(clapping.) >> well, everyone this is a great time today to raise our rich flag in celebration i want to say thank you to the consul general granite for not only being here but part of the great celebration between san

francisco and ireland i obviously am thrilled to have our core sister city and remember the floeshz time i had being or being think grand mary in the city that's where i met the people wonderful people and again, thank you to mark naerl for his leadership in being the rock on our board of supervisors so with that, i'll be ready to raise the flag ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> what a day, huh? >> you do it with such eloquence

(clapping.) okay, here we go. >> now we're going to be led out to the - ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ in >> okay top of the morning to you. >> going to say it back to me. >> sure. >> good morning. i see all the wonderful faces out here bring back great memories we're going to talk about and some not tell you; right? because 2 hundred irish americans on our first trip to ireland this was 31 years ago let's here it for cork (clapping) you you know irish have been making history in san francisco

for many, many years the first irish americans that came here in the 17 century early 18th century came here they came here and bought los angeles police department from the mexican grant and came here for the salary man and the gold rush and left their stamp and still doing that if you go around san francisco you see caesar new and over and over feral and pave. >> so you've been macro history the o showncy dam we have a lot of mayors that were irish the first john geary irish and you know what our mayor is still making history everyday and our mayor was in cork and the grand

mary of the st. patrick's day prayed in cork (clapping.) i don't know how many people have a river named after them in ireland but the lee river so this is our mayor ed on the other hand lee. >> (laughter). >> o insuring thank you for being the best protocol over in the city of san francisco yes (clapping.) well, everyone thank you and welcome to ore woemz the san francisco budget & finance committee our own city hall a warm welcome to you that raised the irish flag proudly (clapping.) i want to just give a personal thanks to our consul general

from ireland 39 six phillip grant thank you for all you do to strengthen the economic of people ties between our city and, of course, the country of ireland we join the united irish society in kicking off the city's st. patrick's day celebration it is the one hundred and 64 mini anniversary of our celebration what a wonderful, wonderful time thank you, again to liam frost the united irish society thank you for being here (clapping) and thank you for you and certainly thank you to kevin by reason ham the past president of the society for carrying on this legacy yes (clapping.) all right. and then we're also charlotte

said we're celebrating our cork anniversary of the celebration so the names of jim, john again from our city committee thank you very much for your wonderful historic work (clapping.) and as charlotte said earlier i enjoyed myself on that trip one of the most memorable trips anyone can take because of the celebration of our city in the stiff cork has a special relationship and, of course continue to ask the board of supervisors through mark why can't i think the lord mayor of san francisco (laughter) and then, of course, being the grand mary at the stewardship parade in cork was a wonderful, wonderful opportunity then that we asked to reignite ourselves

with nerld a special way and we came back and shortly thereafter a request granted with another direct flight between dennis herrera listen and san francisco another great accomplishment (clapping.) at the there at the time i met the youth of ireland through their program at that magic castle found a way to ask them to come over and had a week of celebrations and the advice cork came over to if the not only education but a nomination with the people relationship pchs a wonderful time and again a lot of things wonderful things happened when we exchange those wonderful exchanges i want to making sure i have another intent to get back to cork old head

golf course when i listen to those bagpipes mark and i he reminisce he brags he can go out to a gulf of mexico and similarly with dennis herrera as well and you know mel murphy they get to play more gov. also i have on a welcome back basis an opportunity to go to the wonderful companies in the city of san francisco and most recently this past year our accessory carmen chu has been there to find out what resources with international companies this st. patrick's day we have the intent to visit with our consul general grant one of

the irish home companies d c h that will be doing their custom manufacturing we get to visit them together they have a thing if it can be imagined it can be made that's the spirit of irish people creating things here in san francisco now a irish company with that slogan and support for the efforts to exchange and be an international company as well those are few examples of the wonderful outcomes of having strong challenges a strong partnership with the people of ireland here in san francisco i'm looking forward to the parade an march 14 as a prime example of our admiration of our irish history

ru6d i'd like to calm up our consul general and our folks if the irish committee and sdlar this as american irish heritage week in san francisco (clapping.) thank you, mayor >> (clapping.) all right.

so i've talked about the city's success but you've got to have great partners in order to make the city successful on our board of supervisors a very special prize i get to have a partnership with mark farrell a wonderful supervisor from his district i know him more and more as an entire city leader so i want to welcome him in the most appropriate way and that is with my pronunciation hopefully i'll not screw up this >> (speaking foreign language.) >> which, of course is my irish to welcome mark farrell up here with a greeting of st. patrick's day thank you (laughter) (clapping) all right. >> thanks mayor ed lee.

>> no way. >> that's correct mayor lee and everyone welcome to city hall it is once a year we see a sea of green and isn't charlotte the best dressed woman in san francisco (clapping) proud to be here today with mayor ed lee with all of you to kickoff what is high season for the irish community not only here in san francisco but around the world as our consul general told me his duty to kick in a early february and don't end until april it kicks off today with a flag raising and celebrate our irish red light come a time f in san francisco thank you. i see fathers

brendon on and elected officials thank to my family mom and dad and wife and two-year-old son saying hi daddy all the time there you go thank you all for being here and thank you for being such a proud part of our irish community. >> community roaded in the history of san francisco that has been here since the mid 17th century as mr. sxhurlts mentioned our first mayor and irish mayors coming together with on the other hand farrell i'm a little bit bias but people that make san francisco what it is i have the great pleasure of introducing mop o someone that is an important part of the government but symptom i consider a friend and been with the irish services tin i since

