Tuesday, May 24, 2011 10:06:40 AM
Before rapt crowds, Obama traces his Irish roots
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have a beer Monday with local residents at a pub in Moneygall, Ireland, the homeland of his great-great-great-grandfather.
[Associated Press]
New York Times
In Print: Tuesday, May 24, 2011
[Last modified: May 24, 2011 12:07 AM]
MONEYGALL, Ireland — President Barack Obama may not be related to everybody in this Irish hamlet of 300, which claims him as its native son. But Monday, Obama appeared determined to hug, kiss, shake hands or raise a glass with every last one of them.
In a jubilant visit that included a pint of Guinness at a local pub — the first lady, Michelle Obama, had a half-pint — Obama made a familiar pilgrimage for a U.S. president: going back to his Irish roots.
It was the emotional highlight of a 12-hour visit to Ireland by the president, as he kicks off a six-day tour of Europe that will also take him to Britain, France and Poland — and immerse him in thorny issues like the military campaign in Libya and upheaval elsewhere in the Arab world.
Obama's itinerary is already under threat from an ash cloud spewed by an erupting volcano in Iceland. To get ahead of the cloud, which is drifting over Scotland, the White House said the president would fly to London late Monday rather than stay overnight in Dublin.
But he did get a breather from geopolitics, delivering a speech at the historic College Green at Trinity College in Dublin that celebrated the enduring bond between the Irish and Americans, one unblemished by rifts over peace negotiations or counterterrorism policy.
"I'm Barack Obama, from the Moneygall Obamas," he said to a fired-up crowd of 25,000. "And I've come home to find the apostrophe that we lost somewhere along the way."
After poking fun at questions back home about where he was born, Obama told the story of his great-great-great-grandfather on his mother's side, Fulmouth Kearney, a shoemaker's son from Moneygall, who sailed for New York at the age of 19, later marrying a woman from Ohio.
For flesh-and-blood evidence, he was introduced to Henry Healy, a gangly man with pronounced ears who is said to be an eighth cousin of Obama. Healy has become something of a celebrity around town, earning the nickname Henry VIII.
Also, in a meeting with Prime Minister Enda Kenny, Obama voiced solidarity with Ireland as it struggles with the economic fallout caused by a collapsing real estate market and insolvent banks. "For the United States, Ireland carries a blood link," the president said.
© 2011 The New York Times Company
http://www.tampabay.com/incoming/before-rapt-crowds-obama-traces-his-irish-roots/1171420 [with comments]
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WHITE HOUSE NOTEBOOK: Obama slurps stout in ancestral Irish village and ‘The Beast’ is tamed
U.S. President Barack Obama drinks Guinness beer at Ollie Hayes pub in Moneygall, Ireland, the ancestral homeland of his great-great-great grandfather, Monday, May 23, 2011.
(AP Photo, Pool)
SHAWN POGATCHNIK
Associated Press
4:03 p.m. EDT, May 23, 2011
DUBLIN (AP) — Downing a Guinness is a rite of passage for any visitor to Ireland, but too often the VIPs, including some U.S. presidents, disappoint the Emerald Isle.
Not President Barack Obama. He may be criticized for taking too long to make up his mind at times, but he didn't hesitate Monday when offered a pint of the dark brew. Obama downed it in four slurps and won cheers across Ireland for it.
"The president actually killed his pint! He gets my vote," said Christy O'Sullivan, a government clerical worker who was taking a long lunch break to watch live TV coverage of Obama's visit to Moneygall, the tiny village where his maternal great-great-great grandfather lived and worked. "He's the first president I've actually seen drink the black stuff like he's not ashamed of something."
Previous American presidents didn't fare as well as Obama.
In 1984, Ronald Reagan rejected the Guinness and instead posed for photographers with a pint of Smithwicks, a locally brewed red ale. He didn't finish it.
In 2006, George W. Bush, a recovering alcoholic who drinks non-alcoholic beer, wasn't asked to pose with a pint of Guinness at all.
Many expected more from Bill Clinton, but ended up deeply disappointed. In 1995, Clinton stopped at a Dublin pub bearing his family's Irish name of Cassidy but barely sipped his stout. Aides said he didn't want to be photographed drinking anything alcoholic, but the resultant image was hardly an endorsement of the product. Clinton had abandoned his almost full half-pint.
But on Monday, an American president finally savored his pint the way a local expects. Audiences watching the moment — deliciously drawn out by Obama for close to a minute — shouted encouragement at their TVs and cheered as he took a hearty swallow and polished it off. Mrs. Obama drank her half-pint, then got behind the bar herself and pulled two pints.
Obama even ended up with a bit of a frosty moustache, another trademark of tackling a creamy-headed stout. He revealed to pub-goers that it wasn't his first pint in Ireland either and suspected that the Irish were holding back their best brew for themselves. He said he first drank stout when he flew into the airport in Shannon, Ireland, en route to Afghanistan.
"I tried one of these and I realized it tastes so much better here than it does in the states," he said. "What I realized was that you guys, you're keeping all the best stuff here. "
*
Obama's heavily armored limousine is known as "The Beast" and for good reason: It's designed to be as tough as a tank and about as heavy.
Too heavy, as it turned out, to drive out of the U.S. Embassy in Dublin without getting stuck. The ultra-modified Cadillac sedan, also dubbed Cadillac One, thudded to a hefty halt on an exit ramp as the president and first lady were leaving a lunch at the embassy.
Unable to budge a vehicle reputed to have 5-inch-thick armor, Secret Service agents drove a minivan in front of it to block the public's view. After about five minutes, Obama and Mrs. Obama were transferred to a backup sports utility vehicle to be driven to his helicopter, Marine One, for the flight to Moneygall.
*
Given a hurley stick after meeting with Ireland's prime minister, Obama immediately suggested one use unrelated to its place in the native Irish sport of hurling.
He bounced the flat-paddled, wooden club in his hands like a Louisville Slugger and suggested it might make a good weapon for spanking uncooperative representatives and senators.
"If Congress doesn't behave," he said, taking a playful swing with his new toy. "I'm going to give them the bat, a little hurl."
Prime Minister Enda Kenny and other Irish officials standing nearby just laughed.
Back home in Washington, Obama and a politically divided Congress are at odds on many issues, including spending cuts and immigration policy. Kenny said they discussed immigration during their meeting, including a recent speech by Obama on the issue.
There was no word on whether anyone in Ireland intended to give Obama a shillelagh, the traditional Irish club for doling out a proper bludgeoning.
*
The president wasn't the only Obama family member to receive a gift from Kenny.
