Speech
Speech by the Taoiseach at the JFK Presidential Library and Museum
From Department of the Taoiseach
By: Taoiseach;
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of the Taoiseach
By: Taoiseach;
Published on
Last updated on
Delivered on Monday 11 March 2024.
Check against delivery
Thank you, Jack, for the kind introduction.
The story is told of a powerful Irish king, in the days before St. Patrick, who found out he was dying. He issued a proclamation saying that he would give a field full of gold to his truest friend, and he gathered his closest friends, family, and advisers to his bedside.
However, when the king revealed that he was going to give his gift of gold to the Seanchaí, the storyteller, there were howls of indignation and lots of complaints.
His friends were furious, reminding the king that the Seanchaí had caused him nothing but trouble during his reign, challenging his decisions, and sometimes even daring to oppose his actions.
The king explained to his friends that while he valued their loyalty, they had always told him what he wanted to hear. Whereas the Seanchaí – the storyteller – told him what he needed to hear. And now, on his deathbed, with the wisdom of age, he realised what true friendship really was.
President John F. Kennedy was a true friend to Ireland. When he became the first sitting president to visit Ireland back in 1963, he spoke before the very first ever joint sitting of the Oireachtas. The speech is rightly celebrated for its eloquent tribute to Ireland - past, present and future. But I also think it went far beyond an exercise in nostalgia.
President Kennedy set out the mission of our foreign policy, and laid down a challenge to the country of his forebears. His stirring words suggested that Ireland’s destiny was to play a part in world affairs, to be in his words, the ‘protector of the weak and [the] voice of the small’.
Today in the 21st century, in the face of some of our greatest crises, we are mindful of the challenge he set for us. We are determined to embrace our destiny and speak out against injustice without fear or favour.
As part of the community of Europe, as a member of the United Nations, as a country with our own history of being invaded, we stand publicly and openly against Russia’s unprovoked imperialist invasion of Ukraine. We recognise the fighting there as a battle between freedom and tyranny, between the rule of international law and war crimes, between hope and despair.
As part of the EU, we have agreed a €50 billion package of assistance to Ukraine in recent months. We have also agreed to open negotiations to have Ukraine join our European Union, to provide a long-term guarantee of security for its people, its economy and its freedom.
When I meet President Biden later this week, I am going to thank him on behalf of Ireland and Europe for the strong and steadfast stand that the United States has taken in opposing Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine. I cannot overstate the appreciation of the European Union for American leadership at this time of crisis on our continent, the first full-scale land war since the Second World War.
Some would like to ignore the conflict but fail to realise that this conflict will not ignore them. Ukraine is facing an adversary that will not stop there. As an international community we must speak out, and we must act, because if Ukraine falls so too will a shadow fall across Eirope. We must not forget the lessons of the 1930s in Europe. You cannot appease a dictator. And I think once Again, While England Slept must be essential reading.
In his inauguration speech, President Kennedy famously said, “we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty”.
I believe these are apt words to recall today, when freedom and democracy is once again under grave threat in our world.
When I hear people in Europe and America talk about ‘Ukraine fatigue’, I think of the Ukrainian men and women who are making incredible sacrifices to defend not only their sovereignty and territorial integrity, but also to defend European security and freedom; to defend the values and the existential interests that our transatlantic alliance is built on.
We cannot say to them that we are ‘fatigued’ in the face of their enormous sacrifice and their incredible bravery.
Our transatlantic commitment to Ukraine must – and will - remain steadfast and assured, including the provision of political, humanitarian, military, financial and other help to ensure that Ukraine prevails.
Ireland has always been a true friend to the United States.
Throughout our shared history, we have celebrated your greatest triumphs. And we have shed tears when you have had to endure your darkest of tragedies, particularly on 9/11. We mourned as a nation when President Kennedy was killed only a few months after his visit to Ireland, and we mourned again five years later when his beloved brother was murdered by an extremist, someone blinded by hate and an irrational idea that it would help his political cause.
Sadly, in the years since then, the cycle of violence in the Middle East has claimed many more victims, both there and around the world. What happened on the 7th of October was an act of pure evil and hatred, and it can never be forgotten, contextualised, or excused.
Colleagues, when thousands of children are killed in response no one can avert their eyes.
The life of a child is the greatest gift of all. Childhood should be a blessing. Today in Gaza, for so many children it is a death sentence and a curse.
We all know that there are guilty people who perpetrated unspeakable acts of terrorism. But there are innocent men, women and children who are suffering for their sins. They should not be subject to collective punishment.
