News

Remarks of Trina Y. Vargo, founder and president of the US-Ireland Alliance

Welcoming the 25th Class of George J. Mitchell Scholars to Ireland

Royal Irish Academy, Dublin

September 20, 2024

I’d like to thank all of you for joining us to welcome the 25th class of Mitchell Scholars.

We are grateful to Sam Dennigan’s Strong Roots, Alan Merriman & Elkstone, and DFHERIS, for supporting this evening. 

I also want to thank and recognize Hugh Shiels who is retiring from his work here at the Royal Irish Academy.  We’ve worked with him for years on this event and we appreciate all his efforts.

Normally at this time of year, we’d be selecting the next class of Scholars.  But we’ve paused future selections while we ascertain whether there is sufficient interest in funding this program so it may go on in perpetuity and thus remain one of the most prestigious scholarships in the US.  It’s the only one at this level that sends future leaders to this island. 

Twenty-five years is a long time to search for what is, relatively speaking, a small endowment.  We’ve been seeking around $20 million, and the Irish Government will match anything we raise up to that amount.  The inability to find that, to find any person, company, government, in your country or mine that cares enough – only confirms the founding concern of this organization, that the interest in the relationship would wane.

Most of you here are in some way supportive of the Mitchell program and/or the US-Ireland Alliance.  We thank you, and I won’t spend too much time preaching to the choir, but there are some people here tonight learning about us for the first time.  So let me start with the bottom line:  having spent more than 30 years directly involved in this relationship, this is where I land: the maintenance of this relationship and of this scholarship -- must matter more to Ireland, because the US is not giving it all that much thought.  The Biden Administration has given millions for scholarships, but to Asia.  Billionaires are funding scholarships, just not to this island. 

Let me explain why we think Ireland should care.  This program has existed for only 25 years, and there are nearly 300 Scholars and many of them have retained their links to this island and we think it is good for Ireland and Northern Ireland that their knowledge comes from living and studying here, as opposed to some diddley-eye, romantic nonsense about this island. 

Matt Haney is a member of the California state legislature and Tommy Vitolo is a member of the Massachusetts legislature. Matt studied at Queen’s and Galway seventeen years ago and Tommy at Dublin City University twenty-four years ago. Their connection to this island, their interest, stems from being Mitchell Scholars. Another Mitchell, Fagan Harris, is the Chief of Staff to Maryland Governor Wes Moore.  Fagan attended the University of Limerick in 2011.  Another Mitchell Scholar is Kamala Harris’ official videographer.  She was on the stage, filming the Vice President, at the Democratic National Convention, and she’s been with the Vice President for two years now.  She studied at Galway seven years ago. Another is the COO for the city of Paterson, New Jersey – she studied at University College Cork twenty-three years ago.  Another Mitchell is an adviser to US Senator Patty Murray, Democrat from the State of Washington – she attended University College Dublin five years ago.  Another is a foreign affairs policy advisor in the House of Representatives – twelve years ago, he studied at Ulster University. Another is the Deputy Chief of Staff for the White House Office of Legislative Affairs.  He studied at Trinity five years ago.  And another Mitchell, who went to the University of Galway just last year, just started as the Climate Solutions Fellow to Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Pennsylvania.  Those are just a few in politics.  Mitchells are successful across of range of fields.  Just this summer a Mitchell Scholar’s animated short film won the Galway Film Fleadh, that’s an Oscar qualifying film festival.  She studied Animation at Ulster University.

And it’s important to note, demographics are such that when it comes to America, if this relationship is to survive, it must be so much bigger than the Irish diaspora.   I’ve long referred to this as “diaspora plus” and the US-Ireland Alliance was at the forefront of this.  When we started this scholarship, we decided it wouldn’t be just for Irish Americans. I got some grief about that at the time.  But we were certain, and it’s proven true, that if we could get future leaders to this island, regardless of ancestry, they’d love it and form a connection.  Our Scholars are Irish American, Jewish American, Muslim American, Latino American, African American, Asian American, Native American.  And we wouldn’t have it any other way.  

There is a story about our funding issue in today’s Irish Times, which I hope you’ll read.  But I also suggest you read Justine McCarthy’s piece in the same paper today.  You could read her piece and decide, “right, who cares about maintaining the ties.”  Or hopefully you’ll read it and think the opposite.  But she’s right in saying that “the already waning influence of Irish-America will gather pace in a country where Latinos have become the majority ethnic demographic.”

