PIERRE — The relationship between the United States and the Republic of Ireland was on display Thursday in the South Dakota Senate and House of Representatives.
Irish Sen. Mark Daly, a special guest of Sen. Lee Schoenbeck (R-Watertown), presented Lieutenant Governor Larry Rhoden with an Irish flag. He then presented the flag to House Speaker Hugh Bartels, R-Watertown. His visit was part of the American-Irish Congressional Delegation.
The caucus aims to build a bipartisan relationship between Ireland and America at the state and local government level. Daly said it was a “great honor” to present the flag as a symbol of connection.
“The flag was raised in Montana last year, 175 years after Thomas Francis Meagher first raised the Irish flag,” the Daily said.
Meagher was appointed governor of Montana Territory in the mid-1800s.
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Daly noted the special relationship between the United States and Ireland since the former British territory became an independent republic in 1921. He also recognized the United States’ role in helping negotiate the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which he said ended three decades of unrest. Civil war in Northern Ireland.
In the Senate, Sen. Ryan Meagher (R-Is.) pointed out that Meagher was his great-grandfather. Meagher was an Irish revolutionary who was deported for his crimes before being arrested. He later immigrated to the United States and served in the Civil War before being appointed governor.
Mr Maher said he loved telling the history of his family’s association with Ireland’s “mob mob”.
“Even after all these years, some of us are still politically active,” Maher said.