US Presidents and Ireland, Part III

A few weeks ago I looked at the tours of Ireland by Ulysses S. Grant, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon.  You can find that post here.

Now let’s take a look at the visits from American presidents since the 1980s.

RONALD REAGAN

Ronald and Nancy Reagan in Ballyporeen – photo credit: Independent.ie

Earlier this year, RTE’s History Show did a podcast on Reagan’s visit to Ireland, which you can find here.  It highlights the mixed reception he was subjected to throughout his visit, given American policies in Central and South America at the time.

Reagan arrived at Shannon for a four-day visit on 1 June 1984.  He received an honorary degree, which caused quite a bit of controversy, at NUI Galway

On 3 June, Reagan visited his great-grandfather’s hometown of Ballyporeen in Tipperary.  Before his visit, he had little knowledge of his family roots because his father had been orphaned at a young age, so there was not much of a sense of connection to the family’s past.

It’s difficult to express my appreciation to all of you.  I feel like I’m about to drown everyone in a bath of nostalgia.

-Ronald Reagan at Ballyporeen

He stopped in at Ballyporeen’s Ronald Reagan Lounge, the facade and fittings of which were later moved to the Reagan Presidential Library in California.

From there, Reagan went to Dublin, where he stayed at the US Embassy in Phoenix Park and addressed a joint session of the Irish National Parliament, highlighted by his celebration of the connection between the US and Ireland, as well as addressing IRA attacks in Northern Ireland and London.

Reagan’s remarks at Ballyporeen

Address before a Joint Session of the Irish National Parliament

BILL CLINTON

Bill Clinton arrived in Northern Ireland at a key moment in 1995.  His decision to previous year to grant a visa to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams had garnered both praise and high levels of criticism.  He became the first sitting US President to visit Northern Ireland, arriving in Belfast on 30 November.  He was self-consciously leading the US to intervene in British-Northern Ireland relations, calling for reconciliation to end the Troubles.

Over the last 3 years since I have had the privilege to be the President of the United States I have had occasion to meet with Nationalists and to meet with Unionists and to listen to their sides of the story. I have come to the conclusion that here, as in so many other places in the world, from the Middle East to Bosnia, the divisions that are most important here are not the divisions between opposing views or opposing interests. Those divisions can be reconciled. The deep divisions, the most important ones, are those between the peacemakers and the enemies of peace: those who, deep, deep down inside, want peace more than anything and those who, deep down inside, can’t bring themselves to reach out for peace; those who are in the ship of peace and those who would sink it; those who bravely meet on the bridge of reconciliation and those who would blow it up.

-Bill Clinton in Derry

Clinton’s visit was considered extremely successful, leading the United States to play an undeniably key role in the peace process.  With George Mitchell as lead negotiator, the Good Friday agreement was agreed in 1998.

Clinton made two further presidential trips to Ireland. In September 1998 his trip included a visit to Omagh, shortly after the bombing there.  And he returned in December 2000, including a visit to Dublin and Drumconda.

GEORGE W. BUSH

https://www.c-span.org/video/standalone/?182453-1/presidential-interview-irish-television

George W. Bush’s visit to Ireland was marked by controversy before it started.  He conducted an exclusive RTE interview (seen above) with Carole Coleman from the White House the day before his visit, causing tensions with tough questions on the Iraq War, conduct of American soldiers, terrorism, and weapons of mass destruction.  RTE had planned another interview with Laura Bush, but this was cancelled.

Bush arrived at Shannon on 25 June 2004, staying at Dromoland Castle in County Clare and attending a two-day European Union-US summit.  He also met with Bernie Ahern and Mary McAleese.

His visit was marked by the need for high levels of security, and protests against the Iraq War and American military actions.

BARACK OBAMA

The most recent Presidential trip to Ireland was that of Barack Obama in 2011.  He arrived in Dublin with the First Lady on the morning of 23 May, meeting with Mary McAleese and Enda Kenny.

