March 17, 2023
Video out there at: https://youtu.be/iNWQD1IzdMw
Tánaiste Micheál Martin, Minister for Overseas Affairs and Minister for Defence, Eire: Good morning. Mayor Adams, women and gents, blissful St. Patrick’s Day to you all. I’ll thank Mayor Adams for opening up your private home to the Irish and to the chums of Eire in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. For these of you who might not know, my identify is Micheàl Martin, Deputy Prime Minister of Eire, Tánaiste, Minister for Overseas Affairs and Minister for Protection. And it is a fantastic privilege for me to be with you this morning on this great house. And I do know it is a custom for the mayor to host this breakfast. Nobody right here takes it without any consideration and everybody enormously appreciates it, Mayor. Thanks very a lot certainly.
It’s great that you just host this reception and by extension acknowledge the constructive contribution to this nice vibrant metropolis made by successive generations of immigrants, together with so many from Eire who’ve made New York their house. Your metropolis’s historical past is interwoven with Eire and the Irish, and I am delighted to carry heat greetings from the federal government and from the folks of Eire to you and to everybody gathered right here.
Mayor Eric, I am in the US on the eve of an essential anniversary, 25 years because the signing of the Good Friday Settlement in April, 1998. America’s assist for peace on the island of Eire was vital in reaching that settlement. All through the peace course of and ever since, the bipartisan assist of the numerous associates of Eire throughout all ranges of presidency and from communities throughout the US has been important. And every time {that a} disaster has arisen and the assist of the US has been sought, together with lately, it has been given.
This ongoing dedication from the White Home to Gracie Mansion continues to make an actual distinction to the lives of individuals in Northern Eire. And it’s our privilege to make use of the event of the twenty fifth anniversary to honor the distinctive contribution of the US and this nice metropolis to the peace course of. Via you Mayor, and to all of you, I sincerely say thanks from the underside of our hearts.
Right now, we mark the Irish, US partnership as New York celebrates its heritage and we rejoice collectively. Mayor Adams, thanks as soon as once more for internet hosting us right here this morning. I am a proud citizen of Cork in Eire and inevitably Corkonians are adopted in all places by Kerry folks reminding us of their greatness. And that has occurred this morning additionally. However right now, I might be marching within the parade nationally, representing all of you within the parade and searching very a lot ahead to it.
So, [Speaks in Gaelic]. Pleased St. Patrick’s Day and see you all on Fifth Avenue.
Mayor Eric Adams: The voice of announcement forgot to say O’Adams, O’Adams. Actually, blissful St. Patrick’s Day and thanks a lot for being right here. And to all of our dignitaries and I simply need a few of our people to come back up, significantly Congressman Crowley. Joe, are you able to come up? The place’s Joe?
Come on. Come on up, brother. Come on up. We wish to see you. Senator, my brother, Tim Kennedy, come on up. Come on and rise up right here. These are simply good associates. And my good good friend Councilman Danny Dromm. And my superb dean of the congressional delegation that is right here as nicely. Congressman, how are you? It is good to see you. Congressman Nadler is the dean of our delegation and he is combating on behalf of us to make sure that we obtain the assets we want right here within the metropolis.
And I simply actually wish to take a second and thank all of our leaders that is right here, significantly the consultant of the UK, Barbara Woodward, everlasting consultant of the UN, United Kingdom, Emma Wade-Smith, the Consul Normal Helena Nolan, Consul Normal of Eire, of the, simply getting all my notes right here, cannot learn my very own handwriting. And actually simply all of us, our everlasting consultant to the UN as nicely and simply all of us for coming right here to collectively. And I simply needed everybody to come back right here and be a part of the stage with me as a result of we’re united.
And when you consider the twenty fifth anniversary of the Good Friday Peace Settlement, it’s one thing that ought to resonate all through our complete globe. Peace is a method that we will carry prosperity to everybody. And nobody is aware of that higher than those that are Irish descendants right here in New York Metropolis. I all the time inform the story a few years in the past being in Eire, talking with among the residents as I moved all through the gorgeous nation and acknowledged and acknowledge the enjoyment of the seven phases and shades of inexperienced, your liquid sunshine, understanding the way to respect rain and all that it has to supply, shopping for a few of my favourite wool sweaters that I nonetheless put on right now.
However essentially the most important a part of it, what was stated to me as we have been sitting round and having fun with the gorgeous ambiance, a gentleman acknowledged that it is in regards to the household identify. And you’re taught in Irish heritage that by no means to do something that is going to embarrass the household identify as a result of it would final all through the generations. And no matter motion you’re taking, all the time bear in mind the household identify. And people are the identical issues that my mom used to say to me, it is in regards to the household identify. And we have to instill that spirit and power once more, that each motion our youngsters and each motion we take, we take it with the understanding that we’re carrying the wealthy custom and legacy of all that got here earlier than us and what the household identify represents.
And when you consider the household identify of the Irish residents right here in New York Metropolis, we cross over the Brooklyn Bridge, we have to acknowledge it was the Irish residents that constructed that bridge. We experience our MTA methods, and we’ve got to acknowledge the function the Irish Individuals performed in constructing our railroad and transit system. After which we take into consideration the prerequisite to our prosperity, public security. It was the Irish Individuals that got here and bolstered the inhabitants within the police division, bolstered the inhabitants within the hearth division. This metropolis is thought for its variety and the varied heritage and ethnic teams that come right here and make this metropolis nice. And nothing personifies that greater than what the Irish group has accomplished, will do and can do and proceed to do sooner or later.
So right now once we march up Fifth Avenue, and it seems as if every part turns to inexperienced, and New York Metropolis then begins its personal method of seeing the numerous shades of inexperienced, however we additionally see the numerous shades of the ethnicities that make up our metropolis and that makes us nice. I thanks for what you contribute, but in addition name on you to speak to your kids. As we transfer additional and farther from generations, we fail to understand the richness of our heritage and evolution. Sure, our youngsters, this younger man right here, he is aware of a New York, he is aware of a New York that is fashionable, a New York that is completely different, however that is not the New York that a lot of his great-grandparents knew.
They knew a New York that denied them the best to maneuver round in New York, that pressured them into areas that have been unsafe and unsavory. They knew a New York that had indicators that have been degrading to the Irish folks. So, as new arrivals come right here, let’s mirror on what our ancestors went by way of after they got here right here. As a result of sooner or later, a type of new arrivals will sit at this podium and discuss how receptive we have been to those that got here right here fleeing persecution, simply as a lot of your ancestors fleed persecution from Eire and from the colonialization and the potato famines that they expertise. We come right here for one purpose solely, as a result of that is the one nation on the globe that has dream hooked up to its identify. And we respect that dream and that dream ought to go for all who pursue it.
So, I thanks and I say a contented St. Patrick Day to you all. Thanks very a lot.
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