February 10, 2022
Ambassador Claire Cronin presented her credentials to Ireland President Michael D Higgins, and officially become US Ambassador to Ireland. The Brockton-born former Massachusetts State Representative resigned from the post last month. She took her oath of office January 19 in a ceremony at the Massachusetts State House, and left for Ireland with her husband and their two daughters just this week.
"We have such strong relationships between the United States and Ireland, as it is. And it's the relationships that are built on long ancestral ties. It's my ancestral home," Cronin had told the State House News Service after a farewell ceremony last month in the House Chamber, adding that the transition is "bittersweet" but she looks forward to her new "sacred responsibility."
The Easton Democrat and longtime supporter of President Joseph Biden said she is excited to get to know the people in Ireland, build on the ties between the two nations, and create more opportunities for trade and investment overseas.
Of tensions around Brexit between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, Cronin said: "I think people are coming to the table and talking, and I think they'll continue to do so, and any part I can be helpful in that, I'd like to do that."
"Certainly the United States -- President Biden and our Congress -- has expressed strong support of the Good Friday Agreement," Cronin said, referring to the 1998 accord between Ireland and the UK over governance of Northern Ireland. "And with the UK leaving the [European Union], it'll be a top priority to make sure that the gains of the Good Friday Agreement are maintained. It will also be a top priority, of course, to still continue to work together as partners attempting to defeat COVID, the pandemic. We will certainly work together on shared priorities around cybersecurity and climate change. And first and foremost, always, will be to protect the safety and security of Americans in Ireland."
Around 70 lawmakers and 35 staff and guests were in the House Chamber for Cronin's hail-and-farewell, one of the larger crowds to assemble there since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Before she was chosen as majority leader in 2021 by Speaker Ronald Mariano, one of Cronin's first big moments in the Beacon Hill spotlight came through her work on a 2017-2018 conference committee reconciling different versions of a major criminal justice reform bill.
(Material from the State House News Service was used in this report.)
Follow this link to view a video tweeted by the American Embassy Dublin
