Speech by President Michael D. Higgins at the opening of the Birr Vintage Week and Arts Festival Opening of the Birr Vintage Week and Arts Festival 2018
Emmet Square, Birr, Offaly, Sunday, 5th August, 2018
Dear friends,
It is such a pleasure for me to join you all here today for this the 50th Birr Vintage Week and Arts Festival. It was an honour for me to officially open the Festival seven years ago, and it is an honour for me to do so again as President of Ireland on such an auspicious anniversary, so may I extend my gratitude to the Festival Committee, and their Co-Chairs, Janine Wilson and Cyril Stanley, for extending a most generous invitation today.
The endurance of the Festival over these fifty years is a testament not only to the imagination of those visionary citizens who arranged that first Festival but to all those citizens of Birr who have sustained the Festival through their dedication and hard work. Over the previous half century, building on the tremendous legacy of the Birr Agricultural Show, the Festival has grown to be a most important part of the Summer calendar, a demonstration of the heritage and vibrancy of Birr and its people.
For this is a town with an extraordinary past – the Annals of Ulster, Annála Uladh, tell us that it was here that some of our first nationally agreed laws, An Cáin Adomnáin, were promulgated over a millennium and a half ago. In the nineteenth century, Birr became known not only for its ancient past, nor for the elegance of its architecture, but for the central part it played in the emergence of astronomy, when the largest telescope of its time, the Leviathan, was built by the William Parsons on the grounds of Birr Castle. Magnificently restored, the Leviathan now stands alongside its successor, the Irish Low Frequency Array Radio Telescope, which is the westernmost station of a network that stretches to Eastern Poland, connecting scientists and astronomers across Europe.
And on a day on which we all have one ear out for the results at Semple Stadium let us recall that the Sportsground here in Birr played host to the first All-Ireland Hurling Final on the 1st of April 1888. On that day, Tipperary defeated Galway – having grown up in Clare and called Galway my home since I was 19 I could not possibility speculate or comment on what this could augur for today! Yet, I would like to say that something of the magic of that first All-Ireland Final here in Birr must have rubbed off, because Birr GAA have captured the All-Ireland Club title on no fewer than four occasions and have played a leading role in bringing Offaly four Championship titles.
That history of sporting success and the spirit of scientific endeavour and innovation animates this wonderful festival today, as it surely animated the founders of the Festival when they first met 1967. The idea of a ‘Vintage Week’ was unique in the 1960s. It was farsighted in celebrating the built heritage of the town at a time when Georgian buildings elsewhere had fallen into decay or were under threat.
The growing influence of the artistic and creative component of the Festival led to a renaming and to the ‘Birr Vintage Week and Arts Festival’ we know today, with artists across the island of Ireland and further afield applying to participate. As our first Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht I was deeply impressed by the work undertaken here by the Birr Stage Guild, who put so much effort into the restoration of the Birr Theatre and Arts Centre, one of the finest examples of a Victorian theatre in the country, and I am pleased the Centre continues to host an exciting and diverse programme of events.
The wonderful parade today is such a tribute to the growth of the festival and the integration of its various themes, combining as it does a remarkable parade of cars, bicycles and motorbikes of times gone-by with street theatre, marching bands and countless performers. It is also a tribute to all those who volunteered, whether as artists, musicians, or stewards - from local business, churches and community groups - and who have dedicated so much time and effort to this ten-day programme of events possible.
This Festival is not only a showcase of the best of this town and this county, or the talent of its artists and people – it is a celebration of all that is best in our country: our love of community, our capacity for solidarity and friendship, and our ability to accomplish great things when we all work together in a spirit of co-operation and inclusion.
Rural communities throughout our country – whether large towns or small villages - face many challenges, and they will continue to face many challenges into the future. Today, when I witness the spirit of solidarity and community demonstrated by the people of Birr today, I am confident that we shall meet and overcome these challenges with an answerable determination and build together a sustainable, ethical, and inclusive republic capable of vindicating the rights of all of our people. You all have so much of which you can be proud.
May I then once again commend the Festival Committee, and all the citizens of Birr – and let us look forward together to another fifty years of the Festival!
Go raith míle maith agaibh agus beir beannacht.