H.E. Ms Maura Healey:

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. I thank all the Members of Seanad Éireann, Ambassador Cronin, distinguished guests and staff for their incredibly warm welcome of me. It is a profound honour to be here in this Chamber with you. It is just over 100 years since this body was created to help lead a free Ireland, and it is 60 years tomorrow since President John F. Kennedy spoke in this very building and launched a new era of Irish-American relations. It is 30 years since the decriminalisation of gay life in Ireland. It is thanks to this body and all those who fought for that cause, and especially the courageous leadership of Senator Norris, that we are here today. It has been 19 years since we secured marriage equality in Massachusetts and eight years since both the citizens of Ireland and the Supreme Court of the United States, just one month apart, declared that love is love, once and for all. It is six years since Ireland elected its first openly gay Taoiseach, and nearly six months since I took office as the first openly lesbian woman elected Governor of the United States by Massachusetts, the most Irish state in our country.

Our nations are once again united by history, as President Kennedy said. In our journey together, the doors have opened wider. I want to thank Senators for the statements of support that I received following my election last November, and the congratulations that were made in this Chamber upon the vote. It means the world to me that leaders of this land, home to my great-grandparents and my grandparents, were watching and cheering me on. The first messages to reach me from Ireland were from my cousins in Ballinasloe, County Galway, Kitty and John Duke. Along with millions of Americans, including President Biden and Ambassador Cronin, I cherish my Irish roots and I am grateful to the brave Irish women and men who made my life possible. Today, I am thinking of my late father, Jerry Healey, and his parents, Jeremiah Healey and Margaret Riordan, who emigrated from Kerry and Cork, Kilgarvan and Macroom, specifically. I am also thinking of my maternal great-grandmother, Katherine Tracey. Katherine left Ballinasloe in 1912, when she was about 16. There were six of them, and one of her sisters had gone on to America. Her mother died and she was left to care for the little ones. Once they had reached a certain age, her father felt it was okay for her to go and join her sister. She arrived in New York by herself. The person who was supposed to meet her was not there and she somehow made her way up to Boston in Massachusetts. After working hard, cleaning other people's homes for a few years, she met my great-grandfather and settled down in Newburyport, Massachusetts, winning over her American in-laws with her warmth and kindness. She was a gentle and well-read woman. She was proud, yet humble, and she always filled us with stories of Ireland - and for a long time, because she lived to be 96 years old.My mother, Catherine Tracy Healey, was given the name Catherine Tracy for my great-grandmother, and I happen to be Maura Tracy Healey to carry on that name. We hold memories of my great-grandmother deep in our hearts. She taught us to love Ireland and inspired us to keep in close contact with all our cousins and family here, to the point that just a few years ago, a dozen of us made our way over for the wedding of Tommy and Claire Boyle in Newry. It was my first experience of an Irish wedding. I think I have recovered. It was wonderful.

In 1999, I had a special trip back home, when I visited Ballinasloe with my mother and my grandmother. We were taken by my cousins to the family farm my great-grandmother had left, and met my uncle Joe, who took us around the old farmstead and showed us where the original foundation had been left standing. I picked up one of the stones from the foundation and - I think the statute of limitations has probably passed - took that stone home with me. I did so because wherever I have lived since, I always want to remember my roots and my foundation.

Our Irish ancestors left behind everything they knew, and worked hard to give us all we would need, including in future generations. I was raised with the values they passed on, such as a love for family as well as the need to take responsibility for the welfare of your broader community and to look out for those who need a helping hand and extend it. I am grateful for this gift, and I am awed by the fact it is just one of millions of immigrants' stories that built Massachusetts and America. They are the threads, woven together by time, that form a powerful fabric bringing our nations together, across an ocean and through history.

That is especially the case in Massachusetts, where, by ancestry, culture and proximity, we claim the closest ties. Perhaps that is also the reason we love politics, some have said. The important thing is that our relationship with Ireland is not one of distant memory or hazy nostalgia but is rooted in shared values that are deeply relevant to the moment we are in and the challenges we face. It evolves through the exchanges of people, ideas and resources. It is a living and breathing connection, one we have a duty to nurture, grow and use for the good of all people. There is much for us to learn from one another as we work to protect the rights and freedoms for which we have fought hard.

