Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Governor Healey for an inspiring speech. Like so many Americans, she has made the trip back home to Ireland. They have pulled back to where their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were born and raised, visit our small, little towns and villages, and reconnect with family who, in many cases, people only ever heard of through stories from their relatives. It is probably fair to say that in Ireland, we are always talking about the diaspora. We talk about those people who left the country decades ago with little or nothing to their name, often making successful lives for themselves against enormous odds. It is often the case that the first-generation emigrants make the greatest sacrifices, allowing their children and grandchildren the space to succeed. That first wave of emigrants raised young families, working hard to give their children the opportunities that just did not exist in Ireland in the days when so many left.

I think, if the governor does not mind me saying so, that she is one of our great success stories. She is someone who we proudly count as one of our diaspora. She has had a remarkable success, including being elected as governor, but she has not forgotten her roots, which is so evident today, or indeed her ancestry. There are so many success stories like hers from the millions of Americans with Irish ancestry, achieving great success in politics, business, art and every walk of life. When I was preparing this speech and doing a little research, I discovered that we were born a few weeks apart from each other. I will not tell anybody how old we are but it is fair to say that in our relatively short lives, we have seen enormous change on both sides of the Atlantic.

While I have spent some time talking about ancestry, which is obviously very important and roots us in where we come from, it is undoubtedly as important to our identity of who we actually are. When we talk about the change that has taken place in our lives over the past decades, one piece of progress that has been made is the growing freedom to identify as a member of the LGBT community. For a long time, as the governor knows, people in this community lived in fear of persecution and prosecution in both Ireland and America. Because of a small number of very brave people, enormous change happened. They fought the powers that be, including the church, the State, and in some cases even their own families. They faced stigma, silence and sometimes violence. Progress was slow and it was not always linear. There were desperately sad times too in the 1980s and 1990s when far too many people died in America and Ireland barely acknowledged by either Government and not getting much-needed help.While progress was slow during this time, it never stopped. These numbers were committed people and they persevered. They are giants of the movement. America has Harvey Milk and events like Stonewall with those brave enough to take a stand that night and we, as rightly mentioned, have Senator David Norris, Tonie Walsh and countless other civil rights activists who courageously agitated for change. Because of these brave people, we can be in the Seanad today, in Pride month, welcoming you, a proud member of the LGBT community, at the invitation of our own Cathaoirleach, a really proud member of the LGBT community. That is a wonderful thing.

What I am trying to say is that this level of acceptance and progress did not happen overnight. Change was slow. I am reminded of a Hemingway quote. I am paraphrasing but he said that things happen slowly but then all at once. That is now how progress feels with the LGBT community. We have marriage equality in both America and Ireland, better employment opportunities and protections and anti-discrimination laws but we cannot take any of that for granted. We must remember that those rights were hard won. Unfortunately, we are seeing a rise in homophobia and particularly transphobia on both sides of the Atlantic. We were out marching in the Dublin Pride parade over the weekend, celebrating the journey that has been made, but we cannot afford to be complacent. In her role as attorney general, Ms Healey fought against discriminatory anti-LGBT legislation and I know she will do even more so now in her role as governor. We need people like her because progress, as we have seen in both of our lives, is easily eroded. I wish Ms Healey continued success and thank her for coming today.