Kenny said he also gave the president a first edition book on myths and legends of Hawaii for his daughters, Malia and Sasha, who did not accompany their parents to Europe. Kenny said the author is a children's literature professor at Trinity College. Obama was born in Hawaii.
"He produced three volumes of children's stories, which I presented ... not to the president, not to the first lady, but to his children, Malia and Sasha, stories of their daddy's birthplace," Kenny said.
Obama thanked Kenny for what he said was an extraordinary gift. "It just confirms that if you need somebody to do some good writing, you hire an Irishman," he said.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press
http://www.dailypress.com/news/national/sns-ap-eu-obama-pint-of-guinness-,0,3927963.story [no comments yet]
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The day O'bama stormed Moneygall
MIRIAM LORD in Moneygall
The Irish Times - Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Obama behaved like a man with all the time in the world – relaxed and at home with his people
IF HOME is where the heart is, then Barack Obama became a true son of Ireland yesterday. And we all walk a little taller today.
But none more so than the villagers of Moneygall, who welcomed the president of the United States to their tiny village in Co Offaly and fell head over heels for his irresistible charm.
It is a day they, and we, will never forget. Yet another day that will go down in song and story after a remarkable week of historic milestones for the country.
Did it also mark a turning point for the 44th American president? If so, that point can be traced precisely to Main Street, Moneygall.
Obama was a revelation: this guy who is not supposed to do sentimentality; who reputedly finds it difficult to jettison his bookish reserve and become “a man of the people”. It’s a desirable quality for a politician.
From the moment he stepped from his armoured Cadillac SUV, he had the air of a man who meant business. One side of the long street was lined with people, many with babies and young children, who had stood and waited for more than five hours in atrocious weather to see the president.
“They’re like emperor penguins huddling against the Antarctic winter,” remarked a man from Foreign Affairs.
But suddenly, the cold was forgotten. For finally, after all the planning and talking and hoping, Barack Obama had finally arrived in the village.
The cheers that greeted him shook the very summit of the Slieve Blooms. And then the sun came out.
The honoured guest was met by Henry Healy, his Irish cousin (eight times removed) and two magnificently bechained council leaders from Offaly and Tipperary.
The hug for young Henry was wide and warm and it set the tone for what was to come. After the pleasantries, Obama loped across to the swooning, screaming, singing crowd.
He plunged in – grabbing hands, grabbing babies, kissing babies; grabbing grannies, kissing grannies, getting kissed by grannies; hugging blushing farmers, embracing swooning teenagers and high-fiving simpering young fellas.
He posed for photographs, flashing that famous smile. Crowd-surfing toddlers were bumped over adult heads and into his hands.
He talked and he listened and he laughed. The delirious crowd broke into song.
“If you’re Irish, come into the parlour/There’s a welcome here for you/And if your name is Timmy or Barack/as long as you come from Ireland there’s a welcome on the mat . . .”
It was cruel weather for May. Obama may have lived in the Windy City but it had nothing on Moneygall yesterday afternoon, when a vicious and icy wind drove the rain in sheets down Main Street.
He didn’t appear to notice, despite the concerned looks of members of his entourage – a shivering scrum of slate grey suits and beige macs.
“I think he’ll be going for another while,” shouted one of them into his sodden shirt-cuff as Michelle Obama thrust a crying infant into her husband’s arms.
Gorgeous Michelle, smiling in a shimmeringly elegant silk coat which was absolutely soaked with rain.
The crowd sang again: “On the 23rd of May/Barack Obama arrives that day/To our little village home in Moneygall . . .”
Even the secret service agents were celebrities.
“Shake my hand! Shake my hand!” squealed teenage girls to the beefy minders as they padded past.
The White House press corps, who’ve seen it all, were beginning to take notice. “This rope walk is slower than usually. He would normally make it through one of these things pretty quickly.” But Barack was taking his time. There was no way this outing was going to take just the allocated 45 minutes.
A little girl held up a sign: “Did you bring Bo?” (The Obama family dog.) Then groans of disappointment from the rest of the line as the president went back across the road and into his ancestral home to meet the current occupants, the Donovan family. He stood in the doorway. “Michelle! Michelle!” And the missus tore herself away.
But he was quickly back, jogging up the street, working the crowd. It was pouring from the heavens. He wasn’t wearing a topcoat.
An anonymous figure in the crowd was Brian Cowen, the man who first invited Obama to Co Offaly. He stood quietly at the back of the cheering crowd as the president passed him by.
Just past the midway point, Obama drew level with Ollie Hayes’s pub (which is opposite Hayes pub, which is next to Hayes Bar). The crowd groaned again as he made for Ollie’s place.
The president turned at the door and waved a cupped hand under his mouth – the traditional sign that says “I’m going for a pint”. And a big farmers’ cheer went up, with hoots from the ladies.
Inside the cosy bar waited his extended family (many times removed). Generations of the Donovans, the Benns and the Healys waited nervously to greet Obama. He breezed in and put them at their ease.
Shouts to Michelle to get into the photograph. Hugs and kisses all round. He behaved like a man who had all the time in the world, relaxed and at home with his people.
Then came the big moment – the pulling of the pint. Would he or wouldn’t he? The smart money said the president would do a Queen Elizabeth and look but not taste.
Ollie Hayes gave it the big build up. Barack played along with gusto, asking serious questions about the perfect pint. Ollie, with a steady hand, put up a pint for the president and a glass for the first lady.
Frankie Gavin and the band burst into a rousing jig. The extended family, friends and media waited. Barack picked up his glass and Michelle raised hers.
They drank the Guinness.
“He gave that a right wallop,” said a local in the back bar, approvingly. “Sure he inhaled it!” said his companion.
“That’s good stuff. Delicious,” said the president.
Stuffy? Reserved? Awkward? Not this fella. He could have given lessons yesterday to Bill Clinton.
Back outside, the crowd waited for Barack’s return. Ten minutes later, still wearing their damp clothes, the presidential couple emerged and they worked their way right to the end of the line.
This was pure gold from Mr and Mrs President.
Finally, they took their leave, but they took their time. Obama, waving goodbye again and again and, just before his motorcade took off, he stood on the running board of the SUV, turned to the people and waved again.
What he left behind was like the aftermath of a benign whirlwind.
People excitedly discussing what happened. What he said to them, whom he kissed, what he said. Re-enactments of split- second encounters that will live forever in the memory.
“He held my hand, then he touched my hat, then he pulled me forward and kissed my cheek,” said Anne Maher, like she was describing the final chapter of a Mills and Boon novel.
