Remarks the Opening of the Irish Red Cross Mountain Rescue Base
Trooperstown, Laragh, Co. Wicklow
A Chathaoirligh, a dhaoine uaisle, tá áthas orm bheith anseo libh inniu.
Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
As President of the Irish Red Cross, it gives me great pleasure to join you here today for the opening of this wonderful new facility. A facility that will act as a dedicated mountain rescue headquarters serving the rural and upland areas of Co. Wicklow and surrounding counties for many years to come. Comhghairdeachas libh inniu. My thanks to you all for that warm welcome