REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ALL IRELAND CULTURAL SOCIETY OF OREGON
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION TO MARK THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ALL IRELAND CULTURAL SOCIETY OF OREGON
Thank you Mike Flanigan for your warm words of welcome to Portland on this my very first visit to the delightful “City of the Roses”.
I thank the All-Ireland Cultural Society of Oregon for the kind invitation, which allows me to share its 70th birthday. In 1919, some years before the birth of the Society, that great Irish-American Éamon De Valera visited Portland. The Ireland that he came from was at that time struggling for its independence, it was a poor land bowed down by centuries of colonialism and grinding poverty. He came to Portland seeking help and support in Ireland’s attempts to take her rightful place among the free and independent nations of the world and it was no accident that he arrived here for in following in the footsteps of many an Irish emigrant he knew he would be among friends. Now I follow in his and their footsteps, but I come from a very different Ireland, the one so many dreamed of, hoped for, worked for and despaired of - a prosperous Ireland and a peaceful Ireland at long last.
Back in 1960, just a few yards from here, another great Irish American and son of Irish emigrants, John F Kennedy gave an impromptu address from the balcony during his Presidential Election Campaign. His brother Robert was by his side. Three years later President Kennedy was in the home of his ancestors and, on his arrival in Dublin Airport, he observed that “No country in the world, in the history of the world, has endured the haemorrhage which this island endured.” This haemorrhage which has for centuries sent the sons and daughters of Ireland to many far flung fields has been staunched and decisively so in recent years, yet this flow has also created the wonderful phenomenon of the Irish global family, some 70 million strong and still driven by an impulse that makes us want to keep on being community and clan to one another across miles and generations.
Today we celebrate our Portland Irish family and especially its founders - people like Mike’s grandfather whom he has just spoken about. They brought little with them by way of personal possessions but their hearts and heads carried an ancient and rich heritage steeped in music, dance, history, poetry, spirituality, friendship and a capacity for finding joy even in the teeth of adversity. They were community builders par excellence and all these easily carried gifts they brought with them and gave to Portland, leaving here an imprint of Ireland that is still strong today. In Portland and all across the United States, Irish emigrants and their descendants brought their vitality and genius to every aspect of civic life, to families, communities, politics, education, healthcare, the uniformed services, religious life, commerce, charity and philanthropy. They never forgot Ireland, often sending hard-earned cents and dollars back in earlier times to keep hope alive in a very poor Ireland. Today they have invested hugely in our peace process and in our prosperity, that passion for Ireland’s wellbeing not dimmed by passing tides and times. A few years ago when I visited Seattle I was stunned to meet there people who had travelled from Portland to meet me. That brought home to me the intensity of feeling that we share and that connects us to one another and keeps connecting us to one another in every generation.
The strength of this bond, the ties of affection and kinship that link us are unique to the Irish as becomes evident every St. Patrick’s Day when the Irish and honorary Irish take part in parades all over the world in a showcase of our passion to remain connected to our sense of Irishness and to each other. Here in this City you have for 70 years refreshed and re-energised those connections and that passion for our wonderful Irish heritage. For you it has been a very sacred trust and for me it has been a privilege to arrive here for the first time and to feel as if I have just come home.
Thank you.