Production and distribution of City Club forums and ideastream public media are made possible by PNC and the United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland, Inc.. Good afternoon and welcome to the City Club of Cleveland, where we are devoted to conversations of consequence that helped democracy thrive.

It's Friday, November 10th, and I am Mark Owens, vice president of marketing and Communications at Teneo on the Honorary Consul of Ireland in Ohio.

It is my distinct honor to welcome her excellently.

Geraldine Byrne, Nation Ambassador of Ireland to the United States.

Someone I've got to know very well since her appointment to her role in 2022.

Over the last several years, Ireland has shown remarkable resilience in the face of global economic shocks.

The nation is working through the aftermath of Brexit, the COVID 19 pandemic, and upended peace and stability from the devastating consequences of the war in Ukraine.

This also marks 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement, which ended most of the violence of the troubles of the North of Ireland, a place I called home for 20 plus years.

Now its relationship with Ohio has only grown stronger.

Direct flights from Cleveland to Dublin, Ireland positions Cleveland and Northeast Ohio as a global destination.

The direct route to Ireland is also estimated to generate $85 million of economic impact on the Northeast Ohio economy over the next three years.

Many of us in this room, including my colleagues at Teneo, played a critical role in securing this new route, one that is performing quite well.

A native of County Louth, Ambassador Byrne Neeson assumed her role as Ireland's 19th ambassador to the United States in August 2022.

Previously, she spent five years as Ireland's ambassador to the United States and served in the Security Council as an elected member.

During her career, Ambassador Byrne Neeson has served in Brussels, New York, Paris, Vienna and Helsinki and was also Secretary General of Ireland's Economic Management Council, where from 2011 to 2014, she was the highest ranking fema Moderating this conversation today is a wonderful Karina VanVleet, the CEO of Cleveland Council on World Affairs and co-chair of the City Club Global Issues Member Committee.

Carina has also served as a political affairs officer at the United Nations from 2006 to 2014 and served as a senior advisor to the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Forum.

If you have any questions for our speaker, you can text it to 3305415794.

That's 3305415794.

And the city club staff will try and work it into the second half of the program.

Members and Friends of the City Club of Cleveland please join me in welcoming Ambassador Byrne, Nathan and Karina van Fleet Arena.

Thank you, Mark and Ambassador Bernie son as a proud member of the City Club of Cleveland.

Allow me to welcome you to the stage and to welcome you for your second time to Cleveland.

It's the ambassador's second visit to our city.

We're delighted to have you back.

And you're here, understand, for a couple of days in Cleveland.

And to begin, we would love to hear about your program visit.

Well, thank you very much, Cory.

And it's absolutely wonderful to be back.

I promised on my first very brief visit that I would get back.

I've just been, as Markland has said here for one year.

I think it says something that I'm back here again.

It says something about the depth and the warmth of the relations that we have with Cleveland.

I wanted to recognize your former ambassador to Ireland, Ed Crawford, who's here with us today.

And, of course, it part of my visit is really it's a celebratory one.

I'm here, so to speak, to cut the ribbon for Marco and our Marco and our wonderful honorary consul here in Cleveland.

You know, it was a strategic decision for Ireland to open the consulate here, but we made a fantastic choice when we decided that Mark would be the man to carry the flag for Ireland here in Cleveland.

He's already been active, I know, because he was on the job when I last came.

But today is poetic in a way, and that we get to cut the ribbon and say he's up and running.

So you all know him at make use of him now.

I also have the the happy task of being on my team.

Marilyn with us today, tomorrow night with the ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians for a testimonial dinner with Marilyn.

Matt Madigan and and friends.

I also, of course, won't miss my quick 48 hour visit not to meet some of your local political class.

I look forward to speaking with the governor this afternoon.

I'll also be working at during the day in conversation with Chris Ronayne and tomorrow meeting some of the business community.

So it's a visit that covers, of course, political and economic relations.

The most important thing I do every day in my job is about the people to people relations between our two nations.

Importantly, Cleveland ranks exceptionally, if I may say, your our top one of our top ten homes for of Irish America, if I can use that term.

You have over 12% of your population in this great state who have roots in Ireland.

To many, many, many of you, from my last visit from Mayo, many from Echo, I love to recognize that straight away.

And so I'm looking forward to meeting people this evening.

I know there'll be a reception hosted by the Mayo contingent, the Mayo Association, marking the opening of our honorary consulate.

So all round in a way, celebrate re.

But with that work element in there.

Well wonderful that this visit is all about celebration.

And as you alluded to, there are longstanding and deep ties between Cleveland and Ireland.

