Before I take up the ordinary business, perhaps, I might be permitted to say that since the adjournment, it must have come as a great shock to Senators, and also with a deep sense of sorrow and regret, to hear that the President of the United States has passed away. In view of the close and intimate relations that have always existed between the people of this country and the people of the great nation of the United States of America, perhaps, the Seanad may think it proper that a resolution should be passed expressing our sorrow and tendering our sympathy to the people of the United States on the death of one who was a great statesman, a great leader and a man of unblemished reputation both in public and private life.
PRESIDENT HARDING'S DEATH.
On resuming at 2 o'clock.
AN CATHAOIRLEACH
The Dáil will shortly be engaged in passing a resolution of sympathy with the people of the United States on the sudden and lament able death of President Harding, and it is only right and fitting that the Seanad should adopt the same course, if for no other reason than the long ties of sympathy and affection which have bound our country to the United States. Ireland owes very much to the United States. On the other hand the United States owes not a little to Ireland. Whatever happens in one country reacts in the other, and whatever grief one country has the other country feels. It is not my place, and this is not the occasion, to go into an obituary of President Harding, but what we do recognise is that he was the official head of that great nation with which our country has always been on the best terms of friendship, from the days of the War of Independence down to the present time. It is only right and proper, therefore, that we should express our sorrow at this sad event. In that spirit I beg to move:—
That Seanad Eireann desires to place on record the expression of its deep regret at the sudden death of President Harding, and to convey to the people of the United States of America its deep sympathy with them in the national loss they have thereby sustained.
I beg to second the vote of sympathy. Ireland and America are united together by every bond of sympathy and blood. The people of America are more Irish than they are anything else. America received our people when they were starving and dying. They went there in thousands and built themselves up into a great nation. There is hardly a single family in the West or South of Ireland that has not got relatives or friends in America. Every village in Ireland almost gets letters from America every day, so that we are in constant communication with every part of America. Therefore, we feel very deeply everything that may strike at the Government or people of the United States.
On behalf of the body which I represent, which, perhaps, is the body most indebted to America, and which has been closely associated for centuries with the great American Republic, I beg to add my humble tribute of respect and my approval of this vote of sympathy in connection with the death of a great man whose loss will be felt all over the world and whose death will be regretted in Ireland perhaps more than in any other country.
Coming from an Irish town where, perhaps, we see more Americans than are seen in any other part of Ireland, I desire to associate myself with this resolution. Our indebtedness to America is well known and it does not require any words from me to bring it home to every Irishman. I feel sure that the deepest sympathy will be extended to the citizens of America on this sad occasion.
AN CATHAOIRLEACH
I am sure this resolution will be passed unanimously and, perhaps, Senators will rise as I put it.
Resolution passed, the Senators standing.