RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The Chicago City Council would like to congratulate Billy Lawless, an Irish-born Chicago restaurateur and businessman, on being named by the Taoiseach as a member of the Irish Seanad; and
WHEREAS, The Chicago City Council has been informed of this event by Alderman Edward M. Burke; and
WHEREAS, A tireless advocate for the Irish in America and a key leader of the immigration reform efforts in the United States, Billy Lawless is the first Irish immigrant to be appointed to the Oireachtas, the Irish legislature, and will regularly travel from Chicago to represent the diaspora in Leinster House; and
WHEREAS, Born in Galway, Ireland, Billy Lawless has enjoyed a lifelong passion for politics and ran for Galway City Council in 1991 but was defeated by his neighbor and friend; and
WHEREAS, Having sold his family's dairy farm in the late 1970s, Billy Lawless operated several bars and hotels in Galway during the 1990s when he and his family moved to the United States after his daughter was offered a rowing scholarship at Amherst College; and
WHEREAS, Billy Lawless fell in love with Chicago and opened his first bar, the Irish Oak, in 1998 and since then has opened five restaurants in Chicago that employ more than 300 people; and
WHEREAS, In addition to his successful business career, Billy Lawless became involved with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights becoming its Vice-President; and
WHEREAS, Billy Lawless is regarded as a leading activist for immigration reform; now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and members of the Chicago City Council, assembled this twenty-second day of June, 2016, do hereby congratulate Billy Lawless on his appointment and do hereby extend our best wishes to him; and