|
1991
Less than a year after her election, Irish President Mary Robinson visits the IFC. She is the first woman President in Irish history.
1994
Perhaps taking a cue from the Irish, the IFC elects Cook County Circuit Court Judge Maureen Connors as its first woman President.
1995
Celebrated Irish poet and author Seamus Heaney wins the Nobel Prize.
1996
Irish President Mary Robinson returns to the IFC to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Irish Famine of 1846-48—the so-called “Great Hunger.” In her poignant and provocative speech, Robinson reminds the Irish-Americans in attendance of the universality of suffering and the responsibilities that come with success: “The terribly realities of our past hunger present themselves to us as nightmare images. The bailiff. The famine wall. The eviction. The coffin ship. And yet, how willing are we to negotiate these past images into the facts of present-day hunger? How ready are we to see that the bailiff and the workhouse and the coffin ship have equally terrible equivalents in other countries for other peoples at this very time?”
|
