Speech at a ceremony for the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad
Áras an Uachtaráin, Thursday 8 December 2016
Ministers,
Distinguished guests,
A cháirde,
Tá áthas orm fíor-chaoin fáilte a fhearadh romhaibh go léir chuig Áras an Uachtaráin le haghaidh na hócáide fíor-speisialta seo. Is mian liom fáilte ar leith a fhearadh roimh ár n-aíonna oinigh – faighteoirí na bliana seo de Ghradam Seirbhíse Dearscna an Uachtaráin d’Éireannaigh Thar Lear.
[I am delighted to welcome you all to Áras an Uachtaráin for this very special occasion. I wish to extend a special welcome for our distinguished guests – the recipients of the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad.]
You are all most welcome to Áras an Uachtaráin. Sabina and I are delighted to host this very special ceremony in recognition of the outstanding service rendered by so many members of our global Irish diaspora to Irish life and to the life of their home communities across the world. This evening it is my pleasure to acknowledge more particularly the contribution of those who were chosen as this year’s recipients – women and men who represent so well hundreds of thousands of other Irish women and men throughout the globe – by conferring on them the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad.
May I thank all of you for your presence here tonight – each of the awardees, but also your family and friends, some of whom have travelled great distances to attend this celebratory event. It is a great pleasure to have this occasion to rejoice, together, in your achievements, and to be able to do so in this very special year when we are commemorating the centenary of a seminal event on Ireland’s path to independence – the Easter Rising of 1916.
As 2016 draws to a close, it is indeed worth recalling the momentous opportunity which this centenary year has afforded all Irish people, in Ireland and abroad, to reflect on our collective journey over those past hundred years. It has been an opportunity to take stock of what we have achieved as a nation, what we have failed to achieve, what we have yet to achieve, and what remains to be done. An opportunity to reclaim in our own times the best of the idealism, of the powerful emancipatory impulse, which animated the men and women of Ireland’s Revolution, and an opportunity to give voice to the forgotten promises of our past, so as to better imagine, together, what Ireland might yet become.
Those centenary celebrations have also been an invitation to all of us to reflect on what it meant to be Irish at the turn of the last century, at an age of imperialism, and what it means nowadays, at this turn of the twenty first century. Today’s ceremony provides some answers to those questions. For it is indeed a generous and inspiring version of Irishness which is exemplified by each of this evening’s award recipients.
As we gather here to pay tribute to our honoured guests, it behoves us to acknowledge just how much we have to celebrate as a diasporic people that continues to give to the world such esteemed and truly compassionate individuals as those we recognise today. Indeed the principles of humanity and solidarity, of respect for “the other”, are ones that are greatly needed in our times of international strife and uncertainty.
We Irish people must be a clear voice in the defence of human rights, the right to dignity and safety from persecution. We in Ireland cannot advert our gaze from those who currently tread paths of migration and distress – paths which so many of our forbearers have trodden as they sought to build safe and dignified lives, lives that would be free from starvation, oppression and a deeply scarring poverty.
Migration is an inescapable part of the Irish identity and an insufficiently recognised global reality. A recent study gave the number of global migrants as 247 million, of which 24 million are refugees or asylum seekers. Importantly, this study also shows that, last year, migrants contributed 9.4% of global GDP.
The journey of the Irish emigrant stands as a testament to the creativity and resilience of all those who left our shores over previous centuries. Today our diaspora stretches far and wide, comprising millions of people who have made their mark in communities across the continents – working, raising families, making friends, living fulfilling lives in their respective countries while also remaining true to, and proud of, their Irish heritage.
In turn, we in Ireland are so proud of the achievements of our extended global family, whose hard work, influence, and tangible support have been so instrumental, over the decades, in shaping the Ireland we know today.
Our peculiar historical experience as a people is not just one that continues to resonate with the Irish emigrants of today, who often travel in more excitement and hope than trepidation. It is also one that might, hopefully, serve to tell those who are forced to flee their own lands today that they too can turn adversity into new lives, build strong communities for those who may follow in their footsteps, and, as so many of the Irish abroad did, contribute to rebuilding their homelands as places of peace, security and freedom.
Speaking out for those who are struggling and seeking to carve out a safe and dignified place for themselves in the world is that for which many of our awardees today are best recognised.
Sr. Mary Sweeney offers hope, faith and empowerment to those whose lives she touches in Makeni, Sierra Leone, and by whose side she remained throughout the devastation of the war years. Education is the gift Sr. Mary has shared so wholeheartedly, against all odds, with the community who now love and esteem her, indeed as we do.
For as many years as I have known of his work, Martin Von Hildebrand Mulcahy has fought tirelessly for the environmental protection and the rights of indigenous communities in the Colombian Amazon. In this year when many in Ireland have rediscovered the compelling reports of Roger Casement on the rubber extraction industry in the Putumayo region of the Amazon, Martin’s work shows just how, a hundred years later, so much remains to be done to protect those indigenous communities whose livelihoods, spirituality, and lives, are gravely threatened by a ruthless exploitation of the largest and most diverse rainforest on earth by some corporations who use every means at their disposal to achieve impunity from national and international law.
Nora Higgins is recognised across Britain as the voice of those who are often least able to call out for help themselves, such as the Irish of the 1950s emigration. Every day she works tirelessly to help our elderly emigrants overcome the effects of social isolation. We are immensely grateful to Nora’s compassion and her passionate voice for the elderly.
We know both Brendan Fay and Kathleen Walsh D’Arcy as unflagging campaigners for the rights of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community – true believers in equality for all citizens. In a time when these values are being contested across the world, when a battle for hearts and minds must be fought, Brendan’s and Kathleen’s unrelenting advocacy for inclusion and equality give us reason to the power of human decency and generous ideals.
There are so many ways in which our awardees tonight have shown care – care for their immediate community, care for their imagined community, care for the strangers and the vulnerable, care for their homelands, both of birth and affinity. There are so many fields in which members of our global Irish family excel, from humanitarian work, to business, to science and technology. There are so many inspiring stories in your respective biographies.
We can be most inspired by the dedicated work of Angela Brady in her chosen field of architecture, but also in advancing the recognition of the public value of architecture. Angela is distinguished by the energy she brings to ensuring Ireland’s success across the fields of design and business, as well as by her commitment to the broader welfare of the Irish community in Britain.
Norman McClelland’s achievement in transforming his father’s family farm into one of the largest food distribution companies in the United States, as well as his many acts of generosity are an inspiration to many in Arizona. The wonderful library of the Irish Cultural Center now gracing Phoenix stands as testament to Norman’s legacy to that city and to the Irish community who now call it home.
Indeed at the heart of the particular form of mutual relations that characterises Ireland as a diasporic nation lies a sense of inclusivity – of the coming together of Irish people, wherever they may be in the world, in a spirit of support and solidarity.
Robert Kearns offers a great illustration of this. Robert has not only worked to craft physical spaces in his chosen home of Toronto – spaces where we can gather to remember the terrible ordeals and loss of our famine emigrants – but he also acts as a mentor for those young Irish business people seeking to emulate his success in Canada. There are many Irish families who are grateful, as we are, for Robert’s open door and insightful advice over many years.
So too has Gerald Lawless in Dubai acted as a great facilitator of the prosperity of his fellow compatriots as we, the great travellers, sought out pastures new in the United Arab Emirates. The continued warm relations that bind the diasporic Irish to many diverse global communities would not be possible without people like Gerald, who form friendships and build up bonds of trust wherever they go.
Professor Garret FitzGerald has opened doors for Irish scientists the world over. We take pride in Garret’s academic brilliance, in his loyalty to Ireland and in his extraordinary work ethic. Even more than that, Garret’s ground-breaking contribution to the field of medicine means he has had a positive impact on the lives of so many people across the world.
And now to our dear departed friend, Sir Terry Wogan. I know you will all join with me in celebrating Terry’s gift: so many people have felt less lonely – indeed they have felt understood – as they listened to Terry on the BBC throughout the different stages of his life and theirs. Terry did his broadcasting with such charm, wit, sensitivity and empathy – including during some very challenging times for the Irish community in Britain. Terry Wogan was loved on both sides of the Irish Sea and we send his family our heartfelt condolences as today we honour him with our highest award.
May I conclude by thanking the members of the High Level Panel who deliberated on this year’s Presidential Distinguished Service Award and to commend them for their selection: 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 of my own office; Ms. Sally O’Neill Sanchez; Professor Declan Kiberd; Fr. Bobby Gilmore and Mr. Kingsley Aikins. I am delighted to see so many of them here this evening.
Finally, may I thank, once again, the award recipients for all that you have done and continue to do. Mirroring the candle that shines in the window upstairs of this building as a symbol of the enduring presence of our emigrants in Irish hearts, the light that each and every one of you shines in your respective homelands is a source of pride and inspiration to all of us in Ireland.
Tá aitheantas tugtha do shaothar, do thiomantas agus do mhórghníomhartha gach duine de na faighteoirí ina bpobail féin thar lear. Tugann an tráthnóna seo an deis domsa, thar ceann mhuintir na hÉireann, ár mbuíochas a ghabháil leis an deichnúr faighteoir – go raibh míle maith agaibh.
[The recipients have already been acknowledged for their hard work, their dedication and their achievements in their own communities abroad. This afternoon gives me the opportunity, on behalf of the people of Ireland, to thank the 10 recipients – thank you all very much.]
Go raibh mile maith agaibh go léir.