Publican Ollie Hayes describing how Obama threw down a €50 note – “the president pays his bar tab” – and producing said note from his pocket. How the parish priest drank a pint pulled by Michelle and retired in triumph with the empty glass.
The family members in their finery, reliving the moments again and again for friends who couldn’t hear enough.
“He called me Sweetie,” said Margaret Gally, Henry’s auntie.
“I called to him ‘Bwana Uhuru’ and he came over and asked if I used to live in Kenya,” said local man Frank Heslin, who once worked in Tanzania.
Stories. Everyone had a story.
As Obama’s helicopter was landing in Dublin for phase two of this fantastic journey, Moneygall was calming down. But just a little.
The mist cleared and you could see the sheep again on Liar’s Hill above the town. People clustered around their phones and cameras to see their photos. “We’ll have to get them blown up.” There was a little queue in the Irish accordion shop to see the Sam Maguire and Liam McCarthy cups which had been on display during the visit.
Two gardaí, in their fluorescent jackets, posed with them, beaming. “One’s from Westmeath, the other from Wexford. Sure when will they ever get the chance again?” said an Offaly man.
And they queued up in the shop for ice-cream cones, happily licking their 99s, oblivious to the cold.
A perfect day.
The day O’bama came home to Ireland and a president found his heart again.
© 2011 irishtimes.com
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0524/1224297637954.html
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Remarks by the President at Irish Celebration in Dublin, Ireland
May 23, 2011
5:55 P.M. IST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you! (Applause.) Hello, Dublin! (Applause.) Hello, Ireland! (Applause.) My name is Barack Obama -- (applause -- of the Moneygall Obamas. (Applause.) And I've come home to find the apostrophe that we lost somewhere along the way. (Laughter and applause.)
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I've got it here!
THE PRESIDENT: Is that where it is? (Laughter.)
Some wise Irish man or woman once said that broken Irish is better than clever English. (Applause.) So here goes: Tá áthas orm bheith in Éirinn -- I am happy to be in Ireland! (Applause.) I'm happy to be with so many á cairde. (Applause.)
I want to thank my extraordinary hosts -- first of all, Taoiseach Kenny -- (applause) -- his lovely wife, Fionnuala -- (applause) -- President McAleese and her husband, Martin -- (applause) -- for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you, Lord Mayor Gerry Breen and the Gardai for allowing me to crash this celebration. (Applause.)
Let me also express my condolences on the recent passing of former Taoiseach Garrett Fitzgerald -- (applause) -- someone who believed in the power of education, someone who believed in the potential of youth, most of all, someone who believed in the potential of peace and who lived to see that peace realized.
And most of all, thank you to the citizens of Dublin and the people of Ireland for the warm and generous hospitality you’ve shown me and Michelle. (Applause.) It certainly feels like 100,000 welcomes. (Applause.) We feel very much at home. I feel even more at home after that pint that I had. (Laughter.) Feel even warmer. (Laughter.)
In return let me offer the hearty greetings of tens of millions of Irish Americans who proudly trace their heritage to this small island. (Applause.) They say hello.
Now, I knew that I had some roots across the Atlantic, but until recently I could not unequivocally claim that I was one of those Irish Americans. But now if you believe the Corrigan Brothers, there’s no one more Irish than me. (Laughter and applause.)
So I want to thank the genealogists who traced my family tree.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: -- right here!
THE PRESIDENT: Right here? Thank you. (Applause.) It turns out that people take a lot of interest in you when you're running for President. (Laughter.) They look into your past. They check out your place of birth. (Laughter.) Things like that. (Laughter.) Now, I do wish somebody had provided me all this evidence earlier because it would have come in handy back when I was first running in my hometown of Chicago -- (applause) -- because Chicago is the Irish capital of the Midwest. (Applause.) A city where it was once said you could stand on 79th Street and hear the brogue of every county in Ireland. (Applause.)
So naturally a politician like me craved a slot in the St. Patrick’s Day parade. The problem was not many people knew me or could even pronounce my name. I told them it was a Gaelic name. They didn’t believe me. (Laughter.)
So one year a few volunteers and I did make it into the parade, but we were literally the last marchers. After two hours, finally it was our turn. And while we rode the route and we smiled and we waved, the city workers were right behind us cleaning up the garbage. (Laughter.) It was a little depressing. But I’ll bet those parade organizers are watching TV today and feeling kind of bad -- (applause) -- because this is a pretty good parade right here. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Go Bulls!
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Go Bulls -- I like that. (Laughter.) We got some Bulls fans here.
Now, of course, an American doesn’t really require Irish blood to understand that ours is a proud, enduring, centuries-old relationship; that we are bound by history and friendship and shared values. And that’s why I’ve come here today, as an American President, to reaffirm those bonds of affection. (Applause.)
Earlier today Michelle and I visited Moneygall where we saw my ancestral home and dropped by the local pub. (Applause.) And we received a very warm welcome from all the people there, including my long-lost eighth cousin, Henry. (Laughter.) Henry now is affectionately known as Henry VIII. (Laughter.) And it was remarkable to see the small town where a young shoemaker named Falmouth Kearney, my great-great-great grandfather, my grandfather’s grandfather, lived his early life. And I was the shown the records from the parish recording his birth. And we saw the home where he lived.
And he left during the Great Hunger, as so many Irish did, to seek a new life in the New World. He traveled by ship to New York, where he entered himself into the records as a laborer. He married an American girl from Ohio. They settled in the Midwest. They started a family.
It’s a familiar story because it’s one lived and cherished by Americans of all backgrounds. It’s integral to our national identity. It’s who we are, a nation of immigrants from all around the world.
But standing there in Moneygall, I couldn’t help but think how heartbreaking it must have been for that great-great-great grandfather of mine, and so many others, to part. To watch Donegal coasts and Dingle cliffs recede. To leave behind all they knew in hopes that something better lay over the horizon.
When people like Falmouth boarded those ships, they often did so with no family, no friends, no money, nothing to sustain their journey but faith -- faith in the Almighty; faith in the idea of America; faith that it was a place where you could be prosperous, you could be free, you could think and talk and worship as you pleased, a place where you could make it if you tried.
And as they worked and struggled and sacrificed and sometimes experienced great discrimination, to build that better life for the next generation, they passed on that faith to their children and to their children’s children -- an inheritance that their great-great-great grandchildren like me still carry with them. We call it the America Dream. (Applause.)
It’s the dream that Falmouth Kearney was attracted to when he went to America. It’s the dream that drew my own father to America from a small village in Africa. It’s a dream that we’ve carried forward -- sometimes through stormy waters, sometimes at great cost -- for more than two centuries. And for my own sake, I’m grateful they made those journeys because if they hadn’t you’d be listening to somebody else speak right now. (Laughter.)
