Address at the Hyde Award Presentation
UCD, Dublin, 27 March 2012
A dhaoine uaisle, a chairde Gael,
It is a great honour and privilege for me to be with you tonight. It is an even greater privilege to be here to accept the Douglas Hyde award, especially when I remember that he was my first predecessor. He was our first President during a period of great turbulence, not only for this country, but for Europe, and indeed for the whole world. I understand that the people of this Republic have bestowed the honour of the Presidency on me during a period that is almost equally turbulent. And I strongly believe that we will be able to recover the unselfish idealism, imagine and create a culture based on citizenship and value systems in economic, social and, above all cultural matters, that will guide us out of this crisis, just as our ancestors did before us.
Our language is I believe both a repository of national memory, connecting us with those who have passed before us and a vibrant and unique resource for the imagining of future possibility and identity.
It’s fitting tonight to remember and consider, on receiving this award, some elements of the great contribution of Douglas Hyde to our country: born in Castlerea, Roscommon, and raised for his early years in Yeats’ beautiful Sligo and his later childhood in Roscommon. It was here that he became fascinated with the Irish language. On entering Trinity College Dublin he studied French, Latin, German, Greek and Hebrew. An accomplished historian early in life, he was President of the Trinity College Historical Society in 1931. His passion for Irish with others such as Eoin MacNeill led him to found Conradh na Gaedhilge, which he served as President from 1893 to 1915. I think it is Hyde’s great originality that moves me most – his passionate intellectual curiosity that led him to pursue excellence in more than six languages is only part evidence of this. His great love for words, for writing, also inspires. One of his most notable contributions was his Love Songs of Connaught in 1893, poetry and prose in both English and Irish. But he was also rigorously independent and of course the growing politicisation of the Conradh led him to resign though the society through other prominent members, made, of course, a profound contribution to the achievements of an independent Irish State. Not unimportantly, to all of you I know, was the fact that it was the League that campaigned successfully to have St Patrick ’s Day made a national holiday.
When the Commission on Intermediate Education in 1899 debated whether Irish should be on the curriculum it was Hyde who rose to the battle and won the day, enlisting the support of some of Europe’s leading Celtic scholars, Rudolf Thurnesen, Ernst Windisch in Germany, and Georges Dottin in France.
On death in 1949, he is also of course immortalised in Austin Clarke’s great work Burial of an Irish President which recalls for us rules, not so long ago, that divided us and ensured that many members of Cabinet would not cross the line into St Patrick’s Cathedral to share in the national mourning on his loss:
At the last bench
Two Catholics, the French
Ambassador and I, knelt down.
The vergers waited. Outside.
The hush of Dublin town,
Professors of cap and gown,
Costello, his Cabinet
In government cars, hiding
It is interesting to note that our ancestors were not that much older than many people in this room tonight when they set out to rescue, reinvent or create, depending on your emphasis, a culture and country. They looked back at all that had gone before them, they reflected deeply on that history and engaged in intense discussion about it, and they debated their differing paths ahead. They took the most valuable aspects of that history and culture, and used them as source so as to imagine and create a new future. It is a cause for debate to this day to what extent they succeeded in that endeavour – I will leave it to other people and other occasions to discuss that! But nobody could question their idealism, their selflessness or their passion. They had their differing visions and they believed in them. That is the challenge that faces us all now, and you as the next generation. What vision do we hold? How strongly do we believe in it? What is needed to realise ones own unique vision for your life? I said in my inauguration speech that my Presidency would be one of transformation, where we collectively work for such a different set of values as will enable us to build a sustainable social economy and a society which is profoundly ethical and inclusive. A society where our young people can be confident in setting and realising their goals.
Douglas Hyde’s scholarship and that of Eoin MacNeill was recognised in 1908 as both were appointed as Chairs of Irish. If the concept of a university is to be correctly understood, it is seen as a context in which learning, exploring and imagining of all kinds can be engaged in so as to encourage and promote innovation and creativity. I truly believe that the Irish language lies at the heart of innovation. In this context, it is a cause of great hope that the Irish language and those who speak it are talking and in contact with immigrant communities who have come to this country over the last few years. Those communities understand at the deepest level what constitutes multilingualism and multiculturalism. They recognise in their own hearts how valuable it is to preserve your culture and language for the next generation. And now that they live in this country, the Irish language and culture belongs as much to them as to us all.
