[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 50 (Monday, December 18, 2000)]
[Pages 3068-3071]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Community in Dundalk, Ireland

December 12, 2000

    Thank you very much. First let me thank the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, 
for his leadership and his friendship and his kind and generous words 
tonight.
    Mr. O'Hanrahan, thank you so much for the gift and your words. Joan 
McGuinness--it's not easy for someone who makes a living in private 
business to stand up and give a speech before a crowd this large. If you 
look all the way back there, there's a vast crowd. You can't see it in 
the dark, but all the way back here there are just as many people. So I 
think we ought to give Joan McGuinness another hand for the speech she 
gave here. [Applause]
    I thank the Government ministers, the Members of the Congress, and 
other Americans who are here. I'd like to thank the musicians who came 
out to play for us tonight and those who still will. You know, I like 
music, and so I have to say it may be cold and dark, but I'm back in 
Ireland, so, in the words of U2, it's a beautiful day.
    And I am particularly glad to be here in Dundalk, the ancient home 
of Cuchulain. I want to acknowledge some natives of Dundalk who are 
among our group here--the Taoiseach's spokesman, Joe Lennon; the White 
House correspondent for the Irish Times, Joe Carroll; a member of our 
American Embassy team in Dublin, Eva Burkury,

[[Page 3069]]

who has been taking late-night calls from us all week to make sure we do 
the right things in her hometown.
    Let me also say that for Hillary, Chelsea, and me, it's great to be 
in the home town of the Corrs. Now, we had the privilege of being with 
them and hearing them sing in Washington just Sunday night. They did you 
proud. I understand their success has been great for your community, 
except that in this tight labor market, you haven't been able to replace 
them down at McManus' Pub.
    In a few weeks, I'll have a little free time. [Laughter] You know, I 
feel at home here. And so, even though I can't claim to have a granny 
buried in Castletown, I hope you won't call me a blow-in. In America, 
over 40 million of us claim Irish roots, and the number keeps going up 
every year. I'm not sure whether that's because so many millions are 
green with Irish ancestry or just green with envy of Ireland.
    There are so many reasons to admire Ireland: the beauty of the land, 
the people, the music, the dance, the movies, the golf--[laughter]--the 
literature. You know, according--Americans in the audience will 
understand this--according to the latest manual count--[laughter]--you 
have won approximately 66 times the number of Nobel Prizes in literature 
you would be entitled to, based on your percentage of the world 
population. In so many ways, you have had an impact far beyond your 
numbers, especially in your worldwide reputation for compassion and 
taking on humanitarian causes.
    And then there is your amazing Irish economy. Today, we're seeing 
your economy reaching out across the ocean to us in the United States, 
with Irish technology firms in Boston, New York, and Atlanta.
    And I want to note, because we're here in County Louth, that the man 
famous for the ideas behind this prosperity grew up just a short 
distance from here, in Drogheda--or Drogheda. [Laughter] Anybody here 
from Drogheda? [Applause] I told them to put you in the front row. 
[Laughter]
    Listen to this: In a major report in the late 1950's, T.K. Whittaker 
wrote, ``Sooner or later, protectionism will have to go and the 
challenge of free trade accepted, if Ireland wishes to keep pace with 
the rest of Europe.'' Well, over the last 6 years, Ireland has outpaced 
the rest of Europe. Indeed, you have turned deficit to surplus, slashed 
debt, seen employment grow 4 times the rate of Europe, and seen your 
economy grow faster than any other nation in the entire industrialized 
world.
    Earlier this year, as the Taoiseach said today, Ireland was selected 
by our distinguished Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the 
European location for its media-lab research center. The director said 
he did this because--I love this--because of Ireland's antiestablishment 
attitude to innovation. [Laughter] The Wall Street Journal says, Ireland 
enjoys one of the freest economies in the world and one of the most 
responsive governments.
    With the strong leadership of Prime Minister Ahern and the 
Government, computer science graduates in Ireland have jumped fourfold 
in just the last 4 years. Now Microsoft, Intel, Nortel, IBM, Oracle, 
Lotus, Xerox, and Heinz and so many others are in Ireland. And Ireland 
has now displaced the United States as the number one software exporting 
country in the entire world. But you enjoyed respect in the world long 
before this boom because Ireland has been exporting compassion a lot 
longer than software.
    Probably the saints in heaven don't spend too much time boasting of 
their achievements. But if they do, I suspect the saints can bear no 
more bragging from Saint Patrick, for no nation has ever lived up more 
fully to the virtues of its patron saint than Ireland.
    Some years ago, when your then President, Mary Robinson, paid a 
visit to America, she told of a kindness Ireland received and never 
forgot. During the Potato Famine, the Choctaw Indians in the United 
States, who, themselves, were very poor and displaced from their own 
land, collected from among themselves $147 and sent it to Ireland to 
help ease the suffering. One hundred and fifty years later, the 
President of Ireland remembered that kindness on the South Lawn of the 
White House, because it so closely mirrors your own compassion.

