2008 President's Letters

September 2, 2008
The following is a statement by Seamus Boyle to the Irish Voice Newspaper last week on the statement by presidential candidate Barack Obama. Obama says he may remove the United States envoy to Northern Ireland or replace him with an administrative person because the crisis period in Northern Ireland has passed and the people of Northern Ireland are in charge of their own destiny.

Newly elected Ancient Order of Hibernians president Seamus Boyle feels that the statement doesn’t clearly outline Obama’s intention.

I don’t know if he is planning on doing it or not Boyle told the Irish Voice. We need to have someone there. No matter what happens, whether it’s an official or an envoy someone needs to be there

Boyle said that although the crisis is over to a certain point he feels there is still a lot of work to be done. We definitely need someone there.

Worried that the position of an envoy is going to become a thing of the past, Boyle said, expressing his concern. What began with George Mitchell now seems to be getting less and less important. Now it seems the position could just go to an administrative person and that is certainly not what we are looking for, said Boyle

We need someone on top of it all the time. We have gone too far to start going backwards.