[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 9 (Monday, March 2, 1998)]
[Pages 346-347]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7070--Irish-American Heritage Month, 1998

February 27, 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

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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.
    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.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:34 a.m., March 2, 
1998]

Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on 
March 3.