LAST UPDATE | 16 Mar 2023
Christina Finn reports from Washington DC
“THE LAST TIME I was at this dinner – in March 2020 – you may recall, I was called away suddenly to receive the terrible news that an oncoming storm had hit Ireland, a pandemic that was about to engulf this country as well as the entire world.”
Those were the opening lines to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s speech this evening at the Ireland Funds gala dinner in the National Monument Building in Washington DC.
Indeed, the last time Varadkar was in the building in 2020, he had to leave the event early, when he was called off to attend an emergency meeting of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET)
Back then, no one had heard of the group, but over the next two years they certainly had.
At the time, when Varadkar was whisked out of the room, most believed it was due to the then US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he was banning travel to the US for people from 26 European countries.
However, it later became known that the reason was things had escalated rapidly back home, and some tough decisions were going to have to be made by government.
Speaking this evening, Varadkar recalled his early morning press conference where he informed the nation it was going into lockdown.
“The next day, from the steps of Blair House, I announced that schools would close and Ireland would begin to go into lockdown.
“A lot has happened since then, many people have suffered.
“Still, it is good to be back in person and hopefully, I’ll get to stay for the whole evening this year.”
Certainly a lot has happened since. This time last year, Micheál Martin was Taoiseach, however, he did not have great luck when he attended the same gala dinner.
It was Martin who was whisked out of the room last year having tested positive for Covid-19 just a couple of hours before the event.
It scuppered his chances of meeting Biden and resulted in him isolating in Washington DC for another week.
At tonight’s event, House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and the Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer were honoured.
Varadkar thanked them for “promoting the great partnership between our two countries”, and gave a special welcome to the new US Special Envoy to Northern Ireland for Economic Affairs, Joseph Kennedy III.
“We have a friend who understands how fragile and precious peace can be, and the courage and vigilance that is needed to make it last,” said Varadkar.
Former President of Ireland, and Chairperson of the Elders, Mary Robinson, was also in attendance this evening.
Addressing the hundreds in attendance at the dinner, the Taoiseach thanked the US for its “steadfast support for peace and reconciliation”, stating that ”peace in Northern Ireland is one of the greatest and most significant success stories in American foreign policy”.
The Good Friday Agreement was also mentioned by the Taoiseach this evening, as was Ukraine, with the Taoiseach telling the gala dinner attendees that Ireland would stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes, “because it is the right thing to do, and because it is true to our history and our values”.
With the focus of this St Patrick’s Day trip being the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) and the Windsor Framework, it is no surprise that much of his address touched on the role the US played, and continues to play, in Northern Ireland.
He called the GFA a remarkable achievement that took real political leadership and vision, where people were “not afraid of compromise”.
“It would never have been possible without the support of our friends here in the United States, including some of the people in this room. In many ways, America is the third co-guarantor of the Agreement,” he said.
“We have more to do. Many communities still live apart – separated by enormous ‘peace walls’ in some instances – and many children are educated in schools where they rarely meet anyone from a different community.
“We made the peace, and now we have to make it real and enduring by building new communities of hope that interact much more,” he said.
“Despite all the progress, key institutions under the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland – the Assembly, the Executive and the North/South Bodies are still not meeting,” said Varadkar.
He told the room he endorsed the Windsor Framework that was recently announced.
“As people give careful thought and reflection to their response, I hope that they take the path that leads towards the restoration of the institutions.
“People in Northern Ireland want the people they elected to office, working to find solutions to the most pressing matters – health, housing, the cost-of-living, economic development,” Varadkar said.
He said that at critical junctures, the intervention of the United States drove the process forward – ‘sometimes with words of encouragement, sometimes with a more assertive shove!”
Varadkar concluded by stating that Ireland knows it can rely on the US:
“Whatever the crisis, whenever the help of the United States was requested, it was given.
“I believe the best way of celebrating a quarter of a century of peace on the island of Ireland, is by seizing this opportunity to make it a shining example to the world of what can be achieved when hope overcomes fear.
“We are writing the story of peace together. But instead of thinking about finding an ending, let’s work to create a new beginning. One of many for all our people. A new freedom. A new peace. A new hope,” he said.
US Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer meanwhile praised the slow and “sometimes spluttering” progress made to achieve peace in Northern Ireland, before urging the Stormont institutions to be restored.
He also said he hoped the Windsor Framework “clears the way for the DUP to join Sinn Féin in a power-sharing agreement decided by the people of Northern Ireland in the last election, an amazing election”.
“I say to all parties in the north, but especially the DUP, let’s get to the people’s business.”
Schumer also referenced a group of Irish fishermen’s campaign to oust a Russian naval ship away from the Co Cork coast in 2021, quoted novelist James Joyce, and said Mayo would win the All-Ireland Football Championship.
“I come from Ireland’s 33rd county – Brooklyn, New York!” he said.
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