US envoy to Northern Ireland Joseph Kennedy talks with admiration about the influence Ulster folk who were early Americans

Mr Kennedy was speaking at the American Independence Day celebrations, held on Thursday (almost two weeks before July 4) at the US consul general residence at Ardnavally in south Belfast. The host, the incumbent consul general Paul Narain, seen standing to the right of the picture with his wife Stefanie, will shortly be leaving NI to take up a new position in the US state department, working alongside the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken.

Mr Kennedy spoke to a large gathering of guests standing on the lawns about Belfast having had one of the first US overseas consuls in the 1790s, and about the importance of those early settlers. Mr Kennedy, who hails from a famous Irish American Catholic family and political dynasty, also said that all men are created equal once in effect referred to white Protestant men, but the US had changed radically since then so that equality included women, ethnic minorities and people of different sexuality.

In an article for the News Letter in April (see link below), his first for a Northern Ireland daily paper since taking up the post, Mr Kennedy wrote about how the 1636 voyage of the Eagle’s Wing towards America lit the spark of mass Scots-Irish emigration, even though the ship was forced back by storms.

"Those early immigrants built farms, opened businesses, and founded towns,” he said. “Some rose to high office and became Presidents and statesmen. These men and women made a profound contribution to the values, traditions, and institutions of the United States.”

Joe Kennedy: Ulster was a profound influence on the US and we can build on that to boost Northern Ireland’s economic growth