And for America’s sake, we’re grateful so many others from this land took that chance, as well. After all, never has a nation so small inspired so much in another. (Applause.)
Irish signatures are on our founding documents. Irish blood was spilled on our battlefields. Irish sweat built our great cities. Our spirit is eternally refreshed by Irish story and Irish song; our public life by the humor and heart and dedication of servants with names like Kennedy and Reagan, O’Neill and Moynihan. So you could say there’s always been a little green behind the red, white and blue. (Applause.)
When the father of our country, George Washington, needed an army, it was the fierce fighting of your sons that caused the British official to lament, “We have lost America through the Irish.” (Applause.) And as George Washington said himself, “When our friendless standards were first unfurled, who were the strangers who first mustered around our staff? And when it reeled in the light, who more brilliantly sustained it than Erin’s generous sons?”
When we strove to blot out the stain of slavery and advance the rights of man, we found common cause with your struggles against oppression. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and our great abolitionist, forged an unlikely friendship right here in Dublin with your great liberator, Daniel O’Connell. (Applause.) His time here, Frederick Douglass said, defined him not as a color but as a man. And it strengthened the non-violent campaign he would return home to wage.
Recently, some of their descendents met here in Dublin to commemorate and continue that friendship between Douglass and O’Connell.
When Abraham Lincoln struggled to preserve our young union, more than 100,000 Irish and Irish Americans joined the cause, with units like the Irish Brigade charging into battle -- green flags with gold harp waving alongside our star-spangled banner.
When depression gripped America, Ireland sent tens of thousands of packages of shamrocks to cheer up its countrymen, saying, “May the message of Erin shamrocks bring joy to those away.”
And when an Iron Curtain fell across this continent and our way of life was challenged, it was our first Irish President -- our first Catholic President, John F. Kennedy, who made us believe 50 years ago this week -- (applause) -- that mankind could do something big and bold and ambitious as walk on the moon. He made us dream again.
That is the story of America and Ireland. That’s the tale of our brawn and our blood, side by side, in making and remaking a nation, pulling it westward, pulling it skyward, moving it forward again and again and again. And that is our task again today.
I think we all realize that both of our nations have faced great trials in recent years, including recessions so severe that many of our people are still trying to fight their way out. And naturally our concern turns to our families, our friends and our neighbors. And some in this enormous audience are thinking about their own prospects and their own futures. Those of us who are parents wonder what it will mean for our children and young people like so many who are here today. Will you see the same progress we’ve seen since we were your age? Will you inherit futures as big and as bright as the ones that we inherited? Will your dreams remain alive in our time?
This nation has faced those questions before: When your land couldn’t feed those who tilled it; when the boats leaving these shores held some of your brightest minds; when brother fought against brother. Yours is a history frequently marked by the greatest of trials and the deepest of sorrow. But yours is also a history of proud and defiant endurance. Of a nation that kept alive the flame of knowledge in dark ages; that overcame occupation and outlived fallow fields; that triumphed over its Troubles –- of a resilient people who beat all the odds. (Applause.)
And, Ireland, as trying as these times are, I know our future is still as big and as bright as our children expect it to be. (Applause.) I know that because I know it is precisely in times like these –- in times of great challenge, in times of great change -– when we remember who we truly are. We’re people, the Irish and Americans, who never stop imagining a brighter future, even in bitter times. We’re people who make that future happen through hard work, and through sacrifice, through investing in those things that matter most, like family and community.
We remember, in the words made famous by one of your greatest poets that “in dreams begins responsibility.”
This is a nation that met that responsibility by choosing, like your ancestors did, to keep alight the flame of knowledge and invest in a world-class education for your young people. And today, Ireland’s youth, and those who’ve come back to build a new Ireland, are now among the best-educated, most entrepreneurial in the world. And I see those young people here today. And I know that Ireland will succeed. (Applause.)
This is a nation that met its responsibilities by choosing to apply the lessons of your own past to assume a heavier burden of responsibility on the world stage. And today, a people who once knew the pain of an empty stomach now feed those who hunger abroad. Ireland is working hand in hand with the United States to make sure that hungry mouths are fed around the world -- because we remember those times. We know what crippling poverty can be like, and we want to make sure we’re helping others.
You’re a people who modernized and can now stand up for those who can’t yet stand up for themselves. And this is a nation that met its responsibilities -– and inspired the entire world -– by choosing to see past the scars of violence and mistrust to forge a lasting peace on this island.
When President Clinton said on this very spot 15 years ago, waging peace is risky, I think those who were involved understood the risks they were taking. But you, the Irish people, persevered. And you cast your votes and you made your voices heard for that peace. (Applause.) And you responded heroically when it was challenged. And you did it because, as President McAleese has written, “For all the apparent intractability of our problems, the irrepressible human impulse to love kept nagging and nudging us towards reconciliation.”
Whenever peace is challenged, you will have to sustain that irrepressible impulse. And America will stand by you -- always. (Applause.) America will stand by you always in your pursuit of peace. (Applause.)
And, Ireland, you need to understand that you’ve already so surpassed the world’s highest hopes that what was notable about the Northern Ireland elections two weeks ago was that they came and went without much attention. It’s not because the world has forgotten. It’s because this once unlikely dream has become that most extraordinary thing of things: It has become real. A dream has turned to reality because of the work of this nation. (Applause.)
In dreams begin responsibility. And embracing that responsibility, working toward it, overcoming the cynics and the naysayers and those who say “you can’t” -- that’s what makes dreams real. That’s what Falmouth Kearney did when he got on that boat, and that’s what so many generations of Irish men and women have done here in this spectacular country. That is something we can point to and show our children, Irish and American alike. That is something we can teach them as they grow up together in a new century, side by side, as it has been since our beginnings.
This little country, that inspires the biggest things -- your best days are still ahead. (Applause.) Our greatest triumphs -- in America and Ireland alike -- are still to come. And, Ireland, if anyone ever says otherwise, if anybody ever tells you that your problems are too big, or your challenges are too great, that we can’t do something, that we shouldn’t even try -- think about all that we’ve done together. Remember that whatever hardships the winter may bring, springtime is always just around the corner. And if they keep on arguing with you, just respond with a simple creed: Is féidir linn. Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Is féidir linn. (Applause.)
For all you’ve contributed to the character of the United States of America and the spirit of the world, thank you. And may God bless the eternal friendship between our two great nations.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you, Dublin. Thank you, Ireland. (Applause.)