Next, he traveled to his ancestral hometown of Moneygall, County Offaly, shaking hands with as many as possible who came out to greet him in the rain.

The Obamas in Moneygall – photo credit: New York Times

After enjoying a pint of Guinness, the Obamas headed back to Dublin.  President Obama gave a speech in College Green before departing for London amidst the Iceland volcanic ash cloud.

Now, of course, an American doesn’t really require Irish blood to understand that ours is a proud, enduring, centuries-old relationship; that we are bound by history and friendship and shared values.  And that’s why I’ve come here today, as an American President, to reaffirm those bonds of affection.

-Barack Obama in Dublin

White House image gallery of President Obama’s visit

College Green Speech

New York Times coverage of the trip

RTE Coverage

Is féidir linn

 

US Presidents and Ireland, Part I

Postcard purchased in Belfast

With the US presidential election season mercifully nearing its end, I thought it would be interesting to look at the long history of American presidents with Ireland.  For today’s post, we’ll look at one of the key, distinctive elements which characterized the Scotch-Irish revival of the 1880s and 1890s: long lists of American presidents of Ulster descent.

These included Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison, although sometimes others with more dubious links were added.

(And add William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama since the late nineteenth century.)

The Scotch-Irish Society of America, founded in 1889, focused on celebrating ethnic pride while emphasizing the longevity of their group’s American settlement.  Rather than contrast themselves with more recent Catholic Irish immigrants, they focused on the New England Puritans.  The society emphasized that the Scotch-Irish were pioneers of civilization and guardians of American freedom.  While Puritans dominated the writing of American history, the Scotch-Irish saw themselves as “doers” who had up till then neglected to record their own contributions.  They asserted their unique role in the formation of the American republic, and were anxious to set themselves apart from the Puritans.

In emphasizing this historical role in the United States, the Scotch-Irish utilized the list of American presidents of Ulster descent to underscore the longevity of their group in America as well as the authenticity of their ties back to Ireland.  Their most celebrated presidential link was Andrew Jackson, who represented the ascent to the pinnacle of American society, showing that the Scotch-Irish were key elements in shaping the direction and character of the country.

The Scotch-Irish Society of America also succeeded in attracting future presidents of the United States to speak at its congresses: William McKinley, Woodrow Wilson, and Herbert Hoover.

In Ireland, unionists drew upon the Scotch-Irish revival to help form an “Ulsterman” identity with the aim of ideologically unifying all Irish Protestants.  They celebrated the Scotch-Irish “backwoodsman” and frontier identities, the determination to seek liberty and to stand up for what they believed to be right.

Long lists of American Presidents of “Ulster stock” were also enumerated by unionists.  James Logan, in Ulster in the X-Rays, wrote, “When he emigrates, the Ulsterman, like most Irishmen, ‘makes good,’ and he frequently rises to the highest positions.  Almost one half of the great line of Presidents of the United States came of Ulster stock, and McKinley’s old ancestral home may still be seen in the neighbourhood of Dervock, County Antrim.  This is a debt America owes to Ulster which is sometimes forgotten.”

Unionists called upon these American “debts” in an attempt to gain international support for their own movement in the face of widespread American support for Irish nationalism.

Of course, many others throughout Irish and Irish-American history may have tended to take an entirely different viewpoint on this subject, as voiced by William V. Shannon in 1963’s The American Irish: “On March 18, 1962, the United Press International distributed a dispatch from Philadelphia headlined, ‘Toast to President Starts Donnybrook,’ which read: ‘The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick were anything but at their annual dinner Saturday night when Sen. Joseph S. Clark (D-Pa), proposed a toast to President John F. Kennedy, the ‘only Irishman ever elected President of the United States.’… In this as in other matters of public controversy, I think Senator Clark is right.”

Next time: A look at visits by US Presidents to Ireland and some of the more recent political policies.