FAILURE in America just means moving to another state - preferably a sunny one - and Ireland seems to be adopting this spirit of optimism, according to US Education Secretary Mr Richard Riley.
Mr Riley said he was struck by the "vibrancy and energy" of Ireland and said the economic power rested "in large part on your heavy investment in the education of your people.
"Probably more than anything else the Irish people seem to be adopting the American habit of reinventing themselves; coupling the modern and the new with your traditional respect for education."
Mr Riley said the G-8 Summit of world leaders should concentrate on education. "Despite our various traditions of education we increasingly face similar problems and we have much to learn from each other."
He said the optimism of the US meant people tended to be "fixated on the future - heedless at times of our own history and of yours - and always in a headlong rush for that which is new.
President Clinton was resolute in his commitment to helping the Irish people to a lasting peace," he added. "The President is an optimist by nature."
He said the belief that "anyone and everybody with a talent and commitment to work can get ahead" was grounded in good education and this was personified in Mr Clinton. "He really believes in education as a way up for the American people."
Opening the colloquium the American ambassador, Mrs Jean Kennedy Smith, said Ireland and the US shared a special relationship. Both were young democracies and "both countries struggled to achieve the promise of democracy.
However, while some Americans viewed Ireland as a quaint place "full of smiling red-headed children" the Irish view of the US was also stereotyped.
America is a place of great contrasts, she said, with "the height of wealth and the depths of poverty; lavish musical comedy and stark one- roomed drama; great leaders and great gangsters; the whitest old man and the blackest young girl."