Speech at a Breakfast Hosted by American Ireland Fund
Chicago Club, Chicago, 12th May 2014
A dhaoine uaisle, a chairde.
Tá an-áthas orm bheith anseo libh inniu.
Mar Uachtarán na hÉireann, as President of Ireland, I am delighted to be here with you this morning.
Thank you to Thomas Meagher Jr., Chairman of the Chicago Regional Advisory Board for your invitation and thank you also to Kieran McLoughlin, CEO of the Ireland Funds, for joining us this morning.
I was probably in middle age when it dawned on me that a new transatlantic cultural product had emerged – the Business Breakfast. A constant theme of mine has been the extent to which Irish people over the years have been great modernizers: whether at home or abroad, we have shown a great capacity to adapt to changing circumstances and the adoption of the Business Breakfast was child’s play to us. The Business Breakfast is now one of the key markers of the globalised world we inhabit and so here were are in all our post modern state of flux anticipating what violence may have been done to oranges or eggs.
Being entirely honest, I would have to admit that I am not a fully paid up enthusiast of the Business Breakfast. Some years ago I told a Bord Bia Business Breakfast event that I had instinctual sympathy with the assessment of Oscar Wilde who said:
“Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.”
And as to the business of eggs, he said that:
“An egg who has succeeded in being fresh has done enough.”
So if my remarks this morning fall short of brilliance, it merely exonerates me from being dull.
There are some partners in marriage and business who may have in a wild moment contemplated the shared breakfast. History is against them. Winston Churchill offered an even more curmudgeonly verdict on the social merits of breakfast. He wrote:
“My wife and I tried two or three times in the last 40 years to have breakfast together, but it was so disagreeable we had to stop.”
All of this preface is just a means to indicate the measure of my respect and gratitude for the mission and work of the American Ireland Fund. It is due to them that I have set aside any personal sympathies I may have with the views of Wilde and Churchill, and I warmly embrace this opportunity to breakfast with you all.
I arrived in Chicago last Thursday and, since then, have been to Bloomington and back. I was honoured to deliver this year’s Spring Commencement Address at the University of Indiana, that beautiful campus where I studied and received a Masters degree in the 1960s.
In my address, I expressed to the students my hope that they will be innovative thinkers and active citizens, helping to guide and shape a society that is creative, inclusive and constantly open to new concepts and possibilities.
As the great African-American sporting icons, Arthur Ashe, once said:
“From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.”
I commend you in the American Ireland Fund for putting that principle into practice through your work of outreach and solidarity. And I am not speaking just about financial giving, although there is great need for that. I am speaking also of the giving of your most precious resource: your time in addition to your skills, your interest and your influence, in pursuit of objectives and causes on the island of Ireland that merit your support and advocacy.
Ireland’s Diaspora in the United States has been of incalculable support to us, politically, socially and economically. As President of Ireland, I wish to restate my deep appreciation of that reservoir of compassion and solidarity; a reservoir that is delivering in a most practical way at a time of considerable challenge for our Irish people. U.S. investors have been the first to announce that they are staying with Ireland, increasing investment and they have expressed their confidence in Ireland globally and in the markets.
I was honoured last month, on my own behalf and on behalf of the Irish people, to be the first Irish President to pay a State Visit to Britain. It was a moment of great historical significance, which would not have been possible had we not achieved peace on the island of Ireland. It is my firm hope that the significant and sincere gestures of respect and friendship manifested during that State Visit to the United Kingdom will serve as a further catalyst for reconciliation and partnership in Northern Ireland, enabling peace to endure and its harvest of prosperity to be realised.
There were many actors in the Northern Ireland Peace Process but among the most influential was the United States Government who was, in turn, encouraged and supported by the Irish-American community. Successive US administrations and leaders on Capitol Hill, on both sides of the aisle, have played their part in persuading the different parties to go the extra mile for peace.
At critical times, in what was a long and difficult process, the US Administration, Congress and the wider Irish-American community have encouraged and even cajoled the parties to take risks for peace.
On behalf of the people of Ireland, I want to take this opportunity to thank the Irish-American community for its contribution to peace, and to thank you, the American Ireland Fund, for the support you continue to give to organisations that are doing such important work of healing with both communities in Northern Ireland.
That work continues, and needs to continue, as the political parties and communities strive to work together to advance dialogue and reconciliation; to address the painful legacies and conflicting narratives of a divisive past; to craft a shared society free from hatred and intolerance; and to ensure that marginalised communities also enjoy the economic and social dividend of peace.