And obviously with the inauguration of the Director Lingus flight in May, we here are very excited about the future possibilities for Cleveland area businesses to be able to use Ireland as a gateway into Europe.

And I'm wondering from from your perspective, how could we going forward, continue to further strengthen this great relationship between the Cleveland area and Ireland?

Well, you know, I used the word poetic once, so this would be my last time because Irish people are always accused of speaking in and poetry or narrative.

I think it is a nice poetic bookend.

You have a Saint Patrick's Day parade that 175 years old here, and many of the people who came and marched in that parade for the first time didn't leave the country.

I'm proud to represent today out of choice.

They left out of necessity and in many cases because they couldn't feed their children.

Today, we're looking at this remarkable development of the only international flight out of Cleveland Airport into the country.

I'm so proud to represent the people who left Ireland under duress would not recognize the country I represent today.

And that's a good thing in my view.

And we are a dynamic, progressive, 21st century, tiny island that hasn't changed.

We're still stuck out there in the Atlantic.

But when you look at us, we are a leading.

And I say that advisedly, a leading member of the European Union, 50 years.

A member of the European Union again this year, the most dynamic economy in the eurozone.

So we offer a huge opportunity to Cleveland in both directions.

So I always speak about the local relationships in the context of the bigger relationship we have economically here in the United States.

The US is Ireland's biggest single trading partner.

Our biggest source of export.

So there is no doubt that the economic relationship between the United States and our own just primordial for Ireland.

We have in Ireland almost 2000 US companies who are working and a number of those are local here in M in Cleveland.

I know that I'm not going to have to look at the two.

I don't bludgeon the name Squire Patton Boggs at law Eton Power Steris Sterilization Cock Cock Concentric Concentrix.

Am I saying that correctly?

Nearly an hour?

Nearly.

I heard from the honorary consul, so I'm getting there at all.

Already investing in our part of that huge investment in the Irish economy.

A couple of, well, 160,000 jobs directly from us.

In fact, investors in Ireland, about 100,000 indirectly.

You've all heard that before.

You know, you're a primary partner for us and we hope to see more businesses from Cleveland move into Ireland.

But what's not often spoken about and which is really important, in my view, is that Ireland, that dynamic EU gateway to Europe economy and I would come back to the gateway in a moment.

That economy that I represent is is investing in every state in the United States or in all 50 states.

Irish investors support 100,000 jobs here in the United States directly today and growing.

And, you know, I think that when I tell you that we are the ninth source of foreign direct investment for the United States, that puts a small economy like Ireland in the middle of the Atlantic, 5 million people way up there.

If you consider the G7, our global actors of an extraordinary proportion, then you look at Ireland.

We are your ninth source of FDI.

The intimacy, the sincerity and the depth of the economic relationship between us is second to none.

And I think that this relationship with Cleveland will will continue to grow and grow.

We have Irish economic actors here on the ground in Cleveland, and we know that we have more of our investors in Ireland now.

We've never been closer if if you think about that direct flight as cutting the distance, cutting the reach that's involved in having an investor come in and create jobs locally.

I'd also hope I'll finish on this point that that's the tip of the iceberg, that the economic relationship, it's the most visible.

You see an investor coming in creating jobs.

But what I would like to see particularly is the educational links.

And I know we have Case Western here, we have other universal interests in the room.

I'm sure you know our our pipeline of people to people exchanges changing it's some people argue it's drying up because we don't have the numbers of young Irish people coming to the United States that we had when inward migration was easier.

It's also true that on the island of Ireland we are now at full employment.

So we have a fourth we consider full employment, about 4% unemployment.

So we're at that.

Mark was kind enough to mention that I was at one stage of my career as Secretary General of Ireland's Economic Management Council.

That was during the Economic crisis that we endured between 2012, 2011, 2012 and 2014, we were tipping 14% unemployment then.

So when I'm describing what's happening in Ireland right now, you see how we've moved in a very resilient way from being a stressed economy.

A decade ago to offering full employment now.

That means for your young students coming over to Ireland, getting to know us, the opportunities for jobs.

We have a program which I'll unashamedly propagandize here called the Working Holiday Arrangement, where if you're in a final year of your program at university or for the first two years after graduation, you can go and work and engage in Ireland on the ground.

We'd like to see more US students do that.

We definitely have a very vibrant inward pathway for Summers with J-1 visas here.

And thank you to all of you in the audience who support that.

We want to grow that more.

But I would like to see that younger and cross-fertilization happy happen, because that's where we will build our our people to people, but our our economic and our political relationships as well.

