President Bill Clinton’s speech to the Irish Diaspora forum in Dublin at the weekend has already gone down in history.
During the course of it he pledged to hold a similar economic forum for Irish American business in New York in 2012.
His remarks, quoted in part below, also sought to lift irish spirits after the recent deep recession.
“I think right now, the world thinks more of Ireland than many Irish think of their own country
What we have to decide is whether it’s a future of shared benefits and shared responsibilities or a winner-take-all future.
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This is a small country that loves its past but there’s a difference in knowing it and feeling it . . . Start conducting a huge number of oral histories, starting with people over 80 . . . so they can tell the story of how Ireland emerged from abject poverty to the fastest growing economy in Europe . . . And publicise it widely because too many young people feel like a failure because they have never known collective failure.
The last big decision you’ve got is what are you gonna do about the mortgage deal. The quicker you flush that out, the quicker you’re going to generate small business and domestic demand and growth.
Everybody in the world thinks you’ve done an unbelievable job of managing a miserable situation – but that’s cold comfort for the people who haven’t enough money to buy a suit let alone make a mortgage payment and are worried they’ll never have a job . . . You have to go get those people because you need them too. All of them.”
The only real cloud hanging over you is you’re still pretty dependent on exports to Europe . . . You’re good at exporting . . . China is not the only rising economy . . . You can do a lot for the Indians . . . Brazil is the most environmentally responsible big rising country on earth . . .
American companies now have two trillion dollars in cash reserves . . . You ought to target the companies that you know are rolling in dough.
People like us, we’re sort of professional Irish-Americans. We’re never happier in America than when we go to some Irish event and we tell each other what good Irish people we are and how much we love it. It’s like when we don’t do it, we have DTs or something . . .
You think you have a lot of tourists, but you could get a lot more . . . Dublin before the crash was the 16th most expensive city in the world, it’s now 43rd. That may be a bummer for a lot of you but it’s a marketing tool that you ought to be able to use . . . You already paid the misery, you might as well get some of the advantage of it.
Don’t spend all your time trying to keep bad things from happening. Spend lots of time trying to make good things happen.
10 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.gobdawpaddy | Oct 11, 2011, 06:55 AM EDT
He didn' address republican cage conditions up north because he was visiting the republic to consider the economic situation there. Actually I couldn't give a damn what their conditions are.
abhainn | Oct 10, 2011, 07:13 PM EDT
For Christ's sake, what is this crap? Poor Ireland, that we have sunk so low that this phoney, patronising stuff is shovelled at us: "People like us, we're sort of professional Irish-Americans. We're never happier in America than when we go to some Irish event and we tell each other what good Irish people we are and how much we love it. It's like when we don't do it, we have DTs or something..."
JBRAFTREE | Oct 10, 2011, 06:57 PM EDT
I hope to hell Ireland's financial people are not "Cooking the books", and I hope also that Bill Clinton isn't a closet anything...
jamieLM | Oct 10, 2011, 06:27 PM EDT
A pep talk from Bill. Maybe he's a closet cheerleader..."Give me a "V" - Go Ireland, Go." LOL Probably have to be an American to get this post.
joan1954 | Oct 10, 2011, 11:42 AM EDT
If Billy boy is planning a meeting here in the US, hold it outside of east coast so give those small corporations and entrepreneurial types a chance to attend. The large corporations are not the ones creating the jobs in the US it is the small firms that are. Mr. Clinton would be well advised to hold the meeting in St. Louis which is equidistant from all parts of the US. NY and Boston from the south are easy to get to or perhaps that is by design? If so Ireland is selling itself short.
Murph46 | Oct 10, 2011, 11:14 AM EDT
Yeah,believe everything the convicted liar says!
mcdolan | Oct 10, 2011, 10:14 AM EDT
Inspiring!
sirpeter | Oct 10, 2011, 09:27 AM EDT
Ah!! Billy's the man.All the negative talk gets nobody anywhere.The people of Ireland needed a reality check anyway.Selling eachother houses like lunatics and fueling house prices until they were at manic prices.With their three foreign holidays a year.Changing their cars every two years.And partying and spending like it was their last day on earth.The only problem was the FF government was doing it too.We got ripped off by the banks because nobody was sober.
LoyalCitizen | Oct 10, 2011, 08:43 AM EDT
"Everybody in the world thinks you’ve done an unbelievable job of managing a miserable situation" Bill Clinton high on his own self importance.........I for one would shoot every Politician, Judge, Solicitor, Bankers, Civil Servants in the history of the Irish State for falsifying the rule books of Ireland, financing pretentious American Corporations and stealing from Social Welfare Recipients to hide their mistakes.......What would dopey Bill say about me then?
gobdawpaddy | Oct 10, 2011, 08:30 AM EDT
It was a very upbeat speech with some tangible advice for Irish leaders. President Clinton is echoing the sentiment that is appearing on the editorial pages of most of the global financial press. Let's hope they are all correct in their assessment.