Irish Americans for Biden Harris

Irish-Americans, like all Americans, are struggling in the current economic downturn. As president, Barack Obama will provide urgently needed financial relief for working and middle class Americans. He will: Enact an emergency economic plan to jumpstart the economy; Provide a middle class tax cut of up to $1,000 for 95% of workers and their families; Provide affordable, quality, portable health care to every American, saving a typical family up to $2,500 each year; Make college affordable by providing a tax credit that makes the first $4000 of a college education free for most Americans. Barack Obama will focus on issues that are of special importance to Irish-Americans. Both Senator Obama and his running mate Senator Joe Biden come from Irish stock. Obama’s great, great great grandfather on his mother’s side, Fulmoth Kearney, set sail from County Offaly in 1850, arriving in New York and eventually settling in Ohio. Obama, who has lived and worked on the south side of Chicago, the hear...

Brian O'Dwyer As we move through this last month of presidential campaigning, the time has come for us all to assess the candidates and make a decision, based on what we believe is right for America in general, and Irish America in particular. The campaign, while at times seeming interminable, has nevertheless given us ample opportunity to assess the candidates, their advisors, and their positions. It is certainly no secret that I have been staunch supporter of Senator Hillary Clinton and I continue to believe that she would make a magnificent president. Nor is it a secret that during the course of the campaign I have been critical of Senator Obama's campaign. Nevertheless, the time has come to make our choice between the two candidates that will be on the ballot on November 4th. I am going to vote for Barack Obama. I have been a lifelong supporter of two causes that Irish Americans hold dear: freedom for northeast Ireland, and an end to the historical discrimination embodied i...

Annie Moore and Ellis Island Dear Friends, I appreciate the opportunity to share a few thoughts with everyone gathered here today. It’s an honor to join in celebrating the life of the first immigrant to enter our country through Ellis Island, Annie Moore. This is a great opportunity to celebrate the richness of our nation’s ethnic heritage, and the unique role that Irish-Americans have played in writing the American story. Today, you’re looking back at Annie’s life and at the lives of your ancestors. As you do this, I also encourage you to take a moment to look around you. Because in its own way, this gathering is just as remarkable as Annie’s first steps into the New World. She came with little more than her two brothers and the clothes on her back. She lived the hard tenement life of an immigrant in New York City, but she worked hard, overcame adversity, and raised a family. And now, just a couple generations after her passing, you are PhDs, investment counselors, actors and writers,...

by Mary Fitzgerald Mon, Oct 13, 2008 SUPPORTERS OF Barack Obama gathered in Dublin yesterday to attend the first fundraising event held in Ireland for the Democratic presidential candidate. More than 100 US citizens attended the fundraiser which was hosted by Massachusetts native Moira Shipsey at her Dalkey home yesterday afternoon. Ms Shipsey is a refugee lawyer who is married to senior counsel Bill Shipsey. Among the guests was novelist and filmmaker Rebecca Miller, who lives in Co Wicklow with her husband, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, and their two sons. Ms Miller said she had made her fourth donation to the Obama campaign yesterday but declined to say how much she had contributed. With three weeks to go until election day, Ms Miller said she was feeling "hopeful but very nervous at the same time". The US had been "hijacked" in the eight years since George W Bush was first elected, Ms Miller argued. "We need to get our country back and reclaim patriotism for ours...

by Michael P. Quinlin (Pittsburgh) –Sister Patricia McCann taught Catholic Church history at St. Vincent’s College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and is today an archivist at Carlow University, a Catholic women’s school in Pittsburgh. She belongs to the Sisters of Mercy order and has worked her whole life on issues of social justice. She is actively campaigning for the Obama/Biden ticket in Pennsylvania. Across town, Jim Lamb, who has been involved in economic development in Northern Ireland for over fifteen years and comes from a well-known Irish-American political family, has organized a coalition of Irish-Americans to campaign for Obama/Biden in western Pennsylvania. McCann and Lamb are part of a robust movement of Irish-Americans and Catholics in western Pennsylvania who are holding rallies, staffing phone banks and organizing voter registration drives over the next month. Their success may well influence whether Barak Obama or John McCain becomes the next president of the United States...

OPINION: John McCain was wrong on the peace process: an Obama presidency is in Ireland's interest, writes Jean Kennedy Smith WHEN IRISH Americans vote in November, the choice is clear: Barack Obama and Joe Biden are the candidates who are best prepared to lead us through the difficult times that lie ahead. For many Irish Americans, Ireland is extremely important. They want a president who is deeply committed - as Bill Clinton was - to peace in Northern Ireland and strong relations with Ireland. But commitment is not enough. Judgment is essential too. Unfortunately, John McCain's judgment has often been wrong on Northern Ireland. Beginning in 1993, I served as Bill Clinton's ambassador to Ireland. After decades of violence, a peace process was being born. The Clinton administration was considering whether to issue a visa for Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Féin, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, to come to the United States. By the end of December 1993, there ...