END 6:18 P.M. IST
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/23/remarks-president-irish-celebration-dublin-ireland
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President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have a beer Monday with local residents at a pub in Moneygall, Ireland, the homeland of his great-great-great-grandfather.
[Associated Press]
New York Times
In Print: Tuesday, May 24, 2011
[Last modified: May 24, 2011 12:07 AM]
MONEYGALL, Ireland — President Barack Obama may not be related to everybody in this Irish hamlet of 300, which claims him as its native son. But Monday, Obama appeared determined to hug, kiss, shake hands or raise a glass with every last one of them.
In a jubilant visit that included a pint of Guinness at a local pub — the first lady, Michelle Obama, had a half-pint — Obama made a familiar pilgrimage for a U.S. president: going back to his Irish roots.
It was the emotional highlight of a 12-hour visit to Ireland by the president, as he kicks off a six-day tour of Europe that will also take him to Britain, France and Poland — and immerse him in thorny issues like the military campaign in Libya and upheaval elsewhere in the Arab world.
Obama's itinerary is already under threat from an ash cloud spewed by an erupting volcano in Iceland. To get ahead of the cloud, which is drifting over Scotland, the White House said the president would fly to London late Monday rather than stay overnight in Dublin.
But he did get a breather from geopolitics, delivering a speech at the historic College Green at Trinity College in Dublin that celebrated the enduring bond between the Irish and Americans, one unblemished by rifts over peace negotiations or counterterrorism policy.
"I'm Barack Obama, from the Moneygall Obamas," he said to a fired-up crowd of 25,000. "And I've come home to find the apostrophe that we lost somewhere along the way."
After poking fun at questions back home about where he was born, Obama told the story of his great-great-great-grandfather on his mother's side, Fulmouth Kearney, a shoemaker's son from Moneygall, who sailed for New York at the age of 19, later marrying a woman from Ohio.
For flesh-and-blood evidence, he was introduced to Henry Healy, a gangly man with pronounced ears who is said to be an eighth cousin of Obama. Healy has become something of a celebrity around town, earning the nickname Henry VIII.
Also, in a meeting with Prime Minister Enda Kenny, Obama voiced solidarity with Ireland as it struggles with the economic fallout caused by a collapsing real estate market and insolvent banks. "For the United States, Ireland carries a blood link," the president said.
© 2011 The New York Times Company
http://www.tampabay.com/incoming/before-rapt-crowds-obama-traces-his-irish-roots/1171420 [with comments]
===
WHITE HOUSE NOTEBOOK: Obama slurps stout in ancestral Irish village and ‘The Beast’ is tamed
U.S. President Barack Obama drinks Guinness beer at Ollie Hayes pub in Moneygall, Ireland, the ancestral homeland of his great-great-great grandfather, Monday, May 23, 2011.
(AP Photo, Pool)
SHAWN POGATCHNIK
Associated Press
4:03 p.m. EDT, May 23, 2011
DUBLIN (AP) — Downing a Guinness is a rite of passage for any visitor to Ireland, but too often the VIPs, including some U.S. presidents, disappoint the Emerald Isle.
Not President Barack Obama. He may be criticized for taking too long to make up his mind at times, but he didn't hesitate Monday when offered a pint of the dark brew. Obama downed it in four slurps and won cheers across Ireland for it.
"The president actually killed his pint! He gets my vote," said Christy O'Sullivan, a government clerical worker who was taking a long lunch break to watch live TV coverage of Obama's visit to Moneygall, the tiny village where his maternal great-great-great grandfather lived and worked. "He's the first president I've actually seen drink the black stuff like he's not ashamed of something."
Previous American presidents didn't fare as well as Obama.
In 1984, Ronald Reagan rejected the Guinness and instead posed for photographers with a pint of Smithwicks, a locally brewed red ale. He didn't finish it.
In 2006, George W. Bush, a recovering alcoholic who drinks non-alcoholic beer, wasn't asked to pose with a pint of Guinness at all.
Many expected more from Bill Clinton, but ended up deeply disappointed. In 1995, Clinton stopped at a Dublin pub bearing his family's Irish name of Cassidy but barely sipped his stout. Aides said he didn't want to be photographed drinking anything alcoholic, but the resultant image was hardly an endorsement of the product. Clinton had abandoned his almost full half-pint.
But on Monday, an American president finally savored his pint the way a local expects. Audiences watching the moment — deliciously drawn out by Obama for close to a minute — shouted encouragement at their TVs and cheered as he took a hearty swallow and polished it off. Mrs. Obama drank her half-pint, then got behind the bar herself and pulled two pints.
Obama even ended up with a bit of a frosty moustache, another trademark of tackling a creamy-headed stout. He revealed to pub-goers that it wasn't his first pint in Ireland either and suspected that the Irish were holding back their best brew for themselves. He said he first drank stout when he flew into the airport in Shannon, Ireland, en route to Afghanistan.
"I tried one of these and I realized it tastes so much better here than it does in the states," he said. "What I realized was that you guys, you're keeping all the best stuff here. "
*
Obama's heavily armored limousine is known as "The Beast" and for good reason: It's designed to be as tough as a tank and about as heavy.
Too heavy, as it turned out, to drive out of the U.S. Embassy in Dublin without getting stuck. The ultra-modified Cadillac sedan, also dubbed Cadillac One, thudded to a hefty halt on an exit ramp as the president and first lady were leaving a lunch at the embassy.
Unable to budge a vehicle reputed to have 5-inch-thick armor, Secret Service agents drove a minivan in front of it to block the public's view. After about five minutes, Obama and Mrs. Obama were transferred to a backup sports utility vehicle to be driven to his helicopter, Marine One, for the flight to Moneygall.
*
Given a hurley stick after meeting with Ireland's prime minister, Obama immediately suggested one use unrelated to its place in the native Irish sport of hurling.
He bounced the flat-paddled, wooden club in his hands like a Louisville Slugger and suggested it might make a good weapon for spanking uncooperative representatives and senators.
"If Congress doesn't behave," he said, taking a playful swing with his new toy. "I'm going to give them the bat, a little hurl."
Prime Minister Enda Kenny and other Irish officials standing nearby just laughed.
Back home in Washington, Obama and a politically divided Congress are at odds on many issues, including spending cuts and immigration policy. Kenny said they discussed immigration during their meeting, including a recent speech by Obama on the issue.
There was no word on whether anyone in Ireland intended to give Obama a shillelagh, the traditional Irish club for doling out a proper bludgeoning.
*
The president wasn't the only Obama family member to receive a gift from Kenny.