The transcending view from an external partner has broken many a log jam in the Peace Process. Just as the help from our American friends was vital to the success of the Northern Ireland Peace Process, so your practical support remains vital to us in our ongoing work on reconciliation and on the many social issues which continue to hold back far too many people in disadvantaged communities from achieving their full potential.
Many of your ancestors travelled from Ireland to the United States in pursuit of the promise of a better life. You have been successful in their adopted land and have chosen to share, through philanthropy, with the land of their birth. There is honour in completing that circle and I thank you for it, as I am sure will future generations.
As you know, Ireland has been through most testing economic and financial ordeals in recent years some of which was issued upon us, some we created by neglecting a home grown property bubble. The good news is that we are weathering the storm. We Irish are a resilient people. Learning the chastening lessons of the recent past, we are determined to build a future together in which all citizens can participate – a future that is built on solid ethical as well as economic foundations. Thanks mainly to the resilience and sacrifice of the Irish people, we have steadied the ship of state, tightened the supervision of our banks, stabilised our public finances and our economy is growing again.
Export levels are rising again, jobs are being created and the level of unemployment is falling – from a peak of 15.1% two years ago to 11.7% today. Challenges undoubtedly remain, in Ireland and across Europe, in tackling unemployment and particularly youth unemployment. We cannot be happy with an emigration that drains some of the most qualified young people in Europe out of their own country and away from their own people. Growing the economy so as to provide opportunities in Ireland for our highly educated young people is a major priority. Within the European Union, Ireland has the largest cohort of young people under the age of 25 with a third level qualification.
That highly educated cohort is one of the reasons Ireland continues to do very well in attracting foreign direct investment. FDI by US firms in Ireland support approximately 100,000 jobs and, in 2013, US investment in Ireland accounted for over 70% of total foreign investment in our country. The investment flow is also reciprocal with Irish companies in the US employing tens of thousands of U.S. workers.
We must deepen these connections. Tourism remains one of the key sectors as the Irish economy grows its way to recovery. Last year, approximately 8 million tourists visited the island of Ireland, and visitors from the US were up by some 14%. I know that many of you in this room this morning have visited Ireland in recent years, a number of you perhaps for the Notre Dame-Navy game in the Aviva Stadium in 2012, which was a huge success. I hope that you will come again to Ireland, and come often. You can be sure of a warm and sincere welcome.
Lest you are asking yourself whether, in light of my positive assessment of the prospects for not only stability but growth in the Irish Economy, it might be that we are not in continuing need of your interest and concern, let me assure you that your support and solidarity are still needed and greatly appreciated.
The Irish language is a treasure trove of wise sayings, called seanfhocail, and one such says:
“Is maith le Dia féin cúnamh – God himself likes some help.”
With your help, the “Promising Ireland” campaign, with its initial targets already met, and new, ambitious targets set, will make an enormous contribution to the recovery and renewal of Irish society
– a contribution of which your forebears would have been proud.
In conclusion, some of you in this room may recall a US television series of the 1960s called “The Fugitive”. At the conclusion of each episode, its protagonist was invariably leaving town for another destination on a Greyhound Bus. My first experience of America in 1967 was also on a Greyhound Bus as I travelled from New York City to Bloomington to pursue post-graduate studies in the University of Indiana. To the best of my knowledge, I did not meet any fugitives on that bus but I do recall warm and engaging conversations with ordinary Americans as we shared that journey in a spirit of mutual openness, curiosity and friendship. There are few barriers in a Greyhound bus station.
During my time in Bloomington, I was the recipient of countless acts of hospitality as people invited me to their home for lunch or dinner – a modest student without any obvious prospects for future success, an object of curiosity rather than investment. More often than not, the music of Willie Nelson would be playing in the background. These gestures of openness and generosity to a young stranger made a deep impression on me at the time, have lived long in my memory and represent for me the best version of the United States of America. And again this week I have encountered that directness and candour which is one of the hallmarks of the United States, and it is at its best when expressed with the warmth and hospitality that my delegation and I have experienced this week.
The American Ireland Fund is a further exemplar of those values of openness, generosity and hospitality. You are recognised as one of the most dynamic and successful Diaspora and Philanthropic Organisations in the world. We are proud of the work you do and thank you for doing it. It is making a real difference to the lives of people on the ground, many of whom are still feeling the effects of the financial crisis which afflicted us in recent years. I want you to know that your work is deeply appreciated at home in Ireland. A new Ireland is being created, one that has learned from the aberrations of a decade of fictive rates rather than real growth. The new Ireland of which you are such a vital part will always have a welcome for you as the friends that helped make it possible.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh.