US Embassy DublinPhoto from Published OIG Report (state.gov)
President Obama’s pick for US Embassy Dublin, Dan Rooney has not made it to the SFRC hearing schedule yet, but Senator Casey of Pennsylvania has thrown his full support behind the nominee on the day his nomination was announced:
“… as a Pennsylvanian and one of Irish descent, I had the great news announced today by the President of the United States that Dan Rooney—from the great Rooney family of Pittsburgh, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and a great friend of the people of Ireland, who has been active in the peace process, as has his family for a generation or more with their time, their effort, their money, and their wisdom—has been nominated to be Ambassador to Ireland. He is a Pittsburgher and a Pennsylvanian, and we are so very proud today to be able to report that for those who haven’t yet heard the news. I will work, as a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, to get him confirmed because we should confirm him.”
[…]
“Dan Rooney is well known as the owner of the Steelers, the Super Bowl champs several times over in the last generation, and that is wonderful that he is, but he is a son of Pittsburgh, a very humble man, a very decent, kind, caring, and compassionate man, someone who has the kind of integrity and the kind of commitment to service you would want in an ambassador to any country but especially one such as Ireland. Pennsylvania has a pretty significant percentage of its population that traces its ancestry to that small island, and across the ages we have been proud of that connection, that affinity we have for the people of Ireland. In this case, if all goes as it should with the confirmation—and I am sure it will—we will have a son of Pittsburgh, a son of Pennsylvania, a resident of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania serving as Ambassador to Ireland.”
Related Items:
(Congressional Record - Senate - March 17, 2009)
[Page: S3157] GPO's PDF
[Page: S3158] GPO's PDF
