ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT THE STATE DINNER ON THE OCCASION OF THE STATE
ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT THE STATE DINNER ON THE OCCASION OF THE STATE VISIT OF THE PRESIDENT
Mr. President, distinguished guests,
We welcome you, Mr. President, as the first Head of State of the Republic of Lithuania to visit Ireland. Geography placed your small country right at the very centre of our common European homeland but history conspired for too long to keep your people from their rightful place among the family of free and independent European democracies. Today, 21st century Lithuania enjoys the liberty and the opportunities of a freedom which you committed your life to creating. You made your country’s struggle your struggle. You have known the pain of exile, the courage of return, the joy of liberation and the pleasure of representing, as its First Citizen, a re-invigorated and hope-filled Lithuania. Now your country looks at Europe differently and helps us to remember, as you put it yourself, that “Europe is an unfinished business.”
Soon Lithuania will join the European Union, making of our two countries, partners in the greatest peaceful common enterprise ever undertaken on our continent. You will bring to the Union table your own unique story of centuries of colonisation and cultural domination. You will bring your heart-rending experience of the twentieth century of occupation by the Nazis, annexation by the Soviet Union, Stalinism, mass deportations, a guerrilla resistance movement, the story of a people whose suffering never broke their spirit and whose endurance was finally rewarded only a short decade ago. I am pleased to recall that Ireland did not recognise your forced incorporation into the old Soviet Union and we welcomed your return to full national sovereignty in 1991. Today, we look forward to working closely with you as a fellow Member State of the enlarged European Union. And we particularly welcome the opportunity afforded by your visit, to get to know each other better, to explore your story and to reconnect with a forgotten history we once shared, all the better to enjoy the shared future we are intent on building.
Establishing empathy between Ireland and Lithuania is an easy task, for there are many things in your experiences which resonate deeply with our own. We know what it is to be colonised as you do, to live in the shadow and under the rule of a bigger more powerful neighbour. You have known the suppression of your language and your culture; you know what it is to have many of your people emigrate; on this island we too can tell remarkably similar tales.
Your long national struggle runs in parallel with our own. Being often on the losing side, being small and at times feeling powerless, these things give us a perspective on the world which makes us easily intelligible to each other.
But the empathy we feel is not just rooted in coincidences or historic parallels. There have been times when our paths were much closer than a first glance might admit. Nineteenth century scholars investigating the Indo-European family of languages were fascinated by the deep structural affinities between Old Irish, Sanscrit and Lithuanian. The mysteries at the heart of those affinities are things which a future generation of Lithuanian and Irish scholars will no doubt help unravel.
In the early twentieth century, a traveller to both countries would have encountered two fairly poor and predominantly rural societies, each of which reluctantly formed a part of a dominating empire. The two countries were traditional in their way of life, and very, very alike in religious outlook. In promoting national claims to independence, scholars and political activists from the two countries drew inspiration from their very distinctive histories. In each case these claims were articulated not merely in political terms, but also by reference to distinctive national languages, music, literature and folklore. When independence was achieved, in the period following the First World War, the political leaderships of the two States found themselves faced with similar challenges. In each case the task of nation-building had to be pursued against the discouraging and sometimes ominous political and economic background of Europe between the wars.
With the coming of the Second World War, our histories took very different courses. Although the Ireland of the 1940’s had its problems, these fade into insignificance when compared with the nightmare that descended upon Lithuania at that time. Yours was a small country caught between two rival totalitarianisms. There followed a horrific period for your country, marked by massacres, mass deportations and attempted resistance against impossible odds.
But in spite of the suppression of your state institutions, and forced incorporation into the old Soviet Union, Lithuania’s people both at home and abroad retained a deep attachment to the recovery of national sovereignty. Here in Ireland, as elsewhere in the democratic countries of Europe, we watched with hope as Lithuania, taking advantage of profound change in the Soviet Union, became the first of the three Baltic States to assert a claim to recovery of independence. Your country’s declaration of sovereignty in May 1989, and of full independence in March 1990, were acts of considerable courage at a time when the outcome was far from certain. On the 23rd of August 1989, people all over Europe were filled with admiration at the spectacle on the Baltic Way, when two million people from the three Baltic States formed a human chain stretching from your capital Vilnius to Tallinn. Lithuania’s efforts to regain its independence were not confined to such shining symbolic acts. In January 1991, your people displayed remarkable courage in their peaceful defence of the Lithuanian Parliament and the television tower, and 14 unarmed civilians paid with their lives.
The difficulties of ending conflict and building peace are well known on this island and we admire greatly the fine example Lithuania’s bilateral relations with Poland present to all states which seek to put behind them the legacies of old conflicts.
Mr. President,
It is difficult today to believe that these events, which form an inspiring page in the history of late twentieth century Europe, took place only a decade ago. Lithuania has travelled an immense distance since then. Your country’s achievements are impressive. You have re-established a State based upon the rule of law, a civil society, religious freedom, security of property and a market economy. You have had your share of setbacks and unforeseen difficulties but Lithuania can take pride in the fact that it is a model for the orderly transformation of a one-party State into a successful democracy. One indicator of Lithuania’s success is the impressive progress which your country has made in accession negotiations with the European Union. Successive Irish governments have strongly supported enlargement, believing it to be historically essential to the realisation of Europe’s fullest potential as a zone of confidence, co-operation and prosperity.
Over the twenty-eight years of our membership, Ireland has been transformed. We faced many of the issues you now face as you prepare for entry and I know that we would be delighted to share our experiences with Lithuania and support you on what is in many ways your journey home to the heart of Europe. There are already contacts between Lithuania and Ireland to that end.
As Lithuanian membership of the Union draws closer there will inevitably be a growth in links between our two countries. Your presence here today is a sign of the desire on both sides to deepen the relationship. Following a recent decision of the Government, I look forward to the opening next year of an Embassy of Ireland in your legendary and beautiful city of Vilnius. And it was very reassuring to learn that the first steps have been taken to introduce Irish studies at the eminent University of Vilnius, and that classes are being offered by Lithuanian teachers in both old Irish and contemporary Irish literature. The strengthening of these diplomatic and cultural links is important to seed-bedding a new future for our two countries. Ireland will be enriched by greater friendship with such a respected and determined small nation on the other side of Europe. Our peoples will be enriched by getting to know each other better, by making friends with each other, by working together as citizens of a Europe in which the unique identity of Ireland and the unique identity of Lithuania are profoundly enhanced and secured by the respect we show each other, the interest we have in each other and the determination we have to make this new Europe a showcase for true equality, true partnership. As two small countries with large voices and strong spirits forged out of history’s bitter experience and with an easy mutual empathy we will, I am sure, be very glad of each others company around the European table. We have a lot to learn from you.
I hope that the impressive progress Lithuania has made in the enlargement negotiations will continue, and that there will be an end in sight to that “unfinished business” at the time of the next Irish Presidency of the Union in 2004.
I now invite all present to join me in a toast to the President of the Republic of Lithuania and to the well-being of the Lithuanian people. I SVEIKATA.