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REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF THE CONFERRAL OF IRISH CITIZENSHIP

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF THE CONFERRAL OF IRISH CITIZENSHIP ON H.E. MRS. JEAN KENNEDY SMITH

For centuries, the United States and Ireland have been linked by the many Irish people who have settled and built communities across America - and in cities like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston - where strong and enduring familial bonds have been constructed by generations of Irish to help and sustain one another - and where they have vindicated that support by going on to major achievements in business and commerce in America. Today we take pride in the litany of Irish names among the galaxy of top performers in business and the professions - in public life and academia. The American Irish family has played a large part in the success that America is today – and that family has never turned its back on its homeland.

It is impossible to think of a city like Boston without thinking of the Kennedys – who gave the United States its famous 20th President, and a talented Attorney General – both of whom paid with their lives for their deep sense of civic service. Their brother Ted, a distinguished member of the United States Senate – and who is with us today - has been a very important friend to Ireland - and of course their sister Jean, whom we are honouring this morning – who has had a most successful tenure as US Ambassador – and has herself played a crucial role on behalf of the people and Government of the United States at this important time in our history.

I recall the late President Kennedy’s address to the Oireachtas during his visit to Ireland in 1963 – when he spoke about the “enduring links which have bound the Irish and the Americans since the earliest days” – and how “our two nations, divided by distance, have been united by history”. He spoke about Benjamin Franklin supporting Irish Freedom Fighters – about Washington’s influence on O‘Connell – about the role of Irish volunteers in the War of Independence – and about how Charles Stewart Parnell, in his address to the American Congress, spoke of the “many tokens of the good wishes of the American people towards Ireland”.

Those good wishes have been reflected in the many generations since Parnell’s time – and most recently by the personal interest of President Clinton – without whose exceptional encouragement and support, the process of peace, reconciliation and partnership on this island would not be possible. His good will towards Ireland was reflected in his decision to appoint Jean Kennedy Smith as Ambassador in 1993. Since then, she has devoted herself to her role with a fixedness of purpose and an energy which has helped us reshape our evolving history. She has been here through the hours of anxiety, and the times of hope – working tirelessly all the while to move from the dark days of frustration and despair - to these brighter days of hope that we are now enjoying. We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the American people for their support and assistance. And we look forward to a continuation of that encouragement in the months and years ahead - as we embark on a new direction with a new set of relationships - that will hopefully see us enter a new and peaceful phase in the history of this island.

That Jean is an exemplary and proud American is not in doubt. That she is an exemplary and proud member of the global Irish family is also not in doubt. In her life and work she has shown how one human heart is big enough to embrace a spectrum of identities – to show each facet loyalty and respect without taking away from one while giving to others. She has shown that generosity multiplies – it softens hearts grown cold – it creates space for hope - and seed-beds a future worth looking forward to. It is for these things we salute her – for her fidelity to the culture of hospitality which is the quintessential characteristic of the Irish. The culture of hostility we have known is not our essence – not our element. In Jean’s life and work we have seen the spirit of hospitality at its best – overcoming the most brutal personal tragedies – transcending the most strident and ignorant of cynics. She looks it all in the eye with equanimity – with grace and with faith. From the day we first encountered her we saw in her on indomitable Irish woman with a strong sense of shared vision for her native land, and the land of her ancestors. It is entirely fitting that we should complete the circle begun almost 150 years ago when Patrick Kennedy of New Ross sailed for the Unites States. To his children and grandchildren he handed a baton of love for Ireland. Today we are proud to hand his outstanding and distinguished descendant the highest accolade we can offer.

In conferring Irish citizenship on Jean Kennedy Smith, I would like to pay my own warm personal thanks to her for her work over the last five years as the representative of the President and people of the United States – and in reinforcing those “enduring links” that the late President Kennedy spoke about thirty five years ago. I would like to wish her well when she leaves her Dublin post in the near future - and I know that I speak for all Irish people in saying that while we will miss her dearly – we know that her deep and abiding affection for Ireland will be expressed in many different ways.

ENDS