Speech at Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad
Áras an Uachtaráin, 3rd December 2015
A Thaoisigh,
A Thánaiste,
A Airí,
A chomhaltaí na Comhairle Stáit
agus a cháirde,
Tá áthas orm fíor-chaoin fáilte a fhearradh romhaibh go léir chuig Áras an Uachtaráin le haghaidh na hócáide fíor-speisialta seo. Bá mhaith liom fáilte ar leith a fhearradh roimh ár n-aíonna oinigh – faighteoirí na bliana seo de Chearnmhír an Uachtaráin um Sheirbhís Dearscna do Ghaeil Thar Lear.
[I am delighted to welcome you all to Áras an Uachtaráin for this very special occasion. May I welcome in particular our guests of honour – the recipients of this year’s Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad.]
The collective achievements of this evening’s award recipients is a cause for great pride for the people of this island and contributes to a sense of nationhood that reverberates far beyond this room.
We are here tonight to celebrate, and express our appreciation to some luminaries of Ireland’s global network who have advanced the welfare of Irish abroad and enhanced the reputation of Ireland. They are our honoured guests this evening.
In recognising their courage, commitment and dedication, the Presidential Distinguished Service Award provides an opportunity for Ireland as a people to recognise how they have pushed the boundaries of compassion, tested the very limits of human knowledge and learning, and worked to elevate the standing and reputation of the Irish people throughout the world. For this we are most grateful.
Through a complex and rich history as a migratory people, the innate spirit and character of the Irish people has covered incalculable distances over land and sea, and transmitted the migrant’s experiences down through generations. That is what constitutes the Irish diaspora.
The journey of the Irish emigrant throughout history stands as a living testament to the resilience of the human spirit, and to the fruits of dedication and perseverance.
There is always a fundamental difference between voluntary and involuntary migration.
The history of Irish emigration has many layers and the experience of the emigrant has been varied. The Irish who left these shores over one and a half centuries ago were frequently met with hardship at the borders of their adopted nations.
Many mustered the ability to overcome the memory of a ravaged homeland and turn this adversity into prospects and build robust livelihoods. They and others went on to build emigrant support networks for the generations who would follow them. They did so while simultaneously keeping aspects of Irish heritage, language, music and dance alive in a new setting.
At the same time, we should never forget those for whom this was a challenge too great in a strange land and who would need the care of others.
The turbulent and often traumatic experience of Irish emigration through the centuries has left a lasting imprint on the collective psyche, in different ways, on those who left, and indeed on that of those who stayed.
One can understand, how, our memory of famine, political upheaval, and more recently financial instability, would generate an empathy for the people and the migrants of other small nations who find themselves at the mercy of external forces, shocks and tragedies.
The emigration experience encourages us to a great solidarity with those families and individuals currently fleeing parts of the Middle East and Africa, trapped between the horrors of a war-torn homeland and the walled borders of countries to which they seek a safe haven. For these, the rights to freedom of movement, freedom from degrading treatment and freedom from discrimination must not be put beyond reach.
When we reflect on the divergent experience of the early Irish emigrants and their descendants, the demands of solidarity and hospitality for our contemporary reality seem not to be excessive – indeed simply the stuff of ordinary humanity.
It is especially fitting this year that we are recognising the work of many of those who have made a direct contribution to helping those of our emigrant Irish scattered family who encounter difficulties abroad.
One who can be counted amongst the foremost number of these moral champions is Gareth Peirce, whose extraordinarily courageous campaigns against the darkest failures of the rule of law, the arbitrary abuse of the legal system against minorities, whom we have the honour of recognising formally this evening.
We recognise too, those Irish from among our Missionary Community who have shown an extraordinary ability, and great dedication in recognising new challenges.
Indeed, Sr. Dr Miriam Maire Duggan’s tireless medico-humanitarian work on the African continent across the fields of midwifery and the care of those afflicted by HIV/AIDS represents one of the most impressive examples of Irish diasporic empathy in practice.
I met Fr. Brendan McBride on my recent visit to the West Coast of the United States and saw at first hand the tremendous work he is doing for the Irish Community in San Fransciso and beyond.
