“Our relationships are the basis of our diplomacy” – An interview with Claire D. Cronin, former United States ambassador to Ireland
Claire D. Cronin, former US ambassador to Ireland, discusses her tenure, as well as her Irish heritage and the strong cultural and economic ties that bind both nations.
By David Monaghan, Interim Managing Editor, Business & Finance
Claire D. Cronin is looking forward to attending the Business & Finance Awards. “I will use any excuse to come back to Ireland”, she says.
Indeed, Cronin embraced her role as United States ambassador to Ireland from 2022 to 2025, using her position to bolster cultural and economic connections between the two nations.
Cronin’s enthusiasm was inspired in part by her Irish ancestry: “My granddad is from Ireland, he came from the Inishowen peninsula in Donegal, and all of my great-grandparents [came from there] as well.”
When Cronin and her husband tried 23andMe, the company that analyses saliva samples to glean one’s ancestry, they discovered that they both “came close to” 100 per cent Irish.
In 1982, Cronin earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Stonehill College, a private Catholic college in Easton, Massachusetts. She later earned a Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School in 1985.
“I was a practicing attorney for many years. I was a litigator, and then I spent 20 years, as part of my law practice, doing mediations and arbitrations.”
Cronin felt that her ability to negotiate and find consensus was a strong foundation for a political career. She was first elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 2012. She served in the legislature for nine years, and in that time she became the first woman to serve as chair of the House Judiciary Committee. She later became the first female Majority Leader in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
In 2022, then-President Joe Biden nominated her as the US Ambassador to Ireland. Although leaving her role in the House was bittersweet, she accepted the nomination with enthusiasm.
The former ambassador speaks proudly of events she oversaw during her tenure – President Biden’s 2023 visit and the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement among them.
“We created a program at the embassy called Open Doors, and every week I would have students in their transition year come spend the morning at the Deerfield Residence, I’d give them a tour of the house, the history, and then we’d have a good old-fashioned chat.
“I really loved engaging with the students. That was really fascinating for me. We specifically wanted to focus on the younger generation to create their own special ties with the US and, during that time, there was a great focus on increasing the number of J-1 visas, and we were able to do that. That was a point of pride.”
2024 saw a series of events celebrating the centenary of US-Ireland relations: “During that whole year, we created a program called Le Chéile, which means ‘together’ in Irish, and we hosted multiple events every week”, reflects Cronin.
Speakers at Le Chéile discussed opportunities for further co-operation between the two nations.
Cronin resigned in January 2025. Since returning home, she has been appointed as a scholar-in-residence at the University of Massachusetts Amherst: “We have great connections, through academia.”
She is a firm believer in the importance of “soft diplomacy”, she says.
“Our relationships are the basis of our diplomacy. I think we just have to continue engaging and listening and speaking with each other and continue to do what we’ve always done. I believe that the relationship will endure.”