So we've never been closer between Ireland, the United States and Ireland is playing an outsized economic role in its trading relationship with the US with respect to size.

In addition to the education sector, are there any other specific sectors of cooperation with the United States that you wish to push forward as part of your mandate as Ambassador to the United States?

Well, sure.

If I move, you know, into I didn't expand too much on the Gateway relationship just to finish off on the economic side.

Ireland is now we've been through Brexit a bad idea.

I have to say it myself.

I don't think I'm alone in that in that view.

But we absolutely accept the decision of the people, of sovereign decision of the people of the United Kingdom.

And we're working with it.

post-Brexit Ireland is the dominant English language entry point, the dominant English language player in the European Union.

We're a member of the eurozone.

The European Single Market is 440 million consumers.

So for anyone who doesn't understand why the gateway might matter, it's all about scale.

And it's also about Ireland offering a common law politically stable environment.

I might just come back to that point because I think in building our relations between Ireland and the United States, it's something that's raised with me consistently as to why particularly investors take an interest in Ireland, the political stability we offer when of course, globally we know we're in one of the most fragile environments we've been for a very long time.

But even locally post-Brexit, there has been a challenge and in the UK and certainly on the island, we've had to deal with the knock on effects on Northern Ireland.

And if you want me to expand on that, I'm happy to do it.

But suffice to say that is one of the priority issues, the support the United States across time, across administrations and clearly across the Atlantic.

They support the United States has given Ireland in delivering on peace on the island has been just exceptional.

And we are deeply, deeply grateful.

And I always add a little rider saying, please don't stop because because we are not done.

We have had 25 years of peace on the island, but that's a job of work that's not done.

So if I were to move beyond our economic agenda and hoping to grow the next generation of Irish America, I would have to say the standout political challenge is Northern Ireland and ensuring that we keep peace on that beautiful island I represent.

I well, it certainly is the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

As Mark Owens alluded to in the introduction, and roughly three years since the effective implementation of Brexit.

And I think our audience would love to know more and get a better sense from you of what specifically the issues are between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and what have you seen as the most fundamental impact of Brexit on the border and where the United States help?

Well, just to start with the last point, first, the United States continues to help because you'll have picked up that I'm intimating Brexit had probably its most serious effect really in relation to Northern Ireland.

People will know factually that the people of Northern Ireland voted to stay in the European Union.

The sovereign decision of the United Kingdom as a whole was to leave.

So just with those two facts, we have a challenge.

Prime Minister soon back, once he assumed office was quick to negotiate the Windsor framework with the European Union.

And I think that job is done.

The European Union was extremely patient over several British governments to to come to a deal.

And, you know, there is no overall perfect solution to a situation where you have a part of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland in particular, which wanted to stay in the European Union, has been offered, I think, an unrivaled and exceptional opportunity to both be part of the UK single market as well as the European Single Market in a very facile way.

I can say best of both worlds on offer there.

The Windsor framework resolves as best we can, as best the EU and the UK could.

Ireland wasn't at the table, but we respect that.

Our EU partners were extremely, extremely helpful in coming up with the Windsor framework arrangement with the United Kingdom.

Now we need to see it ruled out.

The challenge that we have right now and it's a major challenge, is that one party in Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist Party, still remains dissatisfied with the result in terms of the Windsor framework and the follow through.

I'll take a little parenthesis here, if I may, to say the problem is never going to be the Windsor framework.

The problem was Brexit, so that we accept right now it's a political reality, even if there were to be a change in the British government, there are elections next year.

Who knows elections?

We all know how they can be volatile.

But if there were a change, even the Labor Party, which would be the incoming government, has said they will not reverse Brexit.

So we are dealing with a political and economic reality.

The challenge in Northern Ireland is that the reassurance that the Democratic Unionist Party are seeking about their place in the union in the United Kingdom doesn't seem to satisfy them.

We have had a number of false dawns.

We've had Jeffrey Donaldson, who has I absolutely accept and has been working very hard within his community and his party to come up with a way in which he can bring his party to the table.

And I say, come to the table.

What I mean is that in over 18, 19 months now that elections held in Northern Ireland have not been respected.

So the democratic legitimacy mandate given to politicians to represent the people in Northern Ireland has not been respected because the Democratic Unionist Party believes it has not had those assurances.

In some ways that's, you know, 75% of the voters being held up by 25%.

It's becoming increasingly tense.

I think.

You know, we have seen our own government in Dublin work extremely hard.

I use this term, you know, all the time.

We have a shared Ireland.

Anything that happens in Northern Ireland impacts us in Ireland.

We want to see this resolved.

Irish politicians have been working.

