US fully behind peace process, vows Pence
VICE President Mike Pence has stressed the enduring commitment of the US to the peace process in Ireland.
Mr Pence said he and President Donald Trump hoped the friendship across the Atlantic would grow in their time in the White House.
In an at times emotional speech, in which he claimed that all he achieved in life was due to his own Irish heritage, Mr Pence told a gala dinner in Washington that Ireland and the US would always be entwined. ‘We may be separated by an ocean but the American people have always been bound by kinship to the Irish people and we always will,’ he said.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny was among the guests at the Ireland Funds America event. It was held ahead of his first meeting with Mr Trump in the White House yesterday.
Mr Pence made clear the new administration was fully committed to securing the gains of the peace process. He said: ‘It’s an honour to be here on behalf of President Trump to reaffirm the United States’s enduring commitment to the Republic of Ireland, to Northern Ireland, to the peace process and above all else to the timeless and enduring friendship between our people and yours.’
Mr Pence added that ‘the advance of peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland is one of the great success stories of the past 20 years’.
He also spoke with fondness about his grandfather Richard Michael Cawley, who emigrated to the US from Co. Sligo in 1923.
He said he thought about him repeatedly during inauguration day in January, recalling: ‘As I stood on that inauguration stage I just kept thinking of that Irishman... about what he would be thinking about looking down from glory
‘The truth is that whatever honours I will receive over the course of my service as Vice President, to receive an honour in the name of the Irish people and my Irish heritage will count as chief among them, because all that I am and all that I will ever be and all the service that I will ever make is owing to my Irish heritage.’
Mr Kenny then presented Mr Pence with a roll book from a Co. Sligo school that included the name of his grandfather.
‘The Vice President has joined the distinguished list of Irish Americans who have occupied the highest political offices in the United States,’ said the Taoiseach.
Mr Kenny added: ‘We take special pride in the fact that, for the first time in the history of this great republic, one Irish American has succeeded another (Joe Biden) in the office of Vice President.’