Senator McCain Speech Delivered to the American Ireland Fund 13th National Gala
Thank you, Jim, for your kind introduction, and I know that your gracious words are entirely unrelated to my blurb on the cover of your latest book. For those who don't know, Jim Webb wrote a brilliant book on the Scots-Irish and their role in building America. It's a great story and a great book, almost as good as my book, Why Courage Matters.

Jim Webb is one of my oldest friends, and I truly appreciate his introduction. Thank you also to Kingsley Aikins, to the Dinner Chairs, Frank Keating and Congressman Jack Quinn, and to the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. And congratulations to Paul Quinn, it is wonderful to follow you and Peter Corry here on the stage.

It really is an honor to be here and to be given the Distinguished Leadership Award, especially by this remarkable organization. Last year, the American Ireland Fund held more than 70 events in 39 cities in 10 countries. When one starts to multiply the number of events by the number of guests, and then multiply that quantity by the glasses of Guinness involved, well, it is all just very impressive. But slightly more seriously, the Fund has done very important work for almost thirty years. From its integrated schools program to the Omagh Community House, from the community development programs to funding for the arts, you inspire all friends of Ireland with your work today and your vision of tomorrow. Thank you for all that you do.

I count myself as a friend of Ireland, and I was in Dublin last December, where I spoke at Trinity College. Before my arrival, the Irish Examiner newspaper ran a story with the headline, "Former White House hopeful to address students, reminding me that I "ran a spirited but ultimately unsuccessful campaign in 2000. I thought that was a nice touch.

But like anyone who has been to Ireland in recent years, I can attest to one thing: change has become the norm. What first strikes a repeat visitor is the amazing economic performance. With growth in excess of 8 percent from 1995 to 2002 and positive growth since then, and with a per capital GDP exceeding that of Europe's so-called "Big Four, Ireland illustrates the best promise of globalization. You can see it in the statistics; you see it in the expansion of businesses and the rise of technology in the country. I certainly saw it in the shops on Grafton Street, one of the most expensive streets in the world.

The political situation in Northern Ireland is changing as well, and I'd like to be serious for just a moment. In the North today, the vision of peace, enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement and based on inclusive power sharing, is available to all. When I was in Ireland in December, after the Leeds Castle talks and just before the British-Irish settlement was published, the North was on the cusp of a permanent peace. But despite the valiant efforts of the Taoiseach and Prime Minister Blair, peace proved elusive once again.

Historians may look back at this time as a defining moment. The failure of the talks, followed by the bank robbery in Belfast and the IRA murder of Robert McCartney, has unleashed courage at the grassroots level that has been lacking in the leadership of the IRA. People like the five McCartney sisters have bravely said out loud what everyone has known for years -that enough is enough.

Northern Irish leaders should take great inspiration from the McCartney sisters and others who have spoken up. Let their courage stiffen the will of their leaders so that they may make difficult decisions in the interest of a lasting peace. Change does not happen on its own, and it takes brave individuals to make history.

Sinn Fein is faced today with a historic choice. There has been endless debate about Sinn Fein and its ties to the Irish Republican Party. I say let's end the debate, the charges and countercharges, and recognize what we have known for years -that there is simply no place in a democracy for a private army engaged in illegal activity. It is not enough for Sinn Fein to cut its ties to the IRA. The political leadership should join the call for the IRA to disarm, demobilize, and disband, once and for all. Stealing from banks and slaying men in the streets to settle personal grievances are not the acts of freedom fighters. They are the work of a small minority trying to hold back the forces of history and democracy, and they hurt the very people for whom they claim to fight.

The IRA has long enjoyed the support, in Ireland as well as in my country, of people who might have regretted their tactics, but appreciated their service in the republican cause and their defense of Catholics persecuted in the North. Whatever your views about the historic cause they claimed to have served or the methods they employed, which were, in my opinion, indefensible, no one can honestly claim today that the IRA is anything better than an organized crime syndicate that steals and murders to serve its members' personal interests. There is nothing "republican about the Irish Republican Army. They are inarguably an impediment to peace, to freedom and to justice in Northern Ireland, and anyone, Irish or American or British who desires and works for the success of peace, freedom and justice must denounce in the strongest possible terms not only the cowards who murdered Robert McCartney, but the IRA itself, and any political organization that would associate with the IRA or grant it any place in the political life of the country.

Nor should we tolerate for an instant any veiled threat to the McCartney sisters or to anyone else with the courage and decency to speak the truth about the IRA. Why should the McCartney sisters "be very careful not to step over the line into the world of party politics? The world of party politics has failed them. Sinn Fein has failed them, and at such a terrible cost to their family. They claim the right of free people everywhere to demand justice and change, and any political party that boasts a commitment to representative government will deny them that right at the cost of exposing their own hypocrisy and complicity. We need more people in the North to cross the line of intimidation and terror and criminality that the IRA has imposed on their countrymen, and that their political allies have tolerated for too long.

The elements of a just peace in Northern Ireland are attainable. But the IRA must disband, Sinn Fein must foreswear ties to any paramilitary remnants, and the Democratic Unionist Party must show a real willingness to share power. These steps, which will enable an end to violence and the restoration of democratic institutions, are simple but difficult.

But that is why voices like those of the McCartney sisters are so critically important and encouraging. In daring to stand up for change, they dream of a new day in their troubled land. In speaking here tonight, I cannot resist the urge to quote one of the true masters of the English language, William Butler Yeats. In his poem He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, Yeats wrote:

I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

It is the dream of nearly all Irish to live in peace, to have hate, violence, division, war and the injustice of the past be restricted to the past, never to be forgotten but never to be repeated. Do not tread on the dreams of your people. Share their courage, embrace their vision and make the right decisions, the honorable decisions that will help such a beautiful country, with its hard and tragic past, become the place where righteousness and peace prevail.

I thank you for honoring me here tonight, and I wish you all a happy St. Patrick's Week.