SPEAKER'S LUNCH:THERE WAS a "profound and enduring" relationship between Ireland and the US and St Patrick's Day was the occasion to celebrate and give thanks for it, President Barack Obama said on Capitol Hill yesterday.
Addressing the customary speaker’s lunch where Taoiseach Brian Cowen was guest of honour, he said it was “also a day to thank the Irish people for all that they’ve done for America”.
“Few nations so small have had such an enormous impact on another. They came to our shores in waves by choice as well as by necessity, building new lives even as they were building a new nation, enriching our heritage, enriching our culture in their own way.
“And in so doing, alongside so many others who sought a better life in America, they forged a better future for all of us.
“But the truth is they weren’t always welcomed. There were times where the Irish were caricatured and stereotyped and cursed at and blamed for society’s ills,” the president said at the lunch hosted by speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
Reminding his audience that the speaker’s lunch for the Irish head of government was originally initiated by the late speaker Tip O’Neill and president Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, Mr Obama said that, despite their political arguments and disagreements, the two men could be friends after six o’clock in the evening. “And I imagine they also made a midday exception for this luncheon every year.”
Noting good-humouredly that on St Patrick’s Day, some people invented Irish connections, he said: “I am pleased to say that I can actually get away with it, and I’ve got the Taoiseach here to vouch for me.
“Prime minister Cowen was born in County Offaly, and I can trace my ancestry on my mother’s side there as well. I believe it was my great-great-great-great-great grandfather. This is true. He was a boot-maker, if I’m not mistaken.” His Irish lineage had been discovered when he was running for the White House and Mr Obama quipped: “My first thought was, why didn’t anyone discover this when I was running for office in Chicago? I would have gotten here sooner.”
Paying tribute to the late senator Edward Kennedy, he said: “Today, of course, we all feel the heavy absence of one of our greatest Irish-Americans; a man who loved this day so much.” Ted Kennedy was “a believer in building consensus, in forging compromise”. In that context the president said he wanted to salute First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, present at the lunch, “for their outstanding leadership, their continuing example”.