ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MARY ROBINSON AT BREAKFAST AT THE KENNEDY LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON
ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MARY ROBINSON AT BREAKFAST AT THE KENNEDY LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON, ON 11 MARCH 1994
I am delighted to have this opportunity of meeting with you this morning. I am indebted to Senator Edward Kennedy who very kindly hosted this function with the helpful support of John Cullinane. My pleasure in visiting Boston is always deepened by the generous hospitality of the Kennedy family and the warm welcome of the Irish American community here.
It is a great pleasure to be back at the JFK Library which I visited when I was last in Boston in October 1991. I am enormously impressed by the new Museum which gives visitors, especially those too young to remember the late President, an opportunity to experience at first hand the legacy of his life and leadership.
The Museum certainly succeeds in its aim of inspiring visitors with the vision of John F. Kennedy by allowing them to listen directly to the President's own words. It conveys the hope and vigour which he represented to a world going through dangerous times. It educates while entertaining and is a fitting memorial to a President who remains to this day, a hero for the people of Ireland as well as the United States.
It is particularly nice to come here in the run-up to St. Patrick's Day when the Irish American community swells to embrace everyone who is Irish not just in ancestry but in spirit. The celebrations, parades and festivities express a genuine fondness by America at large for the Irish that have come here over the centuries and made their own unique contribution. The Boston Irish in particular led the way in the advance of Irish America socially, economically and politically.
If America has a special place for the Irish, Ireland too has a particular affinity for America. While we are an ancient nation, we are like the United States, a young sovereign state. The American revolution, in which Boston played so crucial a role, profoundly affected the development of nationalism in Ireland, encouraging it to reconcile its traditions in the commonality of being Irish. It is a goal towards which we continue to work to this day.
And Ireland too has been a direct witness to the economic growth of America, a development in which Irish immigrants here played no small part. Many Irish Americans feature prominently as leaders of corporate America. Perhaps that itself is an indication of the loss of human talent we have sustained because of emigration.
But we Irish are nothing if not resilient. Ireland has grown and developed tremendously. This is particularly evident over the last number of years. As President, I was in some ways uniquely placed to witness the emergence of a new spirit in Ireland, a new vibrancy and determination. I could see it in the local communities where together they joined in cooperative efforts to develop new social and economic tools to tackle long standing problems. I am glad to say that Irish women - Mná na hÉireann - are playing a dynamic and emerging role in this self development, as well as participating increasingly at every level of our economic, political and cultural life.
We have seen the fruits of this new spirit in our cultural life too. Its vitality has touched anew Irish writing, theatre and most popularly film-making, adding much to the already rich trove of Irish art and literature.
In a very tangible way, America has helped Ireland develop economically. Today, there are some 400 U.S. companies, many of them from the Boston area, operating in Ireland, employing one in five of our manufacturing work-force and exporting over $12 bn. worth of goods to the rest of Europe. They have helped stimulate the local economy to supply their demand for materials, parts and services.
Of course, it would be nice to think that they are established in Ireland beguiled by Irish people and the country's stunning natural beauty. They would indeed be compelling reasons to live there. But American business was not made great by sentiment. The hard equation of economic success underlies their decision to establish firms in Ireland. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Ireland is the most profitable location in Europe in which to invest, the return being almost four times the E.U. average over the past ten years.
High-technology has been at the forefront of U.S. investment in Ireland. We are unique in having a Government backed National Software Directorate with specific responsibility for the development of the commercial software sector. Today, Ireland is a leading overseas location for software development with six of the ten leading international independent software companies, all American, established there. Our Industrial Development Authority has estimated that 40% of all personal computer software in Europe is produced in Ireland
Industries driven by knowledge and innovation such as software are equal opportunity employers, responding merely to the creativity and skills of its employees. I am deeply gratified that women have had an opportunity to shine in the emerging Irish software industry. Companies from the United States such as Travellers, Cigna, and Computer Associates, for example, appointed Irish women to run their data and software facilities in Ireland.
Ireland today is a significant world centre for software. International consultants have rated Ireland as the most attractive European location for software development. There are over 400 companies, 80 of which are from overseas, including many of the world's leading information technology companies. I was happy to see that John Cullinane, very much a doyen of software development, was rightly impressed with what he saw on a recent trip to Ireland.
Our success in development and marketing of software is but one aspect of the economic changes which Ireland has undergone of late. It is driven by the talent, education and ability of young Irish people to take on the challenging jobs that U.S. and other companies offer. I have immense confidence in this intelligent, creative and hard-working generation. They are shaping Ireland in their own image, melding the riches of their heritage with the new possibilities of today.
They have brought their talents to many places through-out the world. I have met them in Somalia and New Zealand, India and Hong Kong. Many have followed other generations of Irish emigrants and settled here in America. Later today, I will have an opportunity to meet the young Irish of Boston itself. Here they are inheritors of the great tradition of Irish America in which many of you share.
I am delighted to have this opportunity of meeting so many friends of Ireland here, in March, in this magnificent Library bearing the name of a family epitomizing the Irish triumph in America. I look forward to the possibility in the not too distant future of returning the warmth of your welcome in Ireland.
Thank you.