The new US Ambassador to Ireland, Claire D Cronin, joined Ryan Tubridy in studio on Thursday morning and one of the first things the former Massachusetts House Majority leader did was to "pahc the car", by way of showing off her Boston-adjacent accent, much to Ryan's delight. The Ambassador arrived in Ireland in four weeks ago and has been enjoying her time so far, getting to know the neighbours and getting her feet under the desk.
Claire Cronin came to be named Ambassador to Ireland, she told Ryan, because of a fortuitous meeting on a flight. Her husband Ray took a flight from Philadelphia and texted her from the ground to say that Joe Biden had just boarded and was sitting in the row in front of him. At the time, Claire was very interested in Joe Biden running for president, considering Biden to be the best candidate with the best chance of defeating Donald Trump. So she texted Ray back:
"I said, 'Quick! Write him a note and pass it through.’ And I asked him to write in the note, ‘My wife is the Chair of the Judiciary in Massachusetts. She wants you to run for president. She’ll do anything she can to help. Here’s her number.’ And lo and behold, he called me that night."
The future ambassador and the future president spoke for about a half an hour and Claire told him that if he ran, she was all-in. And that, she says, is where their friendship began. And, of course, Biden won the election and immediately afterwards, Claire got an email from the transition team asking her to submit a resume and what department she’d be interested in:
"And I said, Department of State. I thought, ‘Might as well shoot high. Maybe I can be an ambassador.’ And I got a call very early and someone said, ‘Well, if you were to be an ambassador, where would you like to serve?’"
Claire told the team that her married name is Cronin, her maiden name is McLaughlin and she’s from Boston. So, Ireland was top of her list. But she didn’t know who the competition was and, as Ryan points out, with Biden’s Irish connections, there was bound to be quite the long list.
"My phone rang with a 202 area code and it was President Biden and, you know, he said, ‘I’d like you to do me a favour.’ And he asked me and here we are today."
Ryan’s conversation with Ambassador Cronin is a terrific listen; she’s got a great sense of humour, she knows Ireland well (her brother married a woman from Dublin) and she shares President Biden’s determination to maintain the protected status of the Good Friday Agreement. You can hear the full chat here.