My own foreign minister tarnished the Michel Martin the t shirt Leo Varadkar meeting in London, meeting in Belfast Crossing even while in New York to meet with British politicians.

So there's a huge effort to resolve this, but it's gone on too long.

It's now urgent.

I heard our own foreign minister last week used a term that worried me, which was that he thinks that the the interest in coming back to the assembly and the executive is ebbing, that that is a real concern.

I had a little concern that I'm beginning to pick up as well, which is very important for democracy in northern Ireland, and that is that the last elections produced results with lots of young, new politicians being elected.

But because they have been prevented from coming to do their jobs, they've also had salary cuts.

They haven't been able to do their job and they've had salary cuts.

The economic situation in the UK is stressed and Northern Ireland is faced with rather stringent budget cuts.

I'm concerned that a whole class of young, emerging politicians now will get disillusioned by standing on the sidelines and watching the people they represent, not having that mandate fulfilled.

The Irish government couldn't be doing more.

We understand that the British government has done some work.

We're not party to that with the Unionist Party.

But if I can say, you know, my view is that the work with Brussels is over.

The discussions between London and the DUP, which actually should be with a lot of political parties in Northern Ireland, it's not the only party, but they are ongoing and to our concern because in the longer term we feel this is a real a bump, a serious bump in the road for peace on the island of Ireland.

Broadening the question.

So in addition to Brexit and the complexities of the relationship with Northern Ireland in the UK, you know, being a diplomat from an EU country is further complicated these days because in addition to advancing your national interests, you also have to contribute to the joint EU foreign and security policy and coordinate through the EU External Action Service.

So I'm wonder if you could tell us a little bit about that and specifically speak to the issue, which I think is at the heart of conversation between the EU and the United States, which is the situation in Ukraine.

And I'll also take a pause here to remind our audience and Ambassador Oksana Markova will be on the stage at this time next Friday with Senator Portman.

And if you don't have your tickets yet for the forum next Friday, please be sure to go to City Club dot org.

So close parentheses.

So back to Ukraine.

How are how is the EU?

How are the Europeans in the United States working on Ukraine and on any other pressing foreign policy matter you would wish to highlight for our audience?

Well, I continue your ad.

Oksana is great.

She's a friend and colleague.

She has done an extraordinary job for Ukraine and the United States come see and talk to her.

She's brilliant.

So Ireland is a member of the European Union, of course, and an active member.

When I told you earlier, a 50, 50 years there, that means that Irish politicians know what they're about when they're at the EU table.

We're one of the elders now of the European Union, remarkably, and very versed in how to shape policy and foreign policy, in particular on Ukraine.

I will say just before I talk about the EU, part of the question in Ireland, we have today just under 2% of our population who are Ukrainian.

Over 90,000 people.

That's equivalent to the US bringing in about 5 million people here.

Those people from Ukraine came to Ireland subsequent to the 24th of February of 2022.

I was sitting at the Security Council table on the night of the invasion, up to the 11th hour.

It was in fact, it was after 11:00 that night.

We were in the council chamber.

We all thought this wouldn't happen.

Putin's illegal war to the UN Charter out the window through all of the international law norms that Ireland hold so dearly to at the window.

This is something that is in our backyard in Europe.

The whole genesis of the European Union was about peace and security in Europe.

And we I certainly never thought I would see a moment where we would have war on the continent again.

The people from Ukraine are extremely welcome in Ireland.

They're part of our education system.

They're part of our Social Security system.

So we are doing a huge amount to support that.

I'm often asked in the United States if our land is a militarily neutral country, we are militarily neutral.

I would say we have never, ever been neutral on principle or on values.

And you you're hearing that from us in relation to the Middle East as well this week.

But we are contributing to the war effort in Ukraine.

Irish resources money to use the term war bluntly is used for protection gear for Ukrainian soldiers.

We're training Ukrainian soldiers in demining.

We have a particular skill in that we are peacekeepers by nature.

That's what we raise our defense forces for.

But we have very good skills in certain areas.

We're also helping in medical provision.

We give money to what we call non-lethal force support in Ukraine.

We believe, though, in terms of your specific question on the European Union, that the best security on offer for Ukraine would be membership of the European Union.

And in a way, it's opposite that I say that today.

First of all, Ireland is well known as being one of the primary advocates for enlargement of the European Union.

In a rather simple way, we believe the European Union transformed us and everyone should be offered that opportunity.

Who's willing to come and join the club by meeting all the requirements of the club?

You heard an opinion yesterday from the European Commission that is that has been very fast issued in terms of Ukraine's prospects for membership of the European Union.

