IT was a homecoming of sorts for the US ambassador and his wife when they visited Mayo last week. Dan Rooney was in Mayo with his wife Patricia (nee Regan) on Wednesday and Thursday last, November 4 and 5, for talks at GMIT, as well as meetings with council officials and US companies in the county.
Dan’s parents-in-law both hailed from the townland of Cloontia in Kilmovee. Dan and Patricia, who took up residence in Phoenix Park in July, took some time out in between official engagements to meet with Patricia’s relations.
Speaking to the Western People, Mrs Rooney said she was happy to be home. “My father Martin Joseph Regan went to America and my mother Mary Duffy followed. He was in the building industry. The Irish built practically every great building in Oakland, Pittsburgh,” she pointed out.
“I was the first of our family to come over to Ireland and I met my mother’s mother. As a youngster I had written to her but I never thought I’d meet her. It was sort of like writing to Santa Claus and thinking you will never meet him.”
Long before President Barack Obama gave Dan Rooney the nod to embrace the Irish culture, his Mayo in-laws had filled him in about everything Irish.
He first visited the emerald isle in 1971, complete with stories of farmers and the land. Stories he had heard down through the years from Martin Regan.
According to Patricia, her father never forgot his roots. “He was an Irish dancer and singer and he played the button accordion. He told us stories about home and when I first started dating the Ambassador he wouldn’t let us leave the house until he sang a song,” smiled Mrs Rooney.
Mrs Rooney’s aunt, Delia McMahon, was a contact for Irish people leaving the west and heading to America for work. “I remember going to her house for tea and the ladies talking about who was arriving and where they were going to stay and work. It was a wonderful networking system they had,” Mrs Rooney recalled.
Today, the fate of 15,000 undocumented Irish people is a pressing issue for the Ambassador but he says it’s not something that can be dealt with speedily. He acknowledged Ireland has many friends in American but said a lot of hurdles have to be overcome before an Immigration Bill is agreed on.
“You have to remember an immigration policy has to involve everyone. We have the Spanish and we have the Canadians the other side and we have to watch that border as that’s where terror-ists can come in. And, then we have Ireland to the Eastern border. We can’t just look at one.”
During his visit, the Ambassador met with US companies and informed them that he is working on a number of joint projects at present.
Mr Rooney is well aware of the difficulties facing businesses after serving as Chairman of the Pittsburgh Steelers American Football team after his father founded the team back in 1933. “We have promoted American companies to come here but we have to get our own house in order too. We’re interested in joint projects and we’re working on many of those. There’s much to be done with the economy and our President is doing a terrific job in trying to get things moving. What happens in Ireland affects everyone everywhere. It’s important that the large economies remember it’s a global economy now.”
