Updated 23.08pm
(MerrionStreetNews/YouTube)
IN HIS ANNUAL St Patrick’s Day message, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has thanked the Irish people for the sacrifices they made to “rescue our country”.
Kenny said the “the world goes green … in honour of Ireland” due to “global affection” for the “nobility” of our citizens.
He described the Irish as: “A people who time and again saw to it not just to make the difference, but to be the difference in parts of the world visited by war, famine or destruction.”
“So on St Patrick’s Day, we can say that from this small green island on the periphery of Europe, time and again, and in every generation we have helped to transform people’s circumstances and given them a future,” Kenny added.
He admitted that recent years have been particularly hard for Irish people. He stated:
I know the process of transforming Ireland has been extremely difficult. In many aspects, galling, for you. The shock of the ‘fall’ was followed by the seemingly endless sacrifice by you and your families. But, at last, and thanks to you and to your patience and your resolve in putting Ireland first, we are now back on the road to recovery.”
Kenny, who met Barack Obama at the White House today, added that Irish people should spend St Patrick’s Day celebrating the wealth “in the territory of our heart and our imagination”.
Originally published 17.12pm
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