The cries of the innocent will haunt us forever if we stay silent.
The cries will engender radicalism, and beget more violence and more vengeance.
No child ever gave their consent for acts of terrorism in Ireland or Israel or anywhere else. No child should ever be punished for them.
It is unconscionable that they are dying not just as a result of relentless bombing and destruction, but of hunger and thirst and the absence of basic medical care.
If we are not consistent – if we do not see and respect the equal value of a child of Israel and a child of Palestine – then the rest of the world, in particular the Global South , which after all is most of the world, will not listen when we call on them to stand by the rules and institutions that are the bedrock of a civilised world.
In this scenario we will all be losers and our world will be infinitely less secure.
Consistent application of international law and international humanitarian law – to state and non-state actors alike – has to be the basis on which the international community engages with one another.
So, Ireland will continue to call for an immediate ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and a massive and sustained increase in humanitarian aid, food and medicine to the people of Gaza.
We will also continue to call and to work for a meaningful political pathway leading to self-determination for the Palestinian people. A fully fledged nation state of their own, and homeland in the land of their forefathers.
From our own painful history in Ireland, we know that a ceasefire does not mean surrender, nor does it necessarily mean peace, and it certainly doesn’t mean weakness. A ceasefire does not mean forgiveness either, but it does present a symbol of hope. It means breaking free of the perpetual cycle of violence, recrimination and retaliation. It means believing in our shared humanity instead of a need for revenge.
Tonight, I am thinking particularly of the words of Bobby Kennedy, who knew so painfully what it was like to lose a loved one to violence.
We all have the video of how he spoke so eloquently on the night that Martin Luther King Jr. was killed for his courage and his beliefs. Speaking with unparalleled empathy and eloquence, he prayed for understanding and compassion in place of hatred and revenge.
Likewise, President Kennedy did not ask us to distinguish between the weak and the oppressed. We have to speak up for them all. We must dedicate ourselves to freedom and peace, in Gaza as well as in the rest of the world.
Courage in the face of crisis, unshakeable optimism in the darkest of times, faith in the future – that is the Kennedy story.
In Ireland, we recognise that the cause of peace has benefitted so much from the contributions of the Kennedy family. Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith played a hugely significant role in laying the foundation for the Good Friday Agreement in the early 1990s.
Her brother, Ted, was a founding member of the Friends of Ireland Caucus and is rightly considered an architect of peace in Ireland through his work on Capitol Hill over many decades.
The story now continues with Joe, as President Biden’s Special Economic Envoy to Northern Ireland for Economic Affairs.
The United States, more than any other country, helped bring about peace and reconciliation on the island – and the contribution of the Kennedy family is an enormous part of that story, and one that we in Ireland know well.
When President Kennedy visited Galway in 1963, he joked with the locals that, if they squinted out across Galway Bay, and if the conditions were just right, and if their sight was good enough, they could just about glimpse Boston.
Today we don’t need to strain our sight to see this beautiful city.
Just around the corner from my office, Boston College’s beautiful building on St. Stephen’s Green welcomes students every month on study abroad programmes. And a little further up the road lies the American Embassy, where we are fortunate to have a proud Massachusetts native, Claire Cronin, representing the United States as Ambassador to Ireland.
Last summer, Governor Maura Healey, led a large trade delegation to Ireland.
And last year, we celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of President Kennedy’s visit to Ireland.
The anniversary events included a spectacular programme organised by Director Rachel Flor and her team here at the JFK Library Foundation. It reminded us of the incredible links between Ireland and the United States in general, and Ireland and Massachusetts in particular.
As you probably know, 1 in 5 people in Massachusetts claim Irish heritage, including of course the Governor herself, and our economies are very compatible, with a strong focus on the life sciences, tech and higher education.
We share your belief in the importance of education and research, and we share your ambition to be a welcoming and inclusive place for talent.
A better quality of life that attracts talent and investment, adding value to both of our economies and societies.
So I will celebrate these new ties when I meet tomorrow with the Irish community in Boston and with businesses that are creating jobs in Massachusetts and also in Ireland.
Colleagues I will leave you with one final thought. In one of his greatest speeches, President Kennedy presented a strategy for peace, confronting head-on the greatest challenge of the day – the possibility of nuclear war. Today we have to ask ourselves to consider the greatest challenges of our time and what kind of strategy for peace is necessary.
We cannot pay tribute to the words, unless we also promise to live up to their meaning.
Thank you for joining us tonight.