I'm sure an auction is here next week.

She will recognize that Ukraine' But there is work to do so they will need to undertake as every country that has joined, including Ireland.

When we joined 50 years ago, you undertake reform aims, I think in Ukraine and there are issues and people use the term corruption very loosely.

There are issues around judicial security, sector reform, there are issues around lobbying, issues around minority rights.

These are not unusual in terms of countries which apply to join the European Union.

So we will be very actively, in fact, Ireland.

Back in 2004, for the last big enlargement of the European Union, we played a pivotal role in readying the ten Eastern European Member States for admission to the EU meeting, what we call the key.

We will, I'm sure, be reaching out to help Ukraine also.

The other big issue I know you're watching the clock is the Middle East and Ireland has been particularly vocal while I was on the Security Council, our main objective was to save lives.

We didn't go on to create a big agenda.

We wanted to save lives.

The humanitarian approach to that is the one we adopt.

We are absolutely abhorrent by what happened to the people of Israel.

Hamas's absolutely horrific attack was was totally unacceptable.

We now need to see a humanitarian cease fire.

There are civilians dying, over 10,000 civilians.

70% of the civilians in Gaza who have died are women and children.

This has to stop.

So our Ireland is very much the forefront of the European Union, our voice in that.

I can talk more about that and questions maybe.

Some nice time away.

This will be my last question for and I know there's many, many very good questions in the honesty at your dinner post.

Ambassador Neeson So giving you a heads up there.

My last question is just a broad question about a the transatlantic relation.

And so the first part of my question is in 2021, when the Biden administration came to office, one of their clearly stated foreign policy objective was restoring the transatlantic alliance and focusing on partnerships.

Fast forward to 2023.

How do Europeans feel about how well the Biden administration has executed on that intent?

And the second part of my question is, from this close friendship, this transatlantic relationship, what can we and I ask this here at the city club, because we spent a lot of time at the city club asking really tough questions about our democracy, our social issues, and the role that the United States should play in the world.

What lessons could the United States learn from Ireland about democracy and the and the role we should play in the world?

Okay.

Maybe I'll just very briefly answer the second.

First, since it's a very big question and we're you know, we were humble Irish people.

We don't believe we have lessons really to give to anyone, but we have a history of conflict, of hunger, of migration.

So we've learned a thing or two as we've gone along.

And one of the things that we have learned above all in the creation of peace on the island of Ireland is that democracy is is a process.

It's a delicate, fragile thing.

There's no guarantee in a polarized environment, which I, I think you all will accept you're witnessing in your own country.

Now, we saw that in Northern Ireland.

It takes time, it takes investment and above all, takes a political will.

And, you know, I hope that the kind of participatory democracy that we had in Ireland and the United States, you know, sent George Mitchell at the end, President Reagan was at the beginning of the conversation and George Mitchell brought it home.

He spent five years listening to people and talking to people.

It's a much underrated value to listen.

Right.

And we in Ireland have something we call the citizens assemblies.

They are we bring our citizens in and discuss issues through those assemblies.

We have recently changed our Constitution twice marriage for all and allowing sexual reproductive health care for women needed to change our Constitution.

And we are currently looking at drug laws.

We have looked at our education system.

We are using that talking and listening.

So I would if I've anything to say, it's that this is a hard thing to do.

It's a long road, but we want to, you know, absolutely the beacon of liberty and all that is of democratic and, you know, in the world has always been the United States.

Just to jump back to the EU, US transatlantic relationship, I haven't seen it in such good shape in a long time.

The the Ukrainian issue is a very good example of that.

We are in lockstep on that cooperation.

We work on sanctions against Putin, we work on support for the Ukrainians.

And I know the United States feels as we do that that joint cooperation is something that Putin did not bank on.

He frankly thought we would we would divide on this.

And that is an absolutely critical part of what we're doing.

The Middle East hasn't always been an area where we have spoken with one voice, but in recent weeks, I've heard increasingly Secretary of State Blinken speak importantly about that humanitarian.

There are semantics, a pause, a cease fire.

The UN called a truce, which is where we would see things.

We are working with the United States directly on, particularly on civilian and protection in this horrific conflict.

I think the very visible and probably the more concrete side of that relationship that I've been most impressed by has been the Trade and Technology Council, a new forum created between Biden administration and the the European Union.

For the first time in seven years, we just had a summit here in Washington where issues from steel and aluminum.

I know that's a local concern for you coming up with the Global Compact on that and the critical minerals working on artificial intelligence, looking at how that relationship on the green economy goes forward.

Few bumps in the road with the IRA and some of the legislation from the Biden administration.

