Speech by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar: Official Dinner in Honour of President Biden

Dublin Castle, 13 April 2023

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President Biden, Iar-Uachtaráin, Iar-Taoisigh, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends.

Tá fáilte roimh go léir.

Almost 250 years ago, some 3,000 miles away, on the far side of the Atlantic Ocean, a brave band of patriots, ‘summoned her children to her flag and struck for freedom’. It was a proclamation of liberty that inspired people around the world. If America could be a free nation then why could all nations not be free.

Exactly 140 years later, a brave band of Irishmen and women held those same truths to be self-evident and declared our independence, igniting a fire that still burns brightly today.

Mr President, our countries share a similar past and philosophy. We are joined by bonds of kinship as well as of friendship. But most importantly, we share the same vision about the future and what can be achieved.

Throughout our histories our countries have been at their best when we have lived up to the promise of those early dreamers. When we cherish all of our children – all of our people equally - regardless of gender, age, race or religion. When we welcome new arrivals with a céad míle fáilte, and open our hearts as well as our homes.

When we show the courage to defend the principle that all people are created equal, and we fight to protect those ‘unalienable rights’: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

When we become beacons of hope as well as of liberty, helping others to find their own paths to freedom, and the freedom to achieve freedom.

That is the promise of America, and it is the promise of Ireland too.

It defines our response to the invasion of Ukraine, because the war is an attack on the international community, and our hearts are filled with sympathy and understanding for the people in Ukraine as well as the huddled masses who have been forced to flee, to go west. Mr President, we thank you, your administration and your nation for the leadership you have shown on Ukraine. We stand with you, shoulder to shoulder for as long as it takes.

Mr President, twenty-five years ago a new band of dreamers and realists, men and women, peace-makers and idealists, came together to make a new promise to a new generation of people on this island. It was the promise of peace, of a future free from violence and the fear of violence.

America helped make that peace possible, and your country across the aisle has helped protect that peace in the years since.

Thank you for putting yourself on the line for Ireland on so many occasions throughout your career. Thank you for continuing to do so as President. By looking always to the future, you have helped us to move beyond the past, and build something better. You have made an enormous difference.

A Uachtaráin, is siombail na hÉireann í an seamróg chomh mór inniu agus a bhí inné.

Seasann sí dóibh siúd againn a rugadh anseo, ár gclann níos leithne ar fud an domhain, agus gach duine a thagann anseo chun tús a chur le saol nua.

Is Éireannaigh muid ó dhúchas, de rogha, agus le grásta Dé.

As politicians we are conditioned to look to the future, to ask: what comes next?

I think, sometimes it is important to pause for a moment and to acknowledge the significance of what has been achieved over the past twenty-five years.

Because, to grow up in the shadow of fear and violence is no childhood at all. To grow up free to dream – able to pursue life, love and happiness – is a remarkable legacy and one you helped to make possible.

Our mission now must be to keep this promise and honour the sacrifices that have been made by so many from across all communities in Northern Ireland and beyond.

Ireland is a great country but it is not a perfect country, none such exists, and we face our own challenges and concerns. But we have never lost the idealism of those earlier generations who dreamed of freedom and so much more.

We will never stop working to improve the lives of our people, fighting to protect our planet, and speaking out on the world stage for our shared values of freedom, democracy and liberty as well as for human rights and dignity.

Mr President, that is the story of Ireland, and thank you for making it your story too.