That is what we are doing this week on this, my first trip as governor. My administration's vision for Massachusetts is one that provides opportunity and well-being for all our people, drives innovations that heal and help humanity and shines as a beacon of human rights, equality and freedom. Our relationship with Ireland is a powerful and necessary resource for advancing each of those goals. Already, our economic partnership is reflected in hundreds of companies employing thousands of people on both sides of the Atlantic, with billions of dollars, and euro as well, in trade and investment and nearly 200 research and development partnerships driving change throughout the world.

We were pleased to welcome the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment just a few weeks ago to the State House in Boston as he and his team highlighted Irish innovation. We met this week in Dublin with leaders in business, technology, science and education to learn from and share with them all that Massachusetts has to offer. I am joined today by our secretary of economic development, Yvonne Hao, and our secretary of energy and environmental affairs, Rebecca Tepper, as well as leaders from Massachusetts' industry and academia. We are here as “team Massachusetts” to build on relationships with all of you, forge new connections and fuel the ideas and partnerships that can move us forward to a better and more prosperous future for all.

If family is something we are, friendship is something we do, as the great transatlantic writer Nuala O'Faolain put it.What we do, especially what we do right now, matters. Our partnerships in technology make life better and make the world more connected, especially if we are intentional about equity, and the impacts it has, and access. Our partnerships in healthcare and medical innovation save lives, like the Covid vaccines developed by Massachusetts scientists and Irish scientists, which saved millions of lives around the world. Our partnerships in clean energy can lead the world to a just transition that protects our planet and brings health and opportunity to every community. In Massachusetts we are leaning into offshore wind, embracing that as a technology. We know Ireland is also a leader in embracing what we need to do to address our climate situation.

We are embracing our maritime heritage to advance innovations in blue technology. The Atlantic Ocean no longer divides us but unites us in our understanding of planetary systems that we all depend on and the potential of our oceans, seas and skies to bring sustainable benefits to all. President Kennedy said 60 years ago: “The supreme reality of our time is our indivisibility as children of God and our common vulnerability on this planet.” We have a different understanding of our planet’s vulnerability today but this truth is unchanged. If we embrace our shared destiny, we will not only meet the climate challenge but also demonstrate the unity the world needs to meet all the challenges that confront us.

The truth is we share more than history. We share intellectual firepower nurtured through a passion for education in Ireland and Massachusetts. We share a culture and infrastructure of strategic partnership built on generations of exchange and growth, even if it was to explore pizza.

We share something else that has never been more clear. It is the belief that in this moment we must move forward together. In fact, we can only succeed if everyone succeeds and has the opportunity to exercise their rights, be free from discrimination, reach their full potential, share their talents and live as their true selves. That value, too, is the reason I am here and able to be here. Massachusetts is home to America's first public school, public library, public park and subway system. The state led the cause of abolition and was the first to make healthcare universally accessible and to declare that love is love. Ireland, by the same token, for generations has been famed for its commitment to global human rights. Wherever deep suffering appears in the world, Irish people will be found there ready to lend their heart, soul and hands to relieve it.

This work has deepened our relationship. We are proud of the role Massachusetts leaders such as Congressman Richie Neal, along with countless private citizens, have played in fostering peace and justice in Northern Ireland. President Biden’s commitment to supporting the Belfast Good Friday Agreement is shared widely and deeply in our state. We are proud one of our own, Joe Kennedy, is in the role of special envoy.

