Congratulating the Lawlesses
Floor Speech
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I wish to take a moment to congratulate two long-time friends.
Sixteen years ago, after moving to America, Billy Lawless and Anne O'Toole Lawless today became citizens of the United States of America. This is a cause for celebration, not just for Billy and Anne but for the entire city of Chicago. You see, the Lawless family is part of the restaurant royalty in Chicago.
Billy and Anne and their four grown children--Billy, Jr., Amy, John Paul, and Clodagh--own and operate three of the best-loved--and my favorite--restaurants and pubs in Chicago. They are going to open another set very soon. Good food, good fun, great people, that is what the Lawless restaurants are all about. Billy Lawless is also a tireless and eloquent advocate for immigration reform.
One of the great heroes of Irish mythology is a benevolent giant by the name of Finn McCool, a great defender of Ireland.
In his younger days, Billy Lawless was a championship rower. At 6-foot-2, with a broad rower's chest and strong arms, he looks a little bit like Finn McCool. And he is chairman of the group called Chicago Celts for Immigration Reform.
But it is not just Irish immigrants Billy cares about. Billy Lawless understands that America's history of welcoming immigrants from across the globe--and he knows; he is part of it--is what makes our Nation great. He is a great defender not just of the rights of Irish immigrants but all immigrants. So it was perfect that he and Anne swore their citizenship oaths today with 137 other new Americans from 39 different countries and 5 continents.
Billy grew up on a dairy farm in Galway, a city in the west of Ireland. In the late 1970s, he sold the farm and went into the pub business. Over the next 20 years, Billy and Anne had four children, and they owned and operated several well-known pubs and restaurants in Galway. Life was good.
Then their daughter Amy--an excellent athlete herself in rowing--won a full college scholarship to Amherst College in Massachusetts.
For years, it had been Billy's dream to open a business in America. At the age of 48, when his daughter headed off to America, he decided to give it a shot. His friends thought he was crazy. Anne waited several months before she followed Billy to the States for this venture. She wanted to make sure this wild idea had a possibility of success.
Billy looked at opportunities in Boston and Philadelphia. But on December 31, 1997, New Year's Eve, Billy arrived in Chicago. He knew he had found a new home.
Today, Chicago is home to Billy and Anne Lawless, all four of their children, and their seven American-born grandchildren. As Billy says:
I can think of no other place in the world where our family could have achieved what it has in America.
Billy and Anne, thank you and all your family for what you have given to Chicago, to Illinois, and to our Nation. You have waited a long time and worked hard for this day. Now it is here. I am proud to call you not only my friends but my fellow Americans. Congratulations on becoming citizens of the United States.
Madam President, I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
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