[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 9929]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO ANNE ANDERSON

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I would like to recognize Ireland's 
Ambassador to the United States, Anne Anderson, on the occasion of her 
retirement. Since 2013, Anne has served as Ireland's 17th Ambassador to 
the United States, the first woman to serve in this role. She has done 
much to further the close relationship long shared between the United 
States and Ireland. My great-grandparents were Irish immigrants, 
settling in Vermont, where I was born and raised. I have long been 
aware of the contributions Irish immigrants make to our Nation.
  Ambassador Anderson first represented her Ireland's interests in the 
United States in 1983, when she became the Embassy of Ireland's 
economic attache and then press attache. After moving back to Ireland 
in 1987, she served as counsellor in the Anglo-Irish division of the 
Department of Foreign Affairs and then became Assistant Secretary 
General in Corporate Services. In this role, Ambassador Anderson 
greatly influenced the fight for equal treatment of women in the 
workplace and worked to pass fair employment legislation in the North 
of Ireland.
  Ambassador Anderson assumed the role of diplomat again in 1995, when 
she became Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations in 
Geneva. During her time in Geneva, she acted as chair of the United 
Nations Commission of Human Rights and vice president of the United 
Nations Conference on Trade and Development. She then moved to Brussels 
to serve as the Permanent Representative of Ireland to the European 
Union in 2001.
  After some time as Ambassador to France, she returned to the United 
States once more to become the Permanent Representative of Ireland to 
the United Nations in New York until 2013, when she was named the 
Ambassador of Ireland to the United States. Her focus in her time as 
ambassador has been in advocating on behalf of immigration issues and 
undocumented Irish immigrants in the United States, pursuing her 
passion for inclusivity and equality in human rights and women's 
rights, and fostering the cultural art connections between the two 
nations.
  The foundations of our relationship with Ireland are built upon and 
solidified by the great work of diplomats and public servants such as 
Ambassador Anderson, who seek to facilitate international relationships 
that rise above any national differences. While she may be retiring 
from her diplomatic roles, my friend Anne will forever be a diplomat in 
the truest sense of the word. Marcelle and I congratulate her on her 
retirement and thank her for her years of service and friendship and 
her dedicated efforts to strengthen the U.S. relationship with Ireland.

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