1992 and spent omen how many in the home other was and pointed out as a consul general to the western united states phillip grant (clapping) >> the microphones keep getting higher i have a grant and may not think irish but the irish are a little bit part of those modern time and mayor ed lee and commissioners and 3 conceives i've seeing it is wonderful to see so much many of you that warms my heart to see it an amazing honor to stand here last year was the first time opportunity i had i was new and didn't know too many of you now too many of you know who i am

this is the way it should be and to use this opportunity to thank the mayor for the purposes of this week st. patrick's day and all of that we got a special deposition and their lending you the lordship for the duration of the week we'll call you lord mayor ed lee and it's a great honor the past year is a tremendous year of success for the irish economy after a difficult period and one of the reasons we're able to do so well the economy in the bay area is dissolution well, no other countries in the world that perhaps has the economic ties to the west coast that ireland does but over the last 7 or 8 years particularly with the new breed of online software companies facebook and google our agencies here the i d a

helps us with foreign investment and helps irish companies expand. >> next speaker. >> in the bay area i'd like to give them a round of applause their strengthening the economic growth of ireland and san francisco and we're expanding the service and we'll have it everyday of the week and not just 5 days a week create over one hundred and 20 thousand new seats between er8dz bringing tourist that's an amazing strengthening relationship we enjoy here i'm conscious that standing here i stand in a long line of kristen's we've here since 4933 we will be celebrating the cultural center and we're going to be working with them over the next few

years to help them with the long term strategy plan to make sure it goes strong for another 40 years time (clapping) a few weeks ago my colleague kevin and i did work at st. anthony's that helps homeless and one of the things that struck me going into the building what i look forward for irish faces they were the volunteers and the people generally helping or managing the staff providing assistance and we looked at around the room and not so many faces you that of as irish but it struck me if i stood in that space 50 or one hundred years ago we are would be been the people helped there

are few raze and people that understand homelessness and poverty and need the way that the irish do and the irish story of san francisco is a great success story but a hard won success story i was pleased to see the involvement of the irish community with community groups like st. anthony's with the city like the work with the unit irish society does with the old folks home with the seniors and the center if we compare was it maples to be rich one hundred and 50 years that from when we were a third of the population in san francisco what can we look around us and claim as as you leaguer i hope it's that sense of charity and i 40e7 when we march and the weather is nice

that one of the things we'll be celebrating about our contribution to our great city is that sense of helping each other and that sense of community that is what keeps us strong. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> and all the best to everyone thank you (clapping.) >> thank you phillip and before i bring the next our next guest up i want to make sure we give a special recognize to one of the officials a friend of mine that i served with on the board of supervisors has begun on to do bigger i have a better reasons but who was a supervisor that represented where the irish culture was carmen chu (clapping.) so next up i want to introduce

twho two fell off native kevin and liam frost kevin is not only a native a board member of irish society a board member of the association of regardless a great friend to the community and liam the current wanting of the irish society so, please welcome them. >> thank you supervisor farrell and mayor ed lee and mr. shurment and supervisor chiu u carmen chu and other members in the audience and my old boss chief suhr and my old friend chief joanne hayes-white this is an honor to be here for about the last ten years the man has been up here it's quite a pair of shoes to try to fill he was

going to try to be here he called me on the phone and coaching me and mentor me and reminding me on how to on behalf of at the podium i got my friend of mine marty seven hundred to keep it support from the po a this year we're getting a festival back and a lot of the irish community was pushing for that and it was a lot of work i want to thank mayor ed lee and you chief suhr and ed reiskin and his staff of merrill stein and rec and park and diane ray seriously being in office and trying to get through it the mayors staff and the people that

work for him are amount i want to say thank you to them (clapping.) st. patrick's day is a day important time of the year to celebrate being irish and there's nothing better than be able to celebrate anything so i'm asking everybody in the bay area for the next two weeks to consider yours irish and k0u9 and celebrate so thank you. i appreciate our time and thanks for coming (clapping.) i'd like to now introduce calvin by reason ham that will be presenting the mayor with a gift. >> mayor ed lee he know this is the year of the goat we don't want to take chances we want to bring a leukemia of the irish a

bottle of whiskey for you to on up when you get re-elected this november (clapping.) now i'd like our grand mary bill to come up with his family as well as our families of houry grand marshall chris at the maguire it's 3w5d when you forget your in-laws names. >> it is quite an honor for someone for named the honor marshall of the st. patrick's day prayed and efforts by 15i789 a lot of work i want to thank the families for agreeing to take part and do the work so thank you our grand marshall

bill (clapping.) and and then the family of patrick joyce (clapping.) and my brother-in-law my on and on trajectory he protect me the family of christie maguire (clapping). >> thank you, mayor. >> now the family of gene

mcdeek. >> oh thank you, mayor (clapping). >> is that my paycheck? >> thanks again for everybody coming for the next two weeks you're all irish. >> all right. about time for the main efforts but recognize an extremely friend of mine my colleague supervisor scott wiener is here (clapping.) so we have a special treat again, this week a tradition inside of city hall the wheel land and murray school of irish dancing the traditional irish dances long time friends have been here thank you for coming those are an incredible

insinuation now inside of city hall please welcome our dancers today ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ ♪ (clapping.) >> all right. how about another round of applause for our big dancers there (clapping.) so with that wild to bring up both the wheeling can he will and the murphy school of dancers to get their certificates of honor