Graduates told to look beyond US shores

Taoiseach Enda Kenny urged graduates to “go beyond what is reliable and look beyond America” in an address to the Boston College class of 2013.

Mr Kenny received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, which he later said he accepted “gratefully on behalf of the people of Ireland — past generations and present generations”.

Delivering the commencement address to 4,400 students, their families and friends at the college’s graduation ceremony, Mr Kenny urged them to: “Be successful, be happy and, above all, be yourselves.”

He said to “live long and deep and comfortably in your own skin”.

Quoting Nobel laureate, Seamus Heaney, he said: “When they make the circle wide, it’s time to swim out on your own and fill the element with signatures of your own frequency.”

He told the graduates it was the birthday of “what was for some the ultimate symbol of freedom” when, on May 20, 1873, “Mr Levi Strauss and Mr Jacob Davis picked up US Patent No 139, 121 and blue jeans were born”.

In a reference to global warming, he said: “Freedom was in the air. And that air smelled and tasted good, until some in lazy arrogance continued to plug in, zone out. Last week, carbon-dioxide was recorded at 400 parts per million — the highest CO2 level in human history.”

The Taoiseach got a huge cheer from students — many of whom had taken part in last month’s Boston marathon — when he praised the city’s response to the bomb attack.

He received a standing ovation for his speech, something the college authorities said rarely happens at commencement addresses

Afterwards, Mr Kenny said: “I must say that a grad ceremony here in Boston College I think is one of the best I have seen in the sense of the participation of all the graduates and students.”