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    To know suffering and reach out to others in suffering is woven into 
the heart of Ireland. And in your rising prosperity, you have not 
forgotten what it is to be poor. So you continue to reach out to the 
dispossessed around the world. In your newfound peace, you have not 
forgotten what it is to be at war, so you continue to stand guard for 
peace around the world. That is a powerful reason that I am very glad 
Ireland is now on the United Nations Security Council.
    You might be interested to know--and you may not--that Ireland is so 
well thought of around that world that when the campaign was on for the 
Security Council members, you found help in surprising places. Your 
Ambassador to Australia, Dick O'Brien, visited 14 countries in the South 
Pacific, seeking their votes. In the tiny island nation of Tuvalu, he 
was met by a local journalist by the name of O'Brien. [Laughter] He 
learned then that the Prime Minister of Tuvalu's mother's name was 
O'Brien. [Laughter] Turns out, there was an Irish sailor in the 19th 
century shipwrecked on Tuvalu, named O'Brien. [Laughter] He liked it 
there, stayed on, and now, a full quarter of the population are 
O'Briens. If the math is right, maybe there are more than 45 million 
Irish-Americans.
    We are delighted to have you as our partner on the Security Council. 
But as we look to Ireland and to America, we remember that for all our 
efforts to heal the world, sometimes the toughest healing problems are 
right at home.
    The story of the United States, I believe, is largely about three 
things: love of liberty; belief in progress; struggle for community. The 
last has given us the most trouble and troubles us still. Matters aren't 
so different for Ireland. For hundreds of years and intensely for the 
last 30, you confronted the challenge of religious difference. You in 
Dundalk know what it's like to face fear and isolation with unemployment 
rising, the economy stalling, and hope failing.
    A young businessman once said, ``Now, money isn't everything, but 
it's up there with oxygen.'' We know violence suffocates opportunity. We 
know in the end, there can be no full justice without jobs. Fortunately, 
the Irish had the courage to grasp the chance for peace and the new 
beginning.
    Those who argued for peace promised a better life. But then, there 
was no proof. Today, you are the proof of the fruits and wisdom of 
peace. The border between Ireland and Northern Ireland is now more a 
bridge than a barrier. Newry, just across that border, is your sister 
city and economic partner.
    Some fear the change won't last, but some of the smartest business 
people in the world are already betting that it will last. You have a 
cluster of information technology companies and broadband networks. Here 
in this community, Xerox is making the second-largest American 
investment in all of Ireland, and your Institute of Technology is 
building classes to meet the growing needs of technology-based 
employers.
    I appreciated Prime Minster Ahern mentioning the late Secretary Ron 
Brown and his trip here in 1994. When he came back, he encouraged us to 
continue investing in Dundalk through the International Fund for 
Ireland. I'm very glad we did. I know you haven't solved every problem, 
but this is now a boomtown. It's a new day in Dundalk and a new day in 
Ireland.
    My friends, I come here near the end of my 8 years of service as 
President of the United States to ask you to protect this progress, to 
cherish it, and to build on it. As Pope John Paul said in Drogheda more 
than 20 years ago, ``Violence only delays the day of justice.'' The 
Bible says, ``There are many parts, but one body. If one part suffers, 
every part suffers with it.'' It takes some people a long, long time to 
fully grasp that. But life teaches us over and over and over again that 
in the end, you cannot win by making your neighbor lose.
    Unionists and nationalists, native-born Irish and immigrants, to all 
of you, I say again, you cannot win by making your neighbor lose. Two 
years ago, after the horrid bombing in Omagh, you good people filled 
these streets. Young people came, not wanting to lose their dreams. 
Older people came because they wanted a chance to live in peace before 
they rest in peace. You stared violence in the face and said, ``No 
more.'' You stood up for peace then, and I ask you, stand up

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for peace today, tomorrow, and the rest of your lives.
    Oh yes, there are still a few hills to climb on the road ahead. The 
Taoiseach mentioned them. But the people of Ireland have two advantages 
now. You now know the value of peace, and in the hard moments, you can 
also still draw strength from the inspiration of your poets. Seamus 
Heaney once said of William Butler Yeats, ``His intent was to clear a 
space in the mind and in the world for the miraculous.'' Seamus was born 
the year Yeats died, and has spent his own life clearing that space, 
following this instruction to himself: ``Walk on air against your better 
judgment.''
    As extraordinary as Ireland's efforts are in exporting peace and 
peacekeepers to troubled areas all around the world, I can tell you 
nothing--nothing--will compare to the gift Ireland gives the world if 
you make peace here permanent. You can give people all over the world 
desperately needed hope and proof that peace can prevail, that the past 
is history, not destiny. That is what I came to ask you to redouble your 
efforts to do.
    Every Saint Patrick's Day, the Taoiseach comes to the United States, 
and we have a ceremony in the White House. We sing Irish songs, tell 
Irish stories--everything we say is strictly true, of course. [Laughter] 
In my very first Saint Patrick's Day occasion as President, I said I 
would be a friend of Ireland not just on Saint Patrick's Day but every 
day. I have tried to be as good as my word. And every effort has been an 
honor and a gift.
    Your kindness to me has brought life to Yeats' wonderful lines, 
``Think where a man's glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was, 
I had such friends.'' And so, my friends, as I prepare to leave my 
office, a large part of my heart will always be in Ireland, for all the 
days of my life. And let me say, I will pray: May the road of peace rise 
up to meet you. May the wind of prosperity be always at your back. And 
may the God of Saint Patrick hold you in the hollow of his hand.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 8:52 p.m. in the Courthouse Square. In his 
remarks, he referred to Pearce O'Hanrahan, councillor, Dundalk Urban 
District Council No. 1; and Joan McGuinness, company secretary, Facility 
Management Workshop, Ltd. The transcript released by the Office of the 
Press Secretary also included the remarks of Prime Minister Bertie 
Ahern.