there is about them a unique and resolute spirit of adventure, a fearlessness in the face of danger that marks them out as a very special and a determined people. From mucker to mayor, the Irish built Butte from the ground up and their presence was felt in all sections of society.
Those emigrants were true pioneers, driven by a desperate desire to improve their lives and those of their children. They did not come to an easy life, in fact the reverse, for their work often took them deep underground to toil in the sweltering heat of some of the most dangerous mines in the world. Deadly accidents were commonplace and TB and other respiratory diseases were rampant. It is said that the mines of Butte made more widows than wealth among the Irish. The tough life here was well recorded by a Donegal man, Mici Mac Gabhann in his work “Rotha Mór an tSaoil”. Written in his native language, he gives a graphic account of working underground in the mines of Montana. His philosophy was simple: “casadh ann mé agus char casadh as mé agus b’éigean domh a mhaith a dhéanamh de [that’s where I found myself with no alternative and I had to make the best of it]. The women of Butte, who had often travelled alone from Ireland as young teenagers, struggled with the harsh weather and conditions and often times tragedy, but they were imbued with the spirit of Mici Mac Gabhann and with the courage to overcome the challenges they faced. They dug deep inside themselves and found there the resources of faith, friendship, community and courage to survive and to plant the seeds of hope their children would harvest.
The contrasts between Butte and Ireland are stark, from the climate to the landscape the differences are considerable but some things stayed the same - because they are always the same. Where two or more Irish are gathered together, you have the love of life, the joy in music, in sociability, in storytelling, in dance, in helping one another, in building family, church and community, in staying ever faithful through the generations to Ireland and her fate. So successful and strong a community did the Irish build here that I am told that a Butte rug merchant named Mohammed Akara, changed his name to Murphy so as to better his business prospects! The two Catholic churches here with names such as - St Patrick’s and St Lawrence O’Toole’s are sure-fire evidence that the French didn’t get here first. Soon the familiar landscape of membership of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Gaelic League and the Friendly Sons of St Patrick had created here in Butte a true home from home for the Irish. And they grew to love this place, to call it home, to watch their children and grandchildren root their lives here far away from Ireland and yet Ireland was never far from their thoughts. To their children they transmitted a love of that far off home that endures to this day. Through all her ups and downs they remained faithful friends, hosting great visionaries of their day like Douglas Hyde, Michael Davitt and Eamon de Valera. Their support did not waiver through the Land League, Independence and Partition right to the present day when the United States was the catalyst that helped bring peace to Northern Ireland and a new beginning for all of Ireland.
The Ireland of today is an Ireland that so many emigrants wished and prayed for. It is prosperous, peaceful, strong and confident. Today emigration is a matter of choice rather than a necessity and Ireland herself is now the destination of choice for immigrants from countries as diverse as Lithuania and Brazil. Our relatively recent economic success has meant that we are now the most privileged generation of Irish, living through the best of times Ireland has ever known. We know we stand on the shoulders of giants whose sacrifices, whose hard earned dollars and cents sent home from the mines of Butte helped a beaten and battered Ireland to find her feet and find her future. It is important to say thank you. I know your ancestors would be proud of today’s Butte and today’s Ireland - the success of both vindicate their lives, their loves and their dreams and both today are places where Irish heritage and culture flourishes. Here in Butte we received an Irish welcome second to none. For the Irish who came many years ago, Butte was rich in precious metals. For those of us visiting today, it is rich in precious friends.
Go mba fada buan sibh go léir anseo.