[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 41 (Tuesday, March 3, 1998)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 10489-10490]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-5683]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 41 / Tuesday, March 3, 1998 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 10489]]


                Proclamation 7070 of February 27, 1998

                
Irish-American Heritage Month, 1998

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                As it has been for many immigrants, America has always 
                been a beacon of hope for the Irish people, a land of 
                promise beckoning on the far shore of the Atlantic 
                where they could build a better life for themselves and 
                their children. Those who traveled here in the 17th and 
                18th centuries came primarily to escape religious, 
                social, and political discrimination in their homeland. 
                But millions of Irish immigrants who came to the United 
                States in the 19th century were fleeing not only 
                persecution, but also the specter of starvation and 
                disease brought on by the Great Hunger, the devastating 
                potato famine that began in the 1840s. Many of them did 
                not survive the journey; many of those who did arrive 
                at America's ports were hungry, ill, and crushingly 
                poor.

                But the Irish did not come to America empty-handed. 
                They brought with them strong arms and an even stronger 
                spirit that would help to build our Nation's great 
                canals, bridges, and railroads. They would wrest coal 
                from the mines of Pennsylvania and raise the 
                skyscrapers of New York. They brought with them a love 
                of words that enriched American journalism and 
                literature and produced writers such as John Boyle 
                O'Reilly, Ring Lardner, Eugene O'Neill, and Mary 
                McCarthy. They brought as well a great reverence for 
                education and created schools, colleges, and 
                universities across the country renowned for their 
                scholarship and social conscience.

                Perhaps their greatest gifts to America have been a 
                abiding love of liberty, and an patriotic spirit. Irish 
                Americans have served with distinction in every 
                American conflict, from the Revolutionary War to the 
                Persian Gulf, and their keen sense of social justice 
                made them among the first and most effective voices for 
                labor reform. From Mary Kenney O'Sullivan to George 
                Meany, they have been in the vanguard of efforts to 
                improve working conditions and wages for all Americans. 
                Generations of Irish Americans entered public service 
                to reach out to those in need--to feed the poor, find 
                jobs for the unemployed, fight for racial equality, and 
                champion social reform. From the Kennedys of 
                Massachusetts to the Daleys of Chicago, from Governor 
                Al Smith to Ambassador Mike Mansfield, Americans of 
                Irish descent have made important and enduring 
                contributions to the public life of our Nation.

                The United States continues to draw strength and vision 
                from our multicultural, multiracial society. This 
                month, when citizens across the country celebrate Saint 
                Patrick's Day, we remember with special gratitude the 
                gifts of Irish Americans: faith in God, love of family 
                and community, and an unswerving commitment to freedom 
                and justice that continues to enrich our Nation and 
                fulfill the promise envisioned by the first Irish 
                immigrants who turned their eyes and hearts toward 
                America so many years ago.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim March 1998 as Irish-American 
                Heritage Month. I call upon all the people of the 
                United States to observe this month with appropriate 
                ceremonies, programs, and activities.

[[Page 10490]]

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                twenty-seventh day of February, in the year of our Lord 
                nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, and of the 
                Independence of the United States of America the two 
                hundred and twenty-second.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 98-5683
Filed 3-2-98; 11:34 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P