Kenny said he also gave the president a first edition book on myths and legends of Hawaii for his daughters, Malia and Sasha, who did not accompany their parents to Europe. Kenny said the author is a children's literature professor at Trinity College. Obama was born in Hawaii.
"He produced three volumes of children's stories, which I presented ... not to the president, not to the first lady, but to his children, Malia and Sasha, stories of their daddy's birthplace," Kenny said.
Obama thanked Kenny for what he said was an extraordinary gift. "It just confirms that if you need somebody to do some good writing, you hire an Irishman," he said.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press
http://www.dailypress.com/news/national/sns-ap-eu-obama-pint-of-guinness-,0,3927963.story [no comments yet]
===
The day O'bama stormed Moneygall
MIRIAM LORD in Moneygall
The Irish Times - Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Obama behaved like a man with all the time in the world – relaxed and at home with his people
IF HOME is where the heart is, then Barack Obama became a true son of Ireland yesterday. And we all walk a little taller today.
But none more so than the villagers of Moneygall, who welcomed the president of the United States to their tiny village in Co Offaly and fell head over heels for his irresistible charm.
It is a day they, and we, will never forget. Yet another day that will go down in song and story after a remarkable week of historic milestones for the country.
Did it also mark a turning point for the 44th American president? If so, that point can be traced precisely to Main Street, Moneygall.
Obama was a revelation: this guy who is not supposed to do sentimentality; who reputedly finds it difficult to jettison his bookish reserve and become “a man of the people”. It’s a desirable quality for a politician.
From the moment he stepped from his armoured Cadillac SUV, he had the air of a man who meant business. One side of the long street was lined with people, many with babies and young children, who had stood and waited for more than five hours in atrocious weather to see the president.
“They’re like emperor penguins huddling against the Antarctic winter,” remarked a man from Foreign Affairs.
But suddenly, the cold was forgotten. For finally, after all the planning and talking and hoping, Barack Obama had finally arrived in the village.
The cheers that greeted him shook the very summit of the Slieve Blooms. And then the sun came out.
The honoured guest was met by Henry Healy, his Irish cousin (eight times removed) and two magnificently bechained council leaders from Offaly and Tipperary.
The hug for young Henry was wide and warm and it set the tone for what was to come. After the pleasantries, Obama loped across to the swooning, screaming, singing crowd.
He plunged in – grabbing hands, grabbing babies, kissing babies; grabbing grannies, kissing grannies, getting kissed by grannies; hugging blushing farmers, embracing swooning teenagers and high-fiving simpering young fellas.
He posed for photographs, flashing that famous smile. Crowd-surfing toddlers were bumped over adult heads and into his hands.
He talked and he listened and he laughed. The delirious crowd broke into song.
“If you’re Irish, come into the parlour/There’s a welcome here for you/And if your name is Timmy or Barack/as long as you come from Ireland there’s a welcome on the mat . . .”
It was cruel weather for May. Obama may have lived in the Windy City but it had nothing on Moneygall yesterday afternoon, when a vicious and icy wind drove the rain in sheets down Main Street.
He didn’t appear to notice, despite the concerned looks of members of his entourage – a shivering scrum of slate grey suits and beige macs.
“I think he’ll be going for another while,” shouted one of them into his sodden shirt-cuff as Michelle Obama thrust a crying infant into her husband’s arms.
Gorgeous Michelle, smiling in a shimmeringly elegant silk coat which was absolutely soaked with rain.
The crowd sang again: “On the 23rd of May/Barack Obama arrives that day/To our little village home in Moneygall . . .”
Even the secret service agents were celebrities.
“Shake my hand! Shake my hand!” squealed teenage girls to the beefy minders as they padded past.
The White House press corps, who’ve seen it all, were beginning to take notice. “This rope walk is slower than usually. He would normally make it through one of these things pretty quickly.” But Barack was taking his time. There was no way this outing was going to take just the allocated 45 minutes.
A little girl held up a sign: “Did you bring Bo?” (The Obama family dog.) Then groans of disappointment from the rest of the line as the president went back across the road and into his ancestral home to meet the current occupants, the Donovan family. He stood in the doorway. “Michelle! Michelle!” And the missus tore herself away.
But he was quickly back, jogging up the street, working the crowd. It was pouring from the heavens. He wasn’t wearing a topcoat.
An anonymous figure in the crowd was Brian Cowen, the man who first invited Obama to Co Offaly. He stood quietly at the back of the cheering crowd as the president passed him by.
Just past the midway point, Obama drew level with Ollie Hayes’s pub (which is opposite Hayes pub, which is next to Hayes Bar). The crowd groaned again as he made for Ollie’s place.
The president turned at the door and waved a cupped hand under his mouth – the traditional sign that says “I’m going for a pint”. And a big farmers’ cheer went up, with hoots from the ladies.
Inside the cosy bar waited his extended family (many times removed). Generations of the Donovans, the Benns and the Healys waited nervously to greet Obama. He breezed in and put them at their ease.
Shouts to Michelle to get into the photograph. Hugs and kisses all round. He behaved like a man who had all the time in the world, relaxed and at home with his people.
Then came the big moment – the pulling of the pint. Would he or wouldn’t he? The smart money said the president would do a Queen Elizabeth and look but not taste.
Ollie Hayes gave it the big build up. Barack played along with gusto, asking serious questions about the perfect pint. Ollie, with a steady hand, put up a pint for the president and a glass for the first lady.
Frankie Gavin and the band burst into a rousing jig. The extended family, friends and media waited. Barack picked up his glass and Michelle raised hers.
They drank the Guinness.
“He gave that a right wallop,” said a local in the back bar, approvingly. “Sure he inhaled it!” said his companion.
“That’s good stuff. Delicious,” said the president.
Stuffy? Reserved? Awkward? Not this fella. He could have given lessons yesterday to Bill Clinton.
Back outside, the crowd waited for Barack’s return. Ten minutes later, still wearing their damp clothes, the presidential couple emerged and they worked their way right to the end of the line.
This was pure gold from Mr and Mrs President.
Finally, they took their leave, but they took their time. Obama, waving goodbye again and again and, just before his motorcade took off, he stood on the running board of the SUV, turned to the people and waved again.
What he left behind was like the aftermath of a benign whirlwind.
People excitedly discussing what happened. What he said to them, whom he kissed, what he said. Re-enactments of split- second encounters that will live forever in the memory.
“He held my hand, then he touched my hat, then he pulled me forward and kissed my cheek,” said Anne Maher, like she was describing the final chapter of a Mills and Boon novel.
Publican Ollie Hayes describing how Obama threw down a €50 note – “the president pays his bar tab” – and producing said note from his pocket. How the parish priest drank a pint pulled by Michelle and retired in triumph with the empty glass.
