Irish president marks St. Patrick's Day in Stamford
by Louis Porter
Staff Writer
STAMFORD - Bonds with Ireland, always strong in this part of the world and especially on St. Patrick's Day, were strengthened when Irish President Mary McAleese addressed a gathering of about 1,000 at the Stamford Marriott hotel last night.
Accompanied by the sound of a bagpipe and a small crowd of security officers, state and local officials, and corporate leaders, McAleese swept into the black-tie dinner held in her honor by The Wild Geese Inc., an Irish cultural organization.
McAleese, 51, the first native of Northern Ireland to become president in the south, began with a greeting in Gaelic, "the language that many of your grandparents would have brought with them. I think we have every single name in the Irish telephone directory here. I couldn't believe it when I looked at the list of names."
She went on to talk about the history of the Irish in America, the events of Sept. 11, prospects of peace in Northern Ireland and the modern period of prosperity in her country.
Just as St. Patrick emigrated to Ireland with nothing but his ability, the Irish came to the rest of the world, and as hope sprang from the violence of Northern Ireland, so it did from the terrorist attacks of September, she said.
One in five of those killed at the World Trade Center is September were Irish or Irish-American, McAleese noted. Many were police, firefighters and others who "gave their lives in the service of other," she said.
Among the political leaders on hand to greet McAleese were Mayor Dannel Malloy, Bishop William Lori and Lt. Gov. M. Jodi Rell.
"It's a great thing," Lori said of the visit. "I have found across the board that Fairfield County is a place where our heritage and individuality can be celebrated."
Stamford's mayor agreed.
"As Americans, second only to our American heritage is our Irish heritage," Malloy said. "There's great fondness and longing for Ireland, and of course Ireland has been great to America."
Contributions of the Irish immigrants to the United States were noted many times.
"They sought refuge and they came to our shores," Rell said, adding that the immigrants brought a rich history and culture with them.
"Every so often, we have to remind ourselves that St. Patrick was not an Irishman," McAleese said. The saint was born somewhere in Britain, perhaps in Scotland.
"He was an immigrant. He was our most legendary immigrant and maybe that is the whole point of St. Patrick," she said. "In many ways he was foreshadowing the story of the Irish immigrant in the rest of the world."
The Wild Geese, Inc.
P.O. Box 3294
Stamford, CT 06905
(203) 661-9616
info@thewildgeese.org