At the same time, we have been blessed in Massachusetts by Irish people who, as former President, Mary McAleese said, dedicate their lives to building bridges. Recently I appointed new folks to our office for refugees and immigrants. Ronnie Millar is the new director of strategic initiatives, a critical role at this moment of global disruption. He emigrated from Belfast in 1993 to work as a computer engineer but soon turned to a career of helping fellow immigrants. He returned to Northern Ireland to do cross-community work with the Corrymeela centre. Then for 12 years he led Boston’s Irish immigrant centre, which for more than three decades has received funding from the Irish Government through its immigrant support programme. Under Ronnie’s leadership, the centre embraced the shared humanity of all migrants, serving more than 3,000 families every year who came to Boston from 120 countries around the world.He has helped to build new bridges across all social divides and now he will be helping to lead that work for us as a state. Mr. Millar is just one example of the incredible Irish talent that we continue to benefit from in the state of Massachusetts. Ireland and Massachusetts have both taken long journeys toward freedom and equality for our people. We have come to be known, however, for our commitment to always doing better and showing a way forward for others. I recognise the leadership of this Chamber, in particular, along with all those who have worked to make Ireland a better place for its citizens by addressing the injustices of the past, securing reproductive rights and advancing climate action, Travellers rights and migrant safety, to name just a few of the issues that have been worked on and advanced. The cause of human rights is woven through our shared history and it draws us closer today.

In Massachusetts, at a time when, unfortunately, in parts of the United States of America people's rights, freedoms, histories and identities are being attacked and undermined, we are ensuring that women and all who need it have access to reproductive healthcare. In Massachusetts, we are eradicating racial injustice from our legal system, economy, schools and healthcare systems and every realm of life. We are defending the rights of every member of the gay, lesbian and trans community to live their lives free from discrimination, abuse, violence or other barriers.

As the House will know, this work is personal for me. It is also intersectional work. It is why, as a civil rights lawyer in the Massachusetts attorney general's office, I fought not only for marriage equality but for victims of discrimination and exploitation of all kinds. This work is inspired by my Irish foundations, in fact, and the deep kindness and fierce passion for freedom for the recognition of the dignity and worth of each person, from the emigrant homes of Massachusetts to the great rooms of state here in Leinster House. I am grateful to all who came before me and I am grateful for those who advance our cause today.

The movements for gay rights, trans rights and women's rights in Ireland are all strong, visible and worthy of our attention and gratitude. Together, we have reached a point where I could arrive in Ireland as the out governor of Massachusetts and make my first stop at a Pride reception at the embassy last evening. I can speak as a guest here today in this Chamber and I can sit for dinner afterwards with an LGBT caucus and others led by the Cathaoirleach. Later this week, I can meet with the Taoiseach, who was elected as a gay man in 2017 with his own immigrant story. In our business development meetings, I can tell prospective workers, students, employers or investors seeking to make a life in Massachusetts or Ireland that whoever you are and whomever you love, you will be welcomed, embraced and respected. This is a competitive advantage in today's world. It is one that Ireland and Massachusetts recognise and embrace.

We know there is more work to be done. I think of the young people today who are experiencing a surge of mental health issues, including anxiety and depression. This is due in part to the pandemic and in part to hearing voices of hate, vitriol and division around them and threatening their very lives and futures. We must stand strong and never go backwards. It was not so long ago when the story of Irish-American unity and the story of gay liberation would never have been told together. I am here to say these are the stories of the same people and threads of the same fabric that have forever bound us and will bind us across time and strengthen our mutual futures.We stand at a critical moment in world history. We face big challenges including a pandemic's long tail and the loss and instability that pandemic has wrought, a climate crisis and its harsh and growing impacts on many communities, especially the most vulnerable among us, humanitarian tragedies and deep inequalities both among and within nations, violent conflict in Europe and the resulting suffering and displacement and the resurgence across the West of regressive and anti-democratic ideologies being advanced through the familiar means of scapegoating, exploitation and division. We must stand together now not only to celebrate our progress but to meet these challenges, to rise to the moment and to show a better way forward. We are stronger in that work because more of us are able to contribute our whole selves to the effort. Let us never take this achievement for granted and let us always work to open the doors for others.

I thank Senators for their friendship and I thank them once again for the opportunity for me to be here with my family from Massachusetts and my Irish family to address this most historic and significant body.