Bertie delivers a sweet swansong worthy of its magnificent setting

THE Taoiseach was afforded a magnificent stage to wind up his political career with an address to a joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday. He became only the 102nd foreigner to address the two houses together.

The first address was by the Marquis de Lafayette in 1824. He had played a major role in the American War of Independence and later returned home to take part in the French Revolution.

After Lafayette addressed the joint Houses of Congress, subsequent foreign leaders usually addressed either the House of

Representatives or the Senate — not both together. Charles Stewart Parnell addressed the House of Representatives in 1880.

Eamon de Valera was unable to get an invitation to do so while he was in the US in 1919 and 1920.

The joint session address by foreign leaders was popularised by Winston Churchill who twice addressed joint sessions during the Second World War, and a further joint session in 1952.

Eight French leaders have addressed joint sessions, but Ireland ranks second in the number of actual speakers — six.

In addition to Bertie Ahern, the others were Presidents Seán T O’Kelly in 1959 and Eamon de Valera in 1964, along with Taoisigh Liam Cosgrave in 1976, Garret FitzGerald in 1984 and John Bruton in 1996.

Five British leaders have addressed joint sessions on seven occasions. In addition to Churchill’s three appearances, the other four leaders to speak were Clement Attlee in 1945, Margaret Thatcher in 1985, Queen Elizabeth II in 1991 and Tony Blair in 2003.

On Wednesday, the Taoiseach got probably the most moving response when he referred to the policemen and firemen associated with the 9/11 disaster at the Twin Towers in New York.

He then skilfully recalled American defence of European freedom during the Cold War by referring in bipartisan splendour to two of the more memorable speeches of Irish-American presidents — John F Kennedy, a Democrat, and the Republican Ronald Reagan.

Anyone who was old enough could remember those two stirring speeches at the Berlin Wall — one a couple of years after the wall was built and the other a couple of years before it was torn down.

“Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free,” Kennedy told the people gathered at the wall on June 26, 1963.

“When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one, and this country and this great continent of Europe, in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of west Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades. All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ ” (I am a Berliner).

On June 12, 1987, all of 24 years later, President Ronald Reagan challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to demonstrate his commitment to human liberty.

“General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalisation, come here to this gate. Mr Gorbachev, open this gate.”

And then, to a massive roar of approval from the audience, “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

The Taoiseach also evoked the spirit of the Statue of Liberty by quoting from its inscription: “Give me your tired, you poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

And he added: “The great waves of Irish immigration in the 19th century carried millions to your shores in flight from famine and despair. They carried little with them as they arrived on these shores, except a determination to work hard and to succeed.”

He skilfully associated today’s Ireland with the United States by referring to the wave of immigration coming to Ireland. “We see that same spirit in the new Irish at home today — the many people from beyond our shores who are now making new lives in Ireland. They too had the courage to come to a foreign place, to find their way and to provide for themselves, for their children and, in many cases, for their families far away.”

He was not just evoking the memories of Irish-Americans present, but of virtually everyone in the gathering because virtually all had roots outside the United States. Those were the people who built America.

“These newcomers to our society have enriched the texture of our land and of our lives,” he said. “So we are profoundly aware of those challenges as we ask you to consider the case of our undocumented Irish immigrant community in the United States today. We hope you will be able to find a solution to their plight that would enable them to regularise their status and open to them a path to permanent residency.” It was a magnificently crafted appeal.

The Taoiseach proceeded to evoke the spirit of Martin Luther King’s commitment to justice and non-violence and the American role in helping to bring about peace in Northern Ireland. He gave particular credit to Presidents George W Bush and Bill Clinton, along with Senator George Mitchell. “Do not underestimate the good you have done,” he said. “Do not forget the legacy you have forged. And if ever you doubt America’s place in the world, or hesitate about your power to influence events for the better, look to Ireland. Look to the good you have done. Look at the richness of so many individual futures that now stretch out before us for generations, no longer subject to conflict and violence.”

As a farewell speech, Bertie probably evoked — among the Americans present anyway — memories of famous farewell speech, but the contrast could hardly have been starker.

IN 1951, General Douglas MacArthur was fired and recalled from the Korean War by President Harry Truman. “I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch,” Truman later explained in a TV interview. “That’s not against the law for generals. I fired him because he disobeyed an order of the commander-in-chief.”

MacArthur was invited to deliver a farewell address to a joint session of Congress. He wound up his speech with a tear-jerking conclusion as he played the old soldier to the very end.

“I am closing my 52 years of military service. When I joined the army, even before the turn of the century, it was the fulfilment of all my boyish hopes and dreams. The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished, but I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that ‘old soldiers never die — they just fade away.’ And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away — an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Goodbye.”

By contrast, Bertie was positive all the way, matching the occasion with the eloquence of his carefully scripted words. “In history, in politics and in life,” he concluded, there are no ends, only new beginnings.”