But the good news is that we can talk to each other.

That is not something that we were doing in such a workaday work woman like way that we sit at the table and work through the issues.

In December, we'll have the first meeting of that to see a remarkable advance in EU US relations.

And I think when you have both the economic and the political channels working in parallel, you are forging that relationship.

In a way, I'll finish on this.

You know, the United States and the European Union, we represent the two biggest global actors when it comes to trade, to investment, to democracy.

There are other players out there.

I don't need to mention them who don't see the world as we do.

If we are in lockstep with each other, who can be against us?

Basically right here too, for cooperation.

We are about to begin the audience.

Q&A.

I'm Cynthia Connelly, director of programing here at the City Club of Cleveland.

Today we are joined by the Ambassador of Ireland to the United States, Geraldine Byrne.

Nation moderating the conversation is Corinna Van Vliet, CEO of the Cleveland Council on World Affairs.

We welcome questions from everyone.

City Club members, guests, students and those joining via our live stream at City Club dot org or our live radio broadcast at 89 seven WKSU Ideastream Public Media.

If you'd like to text a question for our speaker, please text it to 3305415794.

That's 3305415794.

And our City Club staff will try to work it into the program.

May we have our first question, please?

Thank you, Ambassador, for your great remarks.

I think my question follows Katrina's last question.

The Ireland has had a long standing relationship conflict perhaps with the church, and we all know what I mean by the church.

And I wonder if you could describe to us the relationship of the electorate to the church now and if there's anything that the United States can learn about that relationship.

So I'm asking you about the church and state.

Well, you speak from a position of some knowledge.

Clearly, the role of the church in Ireland institutionally has changed over our history.

As many of you will well know, the church had a particular role in our own constitutional formation.

No longer prevails at the progression of Irish society has also meant that there has been, you know, over the last couple of decades, some periods where the role of the church, particularly in relation to ad children and the treatment of women, have been issues of controversy.

It's clearly a very sensitive issue to address.

I'm some of you, I have the title of ambassador.

I'm not a politician.

I'm a public servant.

But I will say that I think over the last 5 to 10 years, we've had a lot of opportunity to go back to this participatory democracy, to engage in discussion in our society.

Ireland traditionally was 95% Roman Catholic and 5% Jewish.

I'm married to somebody from the Church of Ireland, Muslim.

Everything else was 5%.

That's no longer a reflection of the country I represent.

We've a very diverse population.

We have several churches who institutionally engage with the government.

So I think we're a better country for having both addressed the concerns.

I'm a convent educated girl, the women, the nuns who educated me, you know, I would be a fool to think I would be sitting on this stage without the contribution they made to my education and my life.

And there are amazing actors in the church in Ireland today who are bringing the church forward, desire that emerges as a 21st century diverse society.

I know you tipped on the notion of conflict.

I wouldn't see it as conflict.

I think this is an ongoing conversation ation with ourselves about the nature of this society.

We want to have on the island, the nature of the role that women play in the in our culture, but in our economy and our society as well.

And, you know, I, I can finish up on saying some of my best friends are priests who would agree with me.

Ambassador, it's wonderful to have you here with us.

I had the wonderful pleasure of visiting Ireland in 2019 and got to go a lot of places.

One of the things I got to do was take a train from Dublin to Belfast.

It was a very smooth transition.

You spoke about you spoke about Brexit.

What's that transition on that train ride now?

Is it any different?

Well, you know, I'm delighted you took that train because you went through my hometown.

So that's the first thing.

I'm a bit disappointed you didn't get off the train in my hometown.

I live I grew up in Drogheda country lives.

So going from Dublin to Belfast, you go up that beautiful east historic east coastline into Belfast.

Is it any different post-Brexit if you're on that train?

No.

I mean, the irony is on our shared island, the only way, you know, you've moved into Northern Ireland is when your phone pings and you've changed, you've changed supplier.

I grew up in a border country.

You know, I always say this publicly because I want to respect those girls who sat with me in my junior school.

There were refugees from Northern Ireland.

Today, if you were in Belfast or in Derry, you'll see anybody who's watched the Derry girls.

You many of you, of course, will will see vibrant, dynamic cities there.

You do not see British soldiers anymore.

You do not see barbed wire and walls.

You see some walls in the cities.

That's a different matter.

But, you know, we on the island of Ireland are very delighted that President Joe Biden recently well, a year ago, just after I took office, appointed Joseph Kennedy, the third as an economic envoy to Northern Ireland.

And to your point, he has taken that train.

He has been he has traveled that road from Dublin to Belfast.

