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Speech at a Lunch Hosted by the Galway Committee of Chicago Sister Cities International

Henri Restaurant, Chicago, 11th May 2014

A dhaoine uaisle, a chairde Gael agus a chairde d’Éireann.

Tá an-áthas orm bheith anseo libh inniu. Míle bhuíochas as an fáilte sin.

Mar Uachtarán na hÉireann, as President of Ireland, it is my great pleasure to be here, in the company of friends of Galway and friends from Galway.

Thank you to Bill Gainer, Chair of the Galway Committee of Chicago Sister Cities International, to Billy Lawless, Vice-Chair, and to all of the members of the Committee for inviting me to share lunch with you today.

As many of you here in the room will be aware, this event has a special significance for me. I have been fortunate enough to have spent the greater part of my adult life in Galway. I came to work in the E.S.B. in Newtownsmith in January 1960 and of course I studied and taught at UCG, now NUIG. I have had a long and fulfilling association with the city and the region, and most especially with the people of Galway, whom I was proud to represent as Mayor of the City on two occasions and for many years in Dáil Éireann.

Galway, on the banks of the Corrib and overlooking Galway Bay, and Chicago, with its network of rivers, canals and the expansive Lake Michigan, are warm, atmospheric and lively cities. Cities that share, not alone common Irish ancestry, but also deep bonds of friendship and great affinity.

While there have been Irish including Galwegians coming to Chicago since the 1830s, the connection between these two cities was further enhanced by the signature, in 1997, of the Sister Cities Agreement.

When I met with Mayor Rahm Emanuel at the beginning of this visit, he told me that of all the sister city relationships Chicago has around the world, the relationship with Galway is one of the strongest.

This bears testament to the hard work and dedication of all the committee members. Members of the ‘Spirit of Galway’ delegation too always speak fondly of the welcome they get in Chicago on their annual visit here.

The determination and commitment of the Galway Committee of Chicago Sister Cities International to foster cooperation and exchanges in the fields of culture and the arts, healthcare, government, community and philanthropy, epitomizes President Eisenhower’s vision, offered after World War II, of citizen diplomacy; a vision which he enunciated at the foundation of Sister Cities International in 1956.

Cultural exchanges act as a priceless bridge between cities and between people. Those of you who are familiar with Galway know it as a city of the arts and, each year, one festival succeeds another: from Cúirt, an international literary festival, to the Galway Film Festival, to the renowned Galway Arts Festival. I am delighted that this year the Festival is working with Chicago Northlight Theatre on the co-production of a new play, Chapatti, by Irish playwright Christian O’Reilly, featuring the acclaimed actor John Mahoney. Such cultural exchanges bring a great vibrancy and strong creative dynamic to the Sister Cities relationship.

In the area of healthcare, I understand that four physicians from Galway have travelled to Chicago thanks to grants from the Robert H. Lurie Cancer Research Centre at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital, working with the Chicago Sister Cities. Their discussions here on the most recent clinical and scientific advances in breast cancer research will be of direct support to their work with patients in Galway and beyond. This is a tangible, practical outcome for the people of our two sister cities.

I am particularly delighted that we are joined here today by members of the NUI Galway Chicago Alumni Association. NUI Galway maintains strong links with the city of Chicago and I understand that in recent years several students from the School of Political Science & Sociology have had the opportunity to come here and train as social workers amongst the elderly Irish community in Chicago, thanks to the support of the Chicago Immigrant Support Center.

The Irish immigrant forms an intrinsic part of the unique tapestry of the Chicago community and I am delighted that the sculpture of ‘Gráinne’ by Maurice Harron, depicting the Irish immigrant and donated by the City of Galway and the Galway Committee of Chicago Sister Cities International, stands in Chicago’s Heritage Park. The NUI Galway graduates here today are now making their own valuable contributions to the ever-evolving composition of the city, through their various spheres of activity.

Many of you in this room are regular visitors to Galway and I am aware that some of you have just returned from a visit, the high point of which was the official opening of the the Circle of Life National Organ Donor Commemorative Garden in Salthill, the initiative of Denis and Martina Goggins.

I wish to pay tribute to Denis and Martina who, from the tragedy of the loss of their only son Éamonn, have created something to inspire and give solace to both those who have been touched by tragedy and those who have benefited from the selflessness of others.

The location of the garden, overlooking Galway Bay, strikes me as most appropriate given Éamonn’s fondness for the Waterboys and their repertoire of songs, capturing the energy and vitality of the sea, a reflection perhaps of the life conferred through the generous act of organ donation.

I believe the development of the Garden was very much a transatlantic community effort, and so I wish to take this opportunity to acknowledge not just the generous financial contribution of the Galway Committee of Chicago Sister Cities International to the garden project, but also the personal commitment of its members.

I very much look forward to visiting the garden later this year.

Water is central to both the Chicago and Galway landscapes. In 2006 the Galway Committee hosted an exhibition of photos of Chicago entitled ‘A Spectacle of Urban Life at the Water’s Edge’ at the Galway City Museum, located at the point where the River Corrib flows into Galway Bay.

You will know from your visits that there is something special about Galway: not only is it a vibrant, cosmopolitan, scenic city of the arts, but like those of Chicago, its people are also warm and welcoming.

Again, may I commend the contribution of the Sister City agreement for inspiring so many Chicagoans to see Galway for themselves. As I said earlier the Galway-Chicago Sister Cities relationship displays the best of citizen diplomacy and is a model of US-Irish relations based on shared history, interpersonal links, mutual appreciation, and friendship.

I wish you continued success with the ongoing development and renewal of this transatlantic bond between the West of Ireland and the Midwest United States and congratulate you on all your achievements in your seventeen year history.

Comhghairdeachas libh go léir agus beir bua leis an obair.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh.