President Obama visited Dublin on May 23, 2011. His full remarks that day are no available at the his official White House website, which has been archived, effective in 2021, but The Guardian provided a detailed account of his visit, so be sure to check it out.

The White House blog [no longer available] provided excerpts from President Obama’s speech:

Irish signatures are on our founding documents.  Irish blood was spilled on our battlefields.  Irish sweat built our great cities.  Our spirit is eternally refreshed by Irish story and Irish song; our public life by the humor and heart and dedication of servants with names like Kennedy and Reagan, O’Neill and Moynihan.  So you could say there’s always been a little green behind the red, white and blue.

Gabriel Byrne attended the event in his capacity as Cultural Ambassador for Ireland.

Gabriel Byrne, Cultural Ambassador for Ireland, at the official visit of President Obama in Dublin.

But the pièce de résistance for all Byrneholics is Gabriel Byrne’s appearance on The Late Late Show on May 27!

The normally serious actor was on the famous Friday night show to discuss the visit of President Barack Obama to Ireland last week and his involvement in the special concert that was held in College Green for the President and his First Lady, Michelle Obama.

As he went into great detail about the day’s events and what it was like being back-stage, it was his spot-on mimic of the hyper twins that had everyone in shock.

“I have to say I found backstage also very interesting because the people who took part in the show were an eclectic bunch of people.”

“The two Jedwards were there and they remind me of two goblins that come out of a forest. Like you’re walking along the road and these two goblins appear in front of you and you can do nothing else but smile. Their music is irrelevant – they make everyone they come into contact with smile.”

 

3 Comments

  1. Watched that interview on The Late Late Show live. It was Hilarious….and anyone who Know’s Jedward would agree Gabriel did a fantastic impersonation of them….so so good……He nailed it….He is so serious at times it came totally out of the blue and was a real treat……

  2. Love when he does the gay talk… Lol I couldn’t believe he would do that. Funnny

  3. watched this on the RTE website and laughed my head off at his impersonation of “The Jedwards”. I could listen to this man talk until the cows come home, get their pyjamas on, have coco and go to bed.But “The Jedwards” was just too funny for words- more of it Mr. Byrne!

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