And his role on behalf of the Biden government, a Biden administration, is to bring investment into Northern Ireland.

Ambassador, how are you?

Ireland's made some great steps towards addressing a lot of the issues that the island faces, but also that the world faces.

The population of Ireland is increased to newcomers by 20%.

Ireland is the only country in Europe that has less people in it now than it did in 1847.

And slowly the number is growing to a number that Ireland could accept.

I think Ireland's been very adult about how they deal with migrants and immigrants, and I think that there's an appetite in this country.

Since 2018, there's a lot of people who want to see immigration rectified in this country.

So as as Irish-Americans have worked with Ireland for so many years over an undocumented problem, but we'd also like to see some increase in future flow.

And I think that.

Do you see an opportunity in the near future where we could address a kind of innovation on immigration between Ireland and the United States?

That might be a model, just like Ireland's been a model for so many other things.

And what can we do to help that situation?

As Americans that care for both of these nations?

That's a very good question.

Thank you.

I spent quite a bit of my time in Washington, on Capitol Hill, and I'm consistently raising the challenge of migration for this generation of young Irish Americans.

You know, we know I always say this great country was built by Irish immigrants who came here and and who became bastions of your economy, of your society.

Somebody just mentioned on the way in here in Cleveland, your lawyers, your police force, your your big titans of industry have Irish connections.

We want to see that for you in the coming century as.

We have a number of people you alluded to it in the question here in the United States who are in a legal limbo.

And I address that separately perhaps.

But what I'm talking about these days on Capitol Hill is providing a legal pathway for young, educated Irish.

We have the youngest and the most highly educated population in Europe, in Ireland, and a great appetite to come here.

Those jobs I spoke about here in Cleveland.

From Irish investors, investors are telling me in the United States that they can't get the visas to bring their own small core teams over to establish those businesses to grow American jobs.

This is not clever.

To put it mildly, I recognize the political sensitivity of migration writ large.

There is a bill which is on Capitol Hill called the E-3 Visa Bill that we have tried and failed to bring to fruition.

That would offer about 5000 visas a year for young Irish graduates.

But that Bill is stymied in the Senate.

I won't get into all the detail there.

I remain optimistic that we will dislodge this opposition in the United States to migration, because I think enough people will recognize that it's in the U.S. own interest to have British educated young people come to invest in your country.

I also think it's very important for you to go back to the question earlier about diverse and polarization that the United States does not turn inward on itself.

You are an extraordinary country, but homogeneity doesn't bring strength always.

And you were built on your diversity.

And if the next century doesn't reflect that, I think you will be the poorer for that.

Young Irish people can live and work anywhere in Europe.

They as though they were working next door.

So there are we have freedom of movement of labor, capital and services.

So, you know, the market is open for our bright young grads to go to Rotterdam or to Paris or Frankfurt.

They many of them want to come to Cleveland.

But seriously, the doors are not open.

So I work every day, as do all of the Irish politicians who visit, to try and open that door again.

Because I think it's a it's a it's a tragedy.

I would use that term.

It's a tragedy that that pipeline has has dried up.

And it's also politically, I'm seeing it on Capitol Hill.

We're moving beyond the second and third generation of Irish politicians as well who helped, I think, to guide your country through difficult times.

I can mention that you have 46 presidents, 23 of them were of Irish origin and one of them currently sits in the White House, Joe Biden.

Whereas up very proudly I began my career when President Reagan visited Ireland and marked by slipperiness his home.

And of course, we're now I think importantly I'll finish on this to say we're now as six years year exactly since John F Kennedy, who for us was the quintessential golden migrant who came to this country, who came to our land 60 years ago and, of course, who died six years ago.

That's a long pathway through to to say, you know, migration, Irish migration into the United States is part of what we are.

And we will do everything we can to restore that.

What like inspired you to like pursue in diplomacy and stuff?

Like how do you know that you wanted to be involved?

Oh, I give you that.

The truthful answer or the I'm what almost you would call an accidental diplomat.

I'm I unlike a lot of my colleagues, I studied literature.

I studied literature and Irish and in the Irish language and in English.

And I was lucky enough to win a scholarship to begin my master's.

But I hadn't read the writer the small print at the end.

That said, in order to draw down the bursary, I had to visit a career guidance officer who was insisting that I began to look beyond the academic world, and he mentioned diplomacy.

None of my family had been in the public service in any shape or form, so it was a bit of an adventure.

I took the Foreign Service exam.

My my dad was 50 years old at the time and died at 50.

And I suddenly became very alert to what reality was all about.

