George Clooney spoke passionately about his Irish ancestry in a speech on the refugee crisis in Yerevan, Armenia.
Actor and activist Clooney was presenting the inaugural Aurora prize to a Burundian humanitarian worker who saved thousands of children’s lives in the middle of a raging civil war.
In his speech, Clooney referred to the importance of kindness – arguing that refugees fleeing tumult in the Middle East are “people just like you and me.”
Clooney expanded on this by referring to his own family’s history of emigration.
According to The Telegraph, Clooney said “The Clooney family fled a famine in Ireland to come to the United States where their very survival required a room, a meal, a helping hand.”
“And if you stand right in front of them and take a look deep into their eyes, you might just see an Irish farmer fleeing a famine. If we are to survive as a people, we simply can’t look away. Not from the people of Syria or South Sudan or the Congo.”
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