Fr. Brendan, the Beacon of the Bay Area, provided great consolation and solace to the families of the six young Irish, and Irish-American students who lost their lives so tragically, in Berkley, in June of this year. His quiet, unassuming presence was also a source of comfort to those who were injured, their families and the many, many friends as they struggled to come to terms with their loss. Your presence helped to convey the sorrow of the nation.
Irish missionaries have immersed themselves in cultures around the world, Fr. Donal Doyle has spent over five decades in Japan helping to plant the seeds of Irish heritage, and encourage Japan’s leaders of the future to visit Ireland.
In light of the recent political achievement in Belfast, I would like to commend all of those involved on their efforts toward genuine compromise and in securing a peaceful future in Northern Ireland. One among our number this evening, Tom J. Moran, played a significant part in the North’s path to peace and hopefully reconciliation and it is for this, together with his humanitarian work and business achievements in the United States, that we honour him tonight.
The Irish experience of emigration brought with it a cultural diffusion that has served to energise the artistic and creative spaces within the societies the Irish went on to call home.
Indeed the film lots of Hollywood, Los Angeles, have long been inflected by the Gaelic love of drama and storytelling. Maureen O’Hara, sadly no longer among us, was among those whose glittering career was a source of pride for the Irish wherever they were lodged.
The artistic range, respect and emotive power of our very own Gabriel Byrne has helped to sustain Ireland’s legacy in the film industry worldwide, and we are honoured to pay homage to him this evening, albeit in his absence.
Irish literature too has been enhanced by the many who work to promote its subtleties, mystery and humour by drawing on the works of among others, Yeats, Joyce, Behan, Heaney and Friel.
Maureen Murphy, who is also the creator of a powerful exhibition documenting the almost half a million emigrant Irish women who passed through the Irish Mission in New York City, is one such literary tribune, and is most deserving of our praise and recognition this evening. I had the opportunity to discuss Maureen’s wonderful work with her in New York in September.
Another Literary contributor to the story of our Irishness is Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa; Nobel Laureate, novelist and playwright. His work on Roger Casement has helped illuminate a neglected person and perspective on Ireland’s struggle for self-determination, and he has broadened the readership of Irish political history on the eve of 2016; inter alia encouraging a Latin American interest in a year of great commemoration and reflection for this island, with his work ‘El Sueño del Celt’.
Mario’s standing on the international stage is well established, but his great achievement in this work is perhaps in linking the history of Irish nationalism to the wider history of human rights. This powerfully resonates with the spirit of a universal approach to rights that lies at the heart of the Presidential Distinguished Service Award and finds expression in the lives and work of so many of our recipients.
The value of industry and business, and the reliance we have placed on them in our economic recovery, should not go unmentioned. The recent success of the Global Irish Economic Forum this year underlines the true value of a committed diaspora in helping to light the way for a better, brighter and more economically sustainable future in this country.
We should acknowledge the dedication of Niall Fitzgerald, whose business leadership and foresight has helped reinforce a nation’s confidence as it takes the first steps toward a more stable tomorrow. His generous commitment to Ireland is steadfast, and public, and he played an important role at the Global Irish Economic Forum just a few weeks ago.
But it is also to the philosophers and thinkers of the business world that we must give our thanks, for it is they who sketch the blueprints for success and test the parameters of the possible. The impressive litany of business educational works by Kildare man Charles Handy has helped steer an uncountable number of students and practitioners alike. For his contributions to scholarship, this evening we give our thanks. I met Charles on a number of occasions in the past year in Dublin and in Africa, where he has done so much good work.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the High Level Panel who considered hundreds of outstanding candidates for this year’s Presidential Distinguished Service Award: Mr. Niall Burgess, Secretary General, Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade; Mr. Martin Fraser, Secretary General, Department of the Taoiseach; Mr. Art O’Leary, Secretary General at my own office; Ms. Sally O’Neill Sanchez; Professor Declan Kiberd; Fr. Bobby Gilmore and Mr. Kingsley Aikins, and I am delighted to see so many of them here this evening.
Finally, once again I would like to thank each and every one of our award recipients for their boundless courage, unending dedication, timeless craft and utter selflessness in ensuring that the spirit of Ireland will always find warm welcome among the nations of the world.
Thar ceann mhuintir na hÉireann is mian liom buíochas ó chroí a ghabháil le faighteoirí na bliana seo as ucht a gcuid oibre ar fad ar son na nGael thar lear. Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir agus nár laga Dia sibh.