I'm the eldest of three children and I was offered a place in the Foreign Service, and I thought I'd get back to doing my literature after a few years in this thing called diplomacy, and that 40 years later, I you know, I always say to young people and young women in particular that, you know, determination is a wonderful thing.

But you can you know, you can deviate from parts that you think are set for you.

I had no sense that diplomacy would be my future.

I was very invested in studying what I called the divided mind to Irish literature and all its forms, and find myself now talking about disarmament, Irish economic policy and the Middle East.

And it's been a tremendous just opportunity.

I have never for a second regretted that choice.

But I do say take your time and look around.

You have the world at your feet at the beginning of your your education.

And I know we've discussed this before.

My questioners, someone I know, so I'd be happy to talk more about that again.

Madame Ambassador is an honor to have you here.

My name is Kwame Botchwey, and I'm part of the Global Shapers community with the World Economic Forum.

I represent the Midwest, so I manage a number of jobs of young people across the Midwest.

Last year, I had the opportunity of being in Davos as part of a delegation of young people.

And while we're there, one of the things we realized very quickly, interacting with a lot of the leaders that we had there, was that us an apparent rift and separation in values that young people were interested in and in pursuing and what are traditional institutions were interested in.

And I'm talking about values of peace, of values of climate change, protecting the environment, participatory democracy.

And at least the list goes on.

What I'm interested in learning from you is how is Ireland working to uplift?

And since I know voices of young people in the policymaking and the democratic process, that transatlantic relationship building and what can the U.S. learn from from you?

Thank you.

Well, congratulations for the work you're doing.

Keep on doing that because you're you're investing in all our futures.

Thank you for commenting on the young Irish people that you met.

Were you part of the mayoral trip?

I meant to say earlier, we were so thrilled to have Mayor Bibb come to Ireland with a business delegation.

I know he went west.

She was also an echo.

So I think he had a great visit.

And I know he's got high hopes for the economic relationship, the the youth and integration.

I mentioned we have the highest percentage of under 20 fives in the European Union, and it's something that I actually engage with unusually in my last role at the UN, where because Ireland was on the Security Council, we were taking this is a little vignette for you.

We were taking a very courageous position on climate security.

The Security Council, remarkably, does not recognize climate as a security risk.

So we worked we brought a number of delegations from New York to Ireland to Cork and the south of Ireland, where we conducted a youth climate assembly, essentially brought young people from right across the country who had been engaging in their regions in discussions on climate policy, many of them not yet able to vote.

So they were in these four of discussion rather than able to express their vote.

And we created an assembly there where your own former Secretary of State John Kerry appeared.

My own foreign minister, who happens to be from Cork, appeared also.

And we we had a commitment on at that assembly, which still holds that the Irish Parliament would hold a youth parliament day to discuss climate.

That's happened at least once, if not twice since that, and that the views expressed from that youth parliament would be factored into the development of policy, because I think that I saw I'm coming to my my point here that it's great to have youth voices, it's great to have youth forum to hear from young, so-called young people.

But unless you see your voice as reflected in policy and, you know, then you won't be able to to maintain confidence in the institutional system.

And I believe that applies to you.

Before you vote, I will have a little twist here to say that I can only encourage in this country all of those who are entitled to vote, who are young people to get out and vote, to influence policy.

And we were very conscious.

One example in the UK and during Brexit we knew the young vote was opposed to Brexit, but it didn't turn out to vote.

So in Ireland we also worked very much in empowering young people to have their voices expressed at the ballot box as well.

Thank you to.

Ambassador Byrne, Nathan and Carina VanVleet for joining us at the City Club today.

Today's forum is presented in partnership with Eaton and we would also like to welcome students from St Joseph Academy and guests at the tables hosted by our modern risk partners, Eton Global, Cleveland Irishtown, Bed Park, Lady, Ladies, Ancient Order of Hibernians and Team Neo.

I think I probably mastered the Hybrid Hibernians Hibernians.

Nailed it.

Thank you.

It's a group effort, as Karina said earlier.

Be sure to join us next Friday, November 17th.

Her Excellency Oksana Markova, Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, will be joined by retired Senator Rob Portman to discuss the latest from the front lines and the highest offices in Ukraine.

We will be off Friday, November 24th, but back at the city club on Friday, December 1st, with a conversation between the presidents of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University and Tri-C. You can learn more about these forums and others at City Club Dawg and brings us to the end of today's forum.

Thank you once again to the ambassador and to Karina and thank you, members of Friends of the City Club.

I'm Cynthia Connolly and this forum is now adjourned.

For information on upcoming speakers or for podcasts of the City Club.

Go to City Club, dawg.

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