Victor Boyhan Reflects on Billy Lawless's Legacy for Immigrants

Thank you, Ger Herlock, and I'll be brief. I suppose when I came up today I was thinking what might I say by Billy Lawless, but sorry, before I start, I want to acknowledge and pay special tribute to three people. One who's here, which is Councillor Anna Granger, a great close friend of Billy's, great to see you in the chamber, and two other people that may have come with you today but can't be here. And they are the RTE, former RTE political correspondent, Sean Dignan, and Maria, his wife, who are tuned in, who I know are very special, were very special friends of Billy and Anne, and they're tuned in here today. And those are three people that were very close to Billy, and I want to acknowledge that. Coming up today, I said, what would you say about Billy Lawless? I'm a great believer in, to understand the man, you must understand the boy. Billy Lawless was, of course, as we all know, born in 1950. John F. Kennedy came to these houses, to Leinster House, in 1963. Think what the 13, 12, 13-year-old boy, Billy Lawless, the Jesuit, educated boy from Galway, thought about. Because one thing Billy Lawless always spoke about every day was about John F. Kennedy. He had a love of Kennedy. He had an infinity about Kennedy, an understanding, an empathy about what Kennedy stood for, in the broader sense of what Kennedy was about. In terms of immigrants, migration, forced migration, saying goodbye to your family and your loved ones, never to return. Many to go to the States and further. There was no land of honey or dreams there. Many people, the Irish, experienced resentment, rejection, many that were even turned back. And now you roll on, and you roll on, and you think what's happening again all over the world. And are we going to learn from that? Michael McDoole, my colleague, said it right. Billy Lawless was a gentleman. He was a humanitarian. He was an entrepreneur. He was neither left nor right, as so many people want to pigeon us at. But he was a man that brought humanity to everything he did and everything he wanted to do. And we welcomed him in open arms into our very collective, elected group, which is the SIG group. Today, I think of Kennedy again. And so this morning, I asked to go and see the Kennedy flag. The flag that John F. Kennedy brought to this house back in 1963. The flag was of the battle flag of the 69th New York Volunteers. And I'm going to finish in a few moments on New York. But on New York Volunteers. An Irish brigade in the American Civil War. He gifted that flag in recognition to the Irish people. In recognition for the contributions of Irish immigrants in the United States. That's a very special flag. That and our proclamation are the two endearing and very special pieces. Symbols in these houses. Indeed, there's a room that has been opened and specially designed for it. And I'd hope that you may be able to visit it here today. But I think it's important when you talk about the young, impressionable 13-year-old boy and Kennedy's visit to Ireland in 1963. Because I think Billy modelled his life on what Kennedy stood for and others stood for. And he addressed the issues of the undocumented Irish. The forgotten Irish. The ones that were rejected. And later on, the ones that had no driving license, no identification, were working in the black market, were taken advantage of. And later on, the ones that wanted to return to their homeland and couldn't come for they had no more documentation. And Ireland was a changed place anyway. So Billy, for me, was a man. He was a liberal. He was humanitarian. He advocated for his people. He was deeply connected with his roots. He was deeply connected and had a great affinity with the Jesuits who had educated him. He was fiercely proud of that. He loved his family, as Michael has said earlier on, dearly. I think we all know about you, maybe more than you know about yourselves. Because that was Bill's honesty. You know, you get to know people when they're unique and when they're empathetic and when they're true to themselves. And that was Billy in every sense of that word. I then think of what's happened this week. And we, of course, and I'll finish on this. We have Mayor Mandani and a few lines from that great speech this week where he says, New York, remember I told you about the flag that Kenley brought was from New York. New York will remain a city of immigrants. A city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by immigrants. That's a very moving thing. And that is typical and relates back to Billy and his commitment to immigrants, diversity, difference, the rich tapestry of diversity. So I salute you, because you were always there to support Billy. He was a proud man. He was proud of you. We were proud of him. He left an indelible mark on us. But I finish on this point. It hasn't finished yet. And we owe it to his memory to continue to advocate for the undocumented Irish, to empower the Irish people, to be proud of our tradition of emigration, but also of welcoming difference from different communities and different people. That is our call. That is Billy Lawless's call, that we're open, we're human, we're loving, we're caring. Our doors are big enough to receive all and make them welcome, welcome in this house and welcome in this country. Billy Lawless left those seeds of hope, inspired us with that vision, and I believe that we will continue to aspire to that in his name. Thank you.