[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 17, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3156-S3157]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ST. PATRICK'S DAY 2009

  Mr. DURBIN. Well, Mr. President, it is St Patrick's Day, and you 
might notice a lot of green ties on the floor of the Senate. I notice 
the Presiding Officer has a nice one on.
  I wish to just say for a moment how proud I am to have a grandmother, 
who passed away, named Mary Margaret Gaul, who was always proud of her 
Irish heritage and convinced us as kids that is where God would hang 
out, that great Republic of Ireland. It meant a lot to us growing up as 
kids to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with my grandmother and to try to 
continue that tradition in our own time.
  But it goes beyond just family connections. It is almost impossible 
to overstate the importance of Ireland's contributions to America. From 
our earliest days as a nation, Ireland and America have been united by 
unbreakable bonds of friendship, family, and a shared commitment to 
liberty and freedom.
  There is a great quote from George Washington, who once said:

       When our friendless standard was first unfurled for 
     resistance, who were the strangers who first mustered around 
     our staff? And when it reeled in the fight, who more bravely 
     sustained it than Erin's generous sons?

  In the more than two centuries since then, America has been enriched 
immeasurably by the contributions of the Irish, and Irish Americans, in 
every field and every walk of life.
  And the contributions go both ways.
  It just was not the ``sons of Erin'' who stood and fought on our side 
with George Washington in the Revolution, it was a son of America, 
Brooklyn-born Eamonn deValera, who, in 1921, became the first President 
of a free Ireland.
  And it was another son of Irish America, former Senate majority 
leader George Mitchell, who helped broker the Good Friday Peace Accord 
nearly 11 years ago.
  That hard-won historic agreement laid out a path to end more than 30 
years of sectarian bloodshed in Northern Ireland and create a new 
province, a new government, and a new dream.
  For more than a decade, the Good Friday agreement has inspired people 
around the world to believe it is possible to resolve old hatreds, it 
is possible to heal old wounds.
  To paraphrase the great Irish poet and Nobel laureate, Seamus Heaney, 
it is possible--with courage and diplomacy--for cooperation to replace 
confrontation and hope to triumph over history.
  We have been horrified in recent days by the reprehensible murders in 
Northern Ireland of two unarmed British soldiers and a police 
constable. The two soldiers were days away from being dispatched to 
Afghanistan. They were the first British soldiers killed in Northern 
Ireland since that Good Friday agreement. The police constable's death 
was the first terrorist killing of a member of Northern Ireland's new, 
carefully balanced police force. The police force was created a couple 
years ago, and it is an important symbol of political reconciliation.
  Their deaths appear to be the work of isolated extremists who have no 
place and no support in Northern Ireland today.
  If it is possible for any good to come from these despicable acts, it 
is in the reactions of people in Northern Ireland. In the wake of the 
killings, we have seen a renewed commitment to peace and 
reconciliation. Former enemies on both sides of ``the Troubles'' have 
condemned the killings and vowed not to retaliate with violence.
  Martin McGuiness, Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland's power-
sharing Government and leader of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the 
IRA, called the perpetrators of these killings: ``traitors to the 
island of Ireland.''
  Leaders of Northern Ireland's two largest loyalist paramilitary 
groups--the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defence Association--
have also condemned the killings and vowed that they will not return to 
violence.
  Most poignantly, we have seen the commitment to peace in the resolve 
of thousands of ordinary people in Northern Ireland.

[[Page S3157]]

  Last Monday, on the morning after the killings of the two British 
soldiers at a military base, hundreds of people gathered in the nearby 
town of Antrim for a prayer service at the police cordon where the 
shootings took place.
  The worshipers included members of the local Catholic, Presbyterian, 
Church of Ireland, and Methodist Churches--all praying together.
  A Catholic priest told a reporter his parishioners were determined to 
show their outrage over the murders, but they wanted to do so 
collectively with their neighbors from other churches.
  The priest told a reporter:

       In the past, if something like this happened, people would 
     withdraw into their own [separate] community. This time, 
     everybody was united because it was an attack on everybody--
     on the peace we all own.

  Last Wednesday, thousands more people attended dignified, silent 
``peace rallies'' in Belfast, Derry, and other towns in Northern 
Ireland. Young and old, men and women, Protestants and Catholics stood 
shoulder to shoulder in the cold to express their horror at these 
killings and their resolve to maintain the Good Friday peace.
  Signs carried by many of the more than 2,000 people who gathered at 
Belfast City Hall seemed to express their collective resolve. The signs 
read simply: ``No going back.''
  Many of us remember how difficult the Northern Ireland peace 
negotiations were, how often they seemed on the verge of collapse. But 
their collective determination, and the wise leadership of George 
Mitchell, led them to an agreement, led them to use diplomats and 
politicians but also the faith and courage of ordinary people to bring 
organizations and institutions that had been at war for decades 
together in peace.
  Last weekend, in Chicago, we had a great St. Patrick's Day 
celebration. We dyed the Chicago River green, drank a lot of beer, 
marched in parades. Everybody wore their green and had a glorious time.
  I attended a breakfast honoring a great organization. The Irish 
American Partnership is working to create a more hopeful future for the 
children of Ireland--both north and south. They support educational and 
other efforts to replace old divisions with understanding and 
cooperation.
  On this St. Patrick's Day, we want the people of Northern Ireland, 
the Republic of Ireland, and Great Britain to know America shares their 
grief and outrage over these killings. We also share their resolve 
never to go back.
  Just as it was in America's national interest to help broker the Good 
Friday peace agreement, it is in our interest now to help the people of 
Northern Ireland reclaim that peace.
  Now, before I yield the floor, I cannot let St. Patrick's Day pass 
without saying a word about a great man whose family has become 
synonymous with Irish America, with peace in Northern Ireland, and with 
so many other noble causes.
  Senator Ted Kennedy--known as Sir Edward by those of us who are 
honored to call him a colleague--is not here on the Senate floor today. 
But we see his pride in his Irish heritage in the shamrock sugar 
cookies and green punch he had delivered to the Democratic cloakroom 
today, as he has done on every St. Patrick's Day for decades.
  More importantly, we feel Ted Kennedy's influence in this Senate's 
efforts to promote justice and opportunity in our own Nation--to 
provide more Americans with jobs, health care, and education, so they 
can make a good life for themselves and their families.
  On this St. Patrick's Day, I know I speak for all my colleagues in 
the Senate in wishing Senator Kennedy slainte.
  To your health, Ted. We look forward to seeing you back soon.
  A few months ago, Senator Kennedy's wife Vicki, at the Democratic 
Convention in Denver, handed me this little blue plastic bracelet. It 
has a word on it they made up for the occasion, so all of us who stand 
by Ted and think of him every day would carry this little reminder with 
a bracelet that says one word: Tedstrong.
  Well, we are strong in our love for this great Senator. He has been 
strong in his love for this great country. It is a good thing to 
remember him on one of his happiest days, St. Patrick's Day.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, before my colleague leaves the floor, I 
wonder if he might answer a question, and that is whether some of us on 
this side of the aisle could also celebrate our colleague, Ted's, 
appreciation for St. Paddy's Day, if there are any more of those 
cookies and punch left in the Democratic cloakroom.
  Mr. DURBIN. I am going to check. If there are, we will bring some 
across because I know Ted would do that himself.
  Mr. KYL. I thank my colleague.

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