It’s a great honor to be with all of you. It really and truly is. And Niall, thank you very much for your kind introduction. To Patricia Harty, to Declan Kelly, to distinguished guests, to the Consul General, it’s good to be with you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the honor of your company and really also for the honor and inspiration of your example and your success here tonight.
Congratulations to Charles Carey, to Denis Purcell and the rest of the Wall Street 50 for your remarkable achievements. You know for those who dare to doubt the business acumen of the Irish-American community, it is worth repeating that -- and let us do it one more time -- that just a week ago, the largest merger in Stock Exchange history was successfully completed by a Carey, by a Duffy and a Donahue.
You know, led in large part by our men and women of Irish descent in American business – and Wall Street in particular – this has become a very powerful force, probably one of the most powerful forces for wealth creation that our world has ever known. I want to thank everyone associated with Irish America and Financial Dynamics for this unique opportunity to celebrate our shared heritage and really to promote that common, creative cause between that enterprising Irish spirit and that enterprising American spirit…
As I look out at this distinguished company, and especially at the Irish-born among you, I am reminded of the timeless declaration once made by George Bernard Shaw, who quipped: “…I showed my appreciation of my native land in the usual Irish way: by getting out of it as soon as I possibly could.”
Now whether you are American-born or whether you are Irish-born, all of you have no doubt grown up as I have: with an innate awareness of your Irishness woven into your personal fabric -- I know, I know, sometimes woven far too tightly into your personal fabric. But bear with me, because the story of the Irish and really the Irish diaspora is a story of uncommon sacrifice and grinding hardship. It is the story of resilience, of perseverance, but also of pride, of enterprise, of creativity, and of the indomitable freedom of the human spirit.
To paraphrase the great poet, Shane MacGowan, it is the story of those with the unimaginable courage to spend weeks on ships, traveling to a hoped-for land of opportunity that some of them would never see. And tonight in this room, amid their spirits, we really stand on the shoulders of those who had not the opportunity to shine in the boardroom or the trading floor or the statehouse, but who made sure that, one day, we could.
“Long suffering in the bruise-colored dawn of a new world…” the poet said, look at your hands, look at your hands tonight. If they are smooth and clean, it is because theirs were rough and dirty and worn.
Consider, on this night of astonishing achievement and celebration, one of the more pleasant ironies of our times. Consider the triumphant fact that the very place that many of our forebears were forced to flee has become a hotbed of commercial activity and economic prosperity.
Today, Ireland is second only to Luxembourg in per capita GDP growth among EU nations. As recently as 20 years ago, stifled by a 20% jobless rate, and Ireland today is now an economic pacesetter, creating enough jobs to accommodate 200,000 Polish workers and thousands of new arrivals from Latvia, Lithuania and Nigeria.
And why wouldn’t the land of poets, of saints, and of scholars embrace globalization and throw open its doors to multinational companies -- with predictable corporate tax rates, labor flexibility, aggressive investment in education, talent, and technology, and unprecedented openness to new capital and new ideas?
The contemporary economist Richard Florida has described Ireland as that country, unlike any other in the world, with a higher percentage of workers in what he calls the creative class – that is to say scientists, engineers, architects, designers and other knowledge workers.
And – take note, American policymakers -- universal health care coverage has also contributed to that environment that fosters individual creativity, that expands business growth, expands opportunity and job generation.
U.S-Ireland two-way trade has skyrocketed, reaching $37 billion in value last year. That’s phenomenal. The Atlantic that James Joyce described as “a bowl of bitter tears?” That same land has now become an ocean of opportunity, reaching America, reaching Ireland, reaching out to our neighbors around the world.
I submit to you that our challenge now is to build on the strengths and creativity of our people, so that our success becomes truly exponential. To pursue a business and econmic strategy that is, first and foremost, about building a healthy, skilled and mobile workforce.
As states, and indeed as a nation, we need to be both informed by the modern Irish spirit and experience, and re-energized by both the Irish and American spirit of creativity, of humanity, of innovation. We must consciously elevate and reinvest in building up not only our physical infrastructure…but we must build up the productivity of our creative assets.
We have to “begin to think of creativity as a ‘common good,’” as Florida said, “like liberty or security…something essential that belongs to everyone and must always be nourished, renewed and maintained – or else it will slip away.”
As Irish Americans, we have an important role to play in bringing greater rationality, compassion, common sense and global market awareness not only to the immigration debate…but to the debates of economic and homeland security; to the challenge of climate crisis; to south-to-north migration; and America’s future moral leadership of this increasingly smaller planet.
For my friends the entrepreneurialism and world engagement currently being unleashed in Ireland was really always there; it always was. It’s only relatively recently in our history that that freedom and the opportunity to emerge and that spirit of creativity, openness and innovation and -- yes, most importantly what we celebrate tonight -- hard work, that ability to risk action on the faith that we can make a better tomorrow -- that is the thing that has built our country into a world power in decades past and it is still very much alive today.
It is alive today in the acts of people like Niall Mellon who…is building thousands of new affordable, quality housing in Africa. It is alive today in the story of each and every one of you that we celebrate tonight in the Wall Street 50.
You know, tonight’s a proud moment of celebration and reflection. And tomorrow we return to the challenge at hand – the challenge of taking your success to an even higher level, lest it slip away from us altogether. This is not a time to rock back; this is a time to forge ahead. The past is settled, but the future is not. And it’s ours to make, and it’s ours to remake. God bless you all and thanks very, very much.