Professional Clip 27: Mary McAleese, 2006 Notre Dame Commencement

Sometimes, I don't know if your grammies used to say it, but we used to talk about “the luck of the Irish.” My grammy was never very impressed by that argument, actually, because her argument was, “You make your luck.” And I'm sure you've heard that phrase before, “You make your luck.” And that, I think, is what I challenge you in a way to do, to make your own luck; to make it by bringing these values, by bringing that fighting Irish spirit out into the world wherever the thousands of paths that you tread will take you. No two of you have come the same journey; no two of you will go the same journey. But I hope that you, the class of 2006, will take away from this ceremony a deep, profound sense of that Irish spirit, of the spirit of Notre Dame. You have been formed in that spirit; it now accompanies you on your life's journey. I hope it infuses you on your life's journey. It's all about tomorrow now, isn't it? It's all about what you bring to tomorrow. There's that old expression that the future's in your hands. It's a kind of a cliché, and sometimes with clichés we brush over them and we forget that there's a central core truth in them. And, it's true to say the future is already in your hands and the choices that you have made, that profound choice that you and your families made, to come to Notre Dame in the first place.