Mitchells are doing impressive things in many different fields, and they are great ambassadors for this island across the US and in several other countries as well. 

If the Mitchell goes away, these future leaders will go to Cambridge or Oxford, or take one of the other prestigious scholarships, but they won’t be coming to this island.

The value of the Mitchell is that soft power that is, admittedly, hard to quantify. But I know we have several guests here tonight who are in business, so I’m going to give you a few bits of ROI (return on investment) with regards to the US-Ireland Alliance.  

The impact of this program is far greater than the nearly 300 people who were selected.  Each year, about 350 people apply.  One has about as much of a chance of getting into Harvard as of winning a Mitchell Scholarship and so we ask all our applicants if we may share their cvs with the universities on this island.  About 70% give that permission, we pass those on to the universities, and they chase them down and get some as paying students or offer them other scholarships.   The universities on this island are great partners.  They get it.  They see that this is a win/win.  We are the premiere marketing tool for them in the US, on a national level. Several Mitchells here tonight have told me they’ve already met people in their courses who didn’t win the Mitchell, but decided to come anyhow.  

It’s also worth pointing out that a large chunk of our budget, is spent here on the island.  The Scholars are given a living stipend, and they are spending most of it here.  Most have family and friends who visit them and they’re all spending money.  And we spend money taking them around this island, to give them a great experience, so they will hopefully go home feeling like this was the best year of their lives.  And they keep coming back.  Several alums are here tonight, including Cassie Farrelly, all the way from Pennsylvania.  And by the way, I know I’m speaking about what Ireland can and should do for the Mitchell, but it all evens out -- several of your outstanding Olympians from the Summer Games in Paris, train in the US, attending US universities on US scholarships.   

Many of you know of our Oscar Wilde Awards which we hold every year in Los Angeles. There are several friends here tonight associated with that event.  That was created to build ties between the film industries.   As a result of our efforts and the introductions we’ve made, more and more connections have been built, and business done.  

Years ago, I introduced the head of Universal Pictures, to the Minister of Culture in Northern Ireland.  That led to Universal spending £20 million on filming in Belfast.  

Brian Scally, who’s here tonight, introduced me to an American friend of his who is a producer for the director Richard Linklater, and I met with Brian’s friend in Manhattan, stayed in touched, encouraged him to film in Ireland, and introduced him to Screen Ireland. That Linklater film, BLUE MOON, just finished shooting here.  

A prominent Hollywood agent, familiar with the Oscar Wilde Awards, introduced me to his brother who was going to produce an Ed Burns-directed film.  I also introduced that producer to Screen Ireland.  They too just filmed here.  

There are loads of stories like this, both large and individual, but here’s the simplest ROI:  the genesis of JJ Abrams deciding to film STAR WARS in Ireland stems directly from our Oscar Wilde Awards and my encouraging JJ.  STAR WARS means hundreds of millions of euros for tourism for this country.  If Ireland totally endowed the Mitchell Scholarship program and paid for the Hollywood event for the next quarter century, you’d still be in the black vis a vis the US-Ireland Alliance. 

As Bill Clinton said at the Democratic convention, “I’m too old to gild the lily.”  All these things I just described, we’re doing them with a staff of one, me. That is simply not sustainable for the future.  We either get the endowment soon and scale, and plan for a future, or we accept there just isn’t the interest and the Mitchell will end.  

In my meeting this week, finally, a DFHERIS official told me the Government will not fund the endowment beyond what they are statutorily committed to.  Frankly, we believe the Irish Government should just pay for it.  We’re asking for .0008 percent of the surplus this year or .002 percent of the Apple tax money – and as Apple is an American corporation, a tiny bit of that would be well spent on this relationship.  

We’ll continue to look for other sources of funding, but those in power at this moment in time, will have a hard time explaining why, for so little money, they were willing to lose this important connection that brings future American leaders to this island.

I hope that if you think this is of value, you will speak with me tonight and share this with others who might want to leave a legacy, maybe want to add their name to Senator Mitchell’s on this scholarship.  

And now I’d like to introduce this year’s class and, as usual, make the rest of us feel inadequate.