Innovation also grows from honest and robust communication between young people and the generations who have gone before them. I understand that innovation is what occurs when the young teach the old. The future of Irish is up to you. If innovation, imagination and creativity are to have a central role in this endeavour, and they should, it will fall to you to promote those activities. Are you ready for that challenge?
Thanks to the pioneering work of Hyde and his colleagues, we still have the beautiful jewel that is Irish in our grasp. But still, there is no doubt but that it is shining in new ways that neither Hyde nor his generation could ever have imagined. The language is now being taught from America to China. The new English-Irish dictionary is due to come out in electronic format this year, the first dictionary of its kind for 30 years, and the first English-Irish dictionary for almost 60 years.
The Gaelscoileanna movement goes from strength to strength. There are new websites, such as abairleat.com. There are great resources in place for learners and for students, such as focal.ie, logainm.ie and ainm.ie. Websites such as logainm.ie and ainm.ie have the capacity to marry the native richness of this country with the most modern technology available. They not only preserve the indigenous wisdom which our ancestors created over thousands of years in a sustainable way, but we will be able to draw and add to that store on an ongoing basis.
The greatest reason that we should be proud of these projects is how they show that our native tongue can be a powerful tool in the area of technology on an international level. That is to say, there is no need to make any excuse for a resource that is made for or through Irish. Since TG4 was established when I was Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht. A new enthusiasm is coming to the fore in projects such as these. New opportunities are emerging everyday for appreciations of science and technology that enable and draw on the use of the Irish language in the Gaeltacht and the Galltacht.
Young people understand how important authenticity is in all of our lives. If there is a feel that there is an air of artificiality around something, if one feels that it does not speak to you in a way that is, true, appealing, interesting, inviting you will not bother with it. Both Facebook and Google as Gaeilge show us how Irish-language users can place the language at the heart of life in a way that is authentic. This is not as some poor substitute for another language, but as a modern forum where people of all ages can engage in authentic communication through Irish. There has been much talk in the recent past about "mainstreaming" the language. We are doing that, all of us here in this room and people all over the world. That is a cause of great hope for us all.
I congratulate UCD's Bord na Gaeilge on their work programme. I think especially of your Residential Scheme, and how you are trying to establish a Gaeltacht community on campus. That project is very interesting in light of the importance of the "first contact" between people. Thanks to the Residential Scheme, you have succeeded in creating that unique experience in the heart of a university campus for young people.
Let us not blind ourselves. There are many challenges ahead of us as a community of Irish speakers. But there are many opportunities as well. I have no doubt but that we will be able to use those opportunities to overcome the challenges, as long as we make effective use of our skills of innovation, creativity and imagination, but of above all of our emotional and spiritual belief in the language as a valuable dimension of ourselves and all or people past and present.
Of course, for many of you your top priority right now is to do well on your exams, and on that, I wish you the very best. For others your preoccupation is to leave the walls of formal education and take a place in economic, social or cultural life.. To have a second or third language is an extra skill. To have Irish, which is as Hyde reminded us is “one of the finest and richest languages of Europe” is a key, valuable resource – connecting you to your heritage, the courage of many, the creativity and resourcefulness of our Hyde and others. It will stand to you as you set out, and my best wishes in all your endeavours.
It is Hyde’s creativity, his determination to follow his own authentic path; his vision for Irish, and all that culture can bring and leave to a society that we can truly celebrate and which makes this award especially meaningful to me. Thank you to Dáire Ó Braonáin from an Cumann Gaelach for his invitation to be here this evening and also to Éadaoin Nic Giolla Bhríde, Reachtaire of An Cumann Gaelach, and to Professor Liam Mac Mathúna.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir agus go n-éirí libh!