The family members in their finery, reliving the moments again and again for friends who couldn’t hear enough.
“He called me Sweetie,” said Margaret Gally, Henry’s auntie.
“I called to him ‘Bwana Uhuru’ and he came over and asked if I used to live in Kenya,” said local man Frank Heslin, who once worked in Tanzania.
Stories. Everyone had a story.
As Obama’s helicopter was landing in Dublin for phase two of this fantastic journey, Moneygall was calming down. But just a little.
The mist cleared and you could see the sheep again on Liar’s Hill above the town. People clustered around their phones and cameras to see their photos. “We’ll have to get them blown up.” There was a little queue in the Irish accordion shop to see the Sam Maguire and Liam McCarthy cups which had been on display during the visit.
Two gardaí, in their fluorescent jackets, posed with them, beaming. “One’s from Westmeath, the other from Wexford. Sure when will they ever get the chance again?” said an Offaly man.
And they queued up in the shop for ice-cream cones, happily licking their 99s, oblivious to the cold.
A perfect day.
The day O’bama came home to Ireland and a president found his heart again.
© 2011 irishtimes.com
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0524/1224297637954.html
===
Remarks by the President at Irish Celebration in Dublin, Ireland
May 23, 2011
5:55 P.M. IST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you! (Applause.) Hello, Dublin! (Applause.) Hello, Ireland! (Applause.) My name is Barack Obama -- (applause -- of the Moneygall Obamas. (Applause.) And I've come home to find the apostrophe that we lost somewhere along the way. (Laughter and applause.)
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I've got it here!
THE PRESIDENT: Is that where it is? (Laughter.)
Some wise Irish man or woman once said that broken Irish is better than clever English. (Applause.) So here goes: Tá áthas orm bheith in Éirinn -- I am happy to be in Ireland! (Applause.) I'm happy to be with so many á cairde. (Applause.)
I want to thank my extraordinary hosts -- first of all, Taoiseach Kenny -- (applause) -- his lovely wife, Fionnuala -- (applause) -- President McAleese and her husband, Martin -- (applause) -- for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you, Lord Mayor Gerry Breen and the Gardai for allowing me to crash this celebration. (Applause.)
Let me also express my condolences on the recent passing of former Taoiseach Garrett Fitzgerald -- (applause) -- someone who believed in the power of education, someone who believed in the potential of youth, most of all, someone who believed in the potential of peace and who lived to see that peace realized.
And most of all, thank you to the citizens of Dublin and the people of Ireland for the warm and generous hospitality you’ve shown me and Michelle. (Applause.) It certainly feels like 100,000 welcomes. (Applause.) We feel very much at home. I feel even more at home after that pint that I had. (Laughter.) Feel even warmer. (Laughter.)
In return let me offer the hearty greetings of tens of millions of Irish Americans who proudly trace their heritage to this small island. (Applause.) They say hello.
Now, I knew that I had some roots across the Atlantic, but until recently I could not unequivocally claim that I was one of those Irish Americans. But now if you believe the Corrigan Brothers, there’s no one more Irish than me. (Laughter and applause.)
So I want to thank the genealogists who traced my family tree.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: -- right here!
THE PRESIDENT: Right here? Thank you. (Applause.) It turns out that people take a lot of interest in you when you're running for President. (Laughter.) They look into your past. They check out your place of birth. (Laughter.) Things like that. (Laughter.) Now, I do wish somebody had provided me all this evidence earlier because it would have come in handy back when I was first running in my hometown of Chicago -- (applause) -- because Chicago is the Irish capital of the Midwest. (Applause.) A city where it was once said you could stand on 79th Street and hear the brogue of every county in Ireland. (Applause.)
So naturally a politician like me craved a slot in the St. Patrick’s Day parade. The problem was not many people knew me or could even pronounce my name. I told them it was a Gaelic name. They didn’t believe me. (Laughter.)
So one year a few volunteers and I did make it into the parade, but we were literally the last marchers. After two hours, finally it was our turn. And while we rode the route and we smiled and we waved, the city workers were right behind us cleaning up the garbage. (Laughter.) It was a little depressing. But I’ll bet those parade organizers are watching TV today and feeling kind of bad -- (applause) -- because this is a pretty good parade right here. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Go Bulls!
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Go Bulls -- I like that. (Laughter.) We got some Bulls fans here.
Now, of course, an American doesn’t really require Irish blood to understand that ours is a proud, enduring, centuries-old relationship; that we are bound by history and friendship and shared values. And that’s why I’ve come here today, as an American President, to reaffirm those bonds of affection. (Applause.)
Earlier today Michelle and I visited Moneygall where we saw my ancestral home and dropped by the local pub. (Applause.) And we received a very warm welcome from all the people there, including my long-lost eighth cousin, Henry. (Laughter.) Henry now is affectionately known as Henry VIII. (Laughter.) And it was remarkable to see the small town where a young shoemaker named Falmouth Kearney, my great-great-great grandfather, my grandfather’s grandfather, lived his early life. And I was the shown the records from the parish recording his birth. And we saw the home where he lived.
And he left during the Great Hunger, as so many Irish did, to seek a new life in the New World. He traveled by ship to New York, where he entered himself into the records as a laborer. He married an American girl from Ohio. They settled in the Midwest. They started a family.
It’s a familiar story because it’s one lived and cherished by Americans of all backgrounds. It’s integral to our national identity. It’s who we are, a nation of immigrants from all around the world.
But standing there in Moneygall, I couldn’t help but think how heartbreaking it must have been for that great-great-great grandfather of mine, and so many others, to part. To watch Donegal coasts and Dingle cliffs recede. To leave behind all they knew in hopes that something better lay over the horizon.
When people like Falmouth boarded those ships, they often did so with no family, no friends, no money, nothing to sustain their journey but faith -- faith in the Almighty; faith in the idea of America; faith that it was a place where you could be prosperous, you could be free, you could think and talk and worship as you pleased, a place where you could make it if you tried.
And as they worked and struggled and sacrificed and sometimes experienced great discrimination, to build that better life for the next generation, they passed on that faith to their children and to their children’s children -- an inheritance that their great-great-great grandchildren like me still carry with them. We call it the America Dream. (Applause.)
It’s the dream that Falmouth Kearney was attracted to when he went to America. It’s the dream that drew my own father to America from a small village in Africa. It’s a dream that we’ve carried forward -- sometimes through stormy waters, sometimes at great cost -- for more than two centuries. And for my own sake, I’m grateful they made those journeys because if they hadn’t you’d be listening to somebody else speak right now. (Laughter.)
And for America’s sake, we’re grateful so many others from this land took that chance, as well. After all, never has a nation so small inspired so much in another. (Applause.)
Irish signatures are on our founding documents. Irish blood was spilled on our battlefields. Irish sweat built our great cities. Our spirit is eternally refreshed by Irish story and Irish song; our public life by the humor and heart and dedication of servants with names like Kennedy and Reagan, O’Neill and Moynihan. So you could say there’s always been a little green behind the red, white and blue. (Applause.)
When the father of our country, George Washington, needed an army, it was the fierce fighting of your sons that caused the British official to lament, “We have lost America through the Irish.” (Applause.) And as George Washington said himself, “When our friendless standards were first unfurled, who were the strangers who first mustered around our staff? And when it reeled in the light, who more brilliantly sustained it than Erin’s generous sons?”
When we strove to blot out the stain of slavery and advance the rights of man, we found common cause with your struggles against oppression. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and our great abolitionist, forged an unlikely friendship right here in Dublin with your great liberator, Daniel O’Connell. (Applause.) His time here, Frederick Douglass said, defined him not as a color but as a man. And it strengthened the non-violent campaign he would return home to wage.
Recently, some of their descendents met here in Dublin to commemorate and continue that friendship between Douglass and O’Connell.
When Abraham Lincoln struggled to preserve our young union, more than 100,000 Irish and Irish Americans joined the cause, with units like the Irish Brigade charging into battle -- green flags with gold harp waving alongside our star-spangled banner.
When depression gripped America, Ireland sent tens of thousands of packages of shamrocks to cheer up its countrymen, saying, “May the message of Erin shamrocks bring joy to those away.”
And when an Iron Curtain fell across this continent and our way of life was challenged, it was our first Irish President -- our first Catholic President, John F. Kennedy, who made us believe 50 years ago this week -- (applause) -- that mankind could do something big and bold and ambitious as walk on the moon. He made us dream again.
That is the story of America and Ireland. That’s the tale of our brawn and our blood, side by side, in making and remaking a nation, pulling it westward, pulling it skyward, moving it forward again and again and again. And that is our task again today.
I think we all realize that both of our nations have faced great trials in recent years, including recessions so severe that many of our people are still trying to fight their way out. And naturally our concern turns to our families, our friends and our neighbors. And some in this enormous audience are thinking about their own prospects and their own futures. Those of us who are parents wonder what it will mean for our children and young people like so many who are here today. Will you see the same progress we’ve seen since we were your age? Will you inherit futures as big and as bright as the ones that we inherited? Will your dreams remain alive in our time?
This nation has faced those questions before: When your land couldn’t feed those who tilled it; when the boats leaving these shores held some of your brightest minds; when brother fought against brother. Yours is a history frequently marked by the greatest of trials and the deepest of sorrow. But yours is also a history of proud and defiant endurance. Of a nation that kept alive the flame of knowledge in dark ages; that overcame occupation and outlived fallow fields; that triumphed over its Troubles –- of a resilient people who beat all the odds. (Applause.)
And, Ireland, as trying as these times are, I know our future is still as big and as bright as our children expect it to be. (Applause.) I know that because I know it is precisely in times like these –- in times of great challenge, in times of great change -– when we remember who we truly are. We’re people, the Irish and Americans, who never stop imagining a brighter future, even in bitter times. We’re people who make that future happen through hard work, and through sacrifice, through investing in those things that matter most, like family and community.
We remember, in the words made famous by one of your greatest poets that “in dreams begins responsibility.”
This is a nation that met that responsibility by choosing, like your ancestors did, to keep alight the flame of knowledge and invest in a world-class education for your young people. And today, Ireland’s youth, and those who’ve come back to build a new Ireland, are now among the best-educated, most entrepreneurial in the world. And I see those young people here today. And I know that Ireland will succeed. (Applause.)
This is a nation that met its responsibilities by choosing to apply the lessons of your own past to assume a heavier burden of responsibility on the world stage. And today, a people who once knew the pain of an empty stomach now feed those who hunger abroad. Ireland is working hand in hand with the United States to make sure that hungry mouths are fed around the world -- because we remember those times. We know what crippling poverty can be like, and we want to make sure we’re helping others.
You’re a people who modernized and can now stand up for those who can’t yet stand up for themselves. And this is a nation that met its responsibilities -– and inspired the entire world -– by choosing to see past the scars of violence and mistrust to forge a lasting peace on this island.
When President Clinton said on this very spot 15 years ago, waging peace is risky, I think those who were involved understood the risks they were taking. But you, the Irish people, persevered. And you cast your votes and you made your voices heard for that peace. (Applause.) And you responded heroically when it was challenged. And you did it because, as President McAleese has written, “For all the apparent intractability of our problems, the irrepressible human impulse to love kept nagging and nudging us towards reconciliation.”
Whenever peace is challenged, you will have to sustain that irrepressible impulse. And America will stand by you -- always. (Applause.) America will stand by you always in your pursuit of peace. (Applause.)
And, Ireland, you need to understand that you’ve already so surpassed the world’s highest hopes that what was notable about the Northern Ireland elections two weeks ago was that they came and went without much attention. It’s not because the world has forgotten. It’s because this once unlikely dream has become that most extraordinary thing of things: It has become real. A dream has turned to reality because of the work of this nation. (Applause.)
In dreams begin responsibility. And embracing that responsibility, working toward it, overcoming the cynics and the naysayers and those who say “you can’t” -- that’s what makes dreams real. That’s what Falmouth Kearney did when he got on that boat, and that’s what so many generations of Irish men and women have done here in this spectacular country. That is something we can point to and show our children, Irish and American alike. That is something we can teach them as they grow up together in a new century, side by side, as it has been since our beginnings.
This little country, that inspires the biggest things -- your best days are still ahead. (Applause.) Our greatest triumphs -- in America and Ireland alike -- are still to come. And, Ireland, if anyone ever says otherwise, if anybody ever tells you that your problems are too big, or your challenges are too great, that we can’t do something, that we shouldn’t even try -- think about all that we’ve done together. Remember that whatever hardships the winter may bring, springtime is always just around the corner. And if they keep on arguing with you, just respond with a simple creed: Is féidir linn. Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Is féidir linn. (Applause.)
For all you’ve contributed to the character of the United States of America and the spirit of the world, thank you. And may God bless the eternal friendship between our two great nations.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you, Dublin. Thank you, Ireland. (Applause.)
END 6:18 P.M. IST
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/23/remarks-president-irish-celebration-dublin-ireland
===
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