KEY QUOTES

■ On Trump and US immigration: “I think President Trump accidentally touched a raw nerve. But there is a fierce anti-immigration attitude in a land built on immigration. The atmosphere is poisonous.”

■ On problems facing returning Irish emigrants: “It’s extraordinary. They did the country a favour in the downturn by emigrating. Now as they return they face a most unfair obstacle course.”

■ On president Barack Obama’s failure to deliver immigration reform: “I believe president Obama felt he had to choose between immigration reform and his work on affordable healthcare. He could not fight two major battles at one time.”

■ On his own successful Irish law to end Good Friday pub closing in Ireland: “The pub business has been my business for 40 years and I was chairman of the publicans’ organisation back in 1982. I felt very strongly about the hypocrisy associated with this closure, often more honoured in the breach. I note publicans in one town, Newmarket, Co Cork, will voluntarily close this Good Friday. That’s fine too.”

■ On his determination to emigrate to the USA: “When president John F Kennedy visited Galway in 1963 I was there with my mother. I told her I was going to emigrate and live in America. I always wanted to see if I could ‘hack’ it Stateside. Thirty-five years later, in 1998, at the age of 47, I achieved that goal.”

■ On the plight of the Irish illegal immigrants in the USA: “They are in an impossible predicament and always at risk of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Many have been in the USA over 20 years and find they cannot return for important family occasions.”

■ On Irish-US relations: “There are deep and close links dating from the Famine. Americans see Ireland as a safe and friendly country.”