In 1921 Miss Mary MacSwiney was touring the United States to promote popular support for the Irish Republic. In an address given in Saint Louis at that time Mary MacSwiney said:

“I am speaking to you from the soul of liberty-loving Ireland to the soul of liberty-loving America. And on the day that America ceases to extend her hand of friendship and hospitality to oppressed people, on that day, indeed, America will lose her soul.”