SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT THE TOURISM IRELAND LUNCH
SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT THE TOURISM IRELAND LUNCH, NEW YORK, 18 MARCH, 2002
I dtosach báire ba mhaith liom a rá go bhfuil an-áthas orm bheith anseo libh inniu. Míle bhuíochas díbh as an chuireadh agus as fáilte a bhí caoin, cneasta agus croíúil.
At the outset I would like to say how pleased I am to be with you today amongst friends – my thanks to Mr. Jim McGuigan, Executive Vice President of Tourism Ireland, North America, for inviting me and to you all for your very warm welcome.
I am delighted to be here in New York at this special time of year when so many of the bonds of friendship and heritage between America and Ireland are celebrated with that annual surge of enthusiasm which seems to grow stronger year by year. But, it is a special joy for me as President of Ireland to be here during your wonderful St. Patrick's Day festivities. There is no city in this great country with which Ireland has closer links than with New York. The bonds have been forged and strengthened by centuries of emigration from Ireland. They span many generations, each of which has known its own ups and downs and today we enjoy a fresh contemporary friendship which spans a massive spectrum of human endeavour, from e-commerce to Enya.
Because the story of Ireland cannot be told without telling also the story of this city, the horror of September 11th brought Ireland to a standstill. The great hurt and loss this city suffered just a few short months ago broke our hearts and continues to break them, for we know that even as life goes on and people find the courage to face each new day, the hurt, the absence, the loss and the fear remains deeply rooted in the lives of so many, once happy people. It is my fervent hope that with the grace of God, the passing of time, the help of friends and the prayers of many strangers who care deeply, their wounds, both emotional and physical, will heal and that a renewed hope will replace the emptiness. Ireland has had its share of days when hope emptied out of us and yet today we know the miracle of peace in Northern Ireland and we have embarked on a new era of partnership between North and South.
Today, we are all guests of Tourism Ireland, one of the new cross-border bodies which epitomises the fresh new spirit of cooperation and understanding that characterises so much of what is happening in this fast changing, confident, modern Ireland. Its mission is to market the whole island of Ireland, North and South, as a high-quality vacation and travel destination.
Ireland’s beauty is legendary. It has an amazing range of landscapes in a small area, a people of warm hospitality and vitality, a culture rich in history, literature, art, music, dance, theatre, poetry, film and the science of simply chatting to one another. But no matter how wonderfully endowed a country is and Ireland certainly is, the tourism business is hugely competitive worldwide and market tentativeness in the wake of September 11 has added its own tough challenges.
American visitors to Ireland have played a very significant part in the outstanding success that Ireland's tourism industry has enjoyed in the past ten years. They come in their thousands and while everyone will have a different story to tell about why they came to Ireland, there is no doubt that the ease with which they fit in and feel at home is a vital element. At the heart of that ease is undoubtedly the kinship and the long-standing bonds of friendship between America and Ireland. It is the magical element which deepens and stretches the memories of happy days spent fishing, or riding, or golfing or sight-seeing. And, of course, the favourable dollar-euro exchange rate gives tourists the value for money that everyone rightly demands these days.
In recent years, Ireland's hospitality industry has made immense strides in building a well-deserved reputation for its culinary excellence. Most often, when American visitors return home after a vacation to Ireland, top of the list in their reviews is the high quality food they enjoyed during their visit. The key to this success is the emphasis which Ireland's hotel and restaurant industry places on the freshness and natural qualities of the food products available. Because of Ireland's strong agricultural and fishing traditions, our restaurants enjoy an abundance of outstanding fresh foods and because of our commitment to a clean, beautiful environment we really can claim to be the greenest of green islands.
Now a new generation has the chance to market all of Ireland’s glories - from the Lakes of Killarney to the Mountains of Mourne, from the Glen of Aherlow to the Giant’s Causeway, Down and Donegal – all in one brochure, Dublin and Belfast on one tourist track. Irish men and women take pride in their island home and relish its God given beauty no matter what part of the island they inhabit. They are grateful for its many stunning landscapes and grateful too for the people who make the visitors welcome, who honour a baton of embrace and care, handed down from generation to generation, a baton summarized in the old Irish expression - Céad Míle Fáilte- a hundred thousand welcomes.
I remember well an Englishman whom I met on holiday in Donegal several years ago. We were a bunch of one hundred and twenty strangers from thirty different countries thrown randomly into each other’s company on an Irish language and culture holiday. On the day we said our goodbyes he summarized the feelings of all us when he said that he would take the memory of that week to his grave. There can be no greater accolade. It is what we would want for each and every visitor. It is what Ireland tries hard to create, a memory worth carrying a lifetime.
I want to thank you all for your past support in helping to build the story of Ireland's memorable holidays into such a vibrant tourism industry. I hope it won’t be long before you take the opportunity to visit us in Ireland again soon.
And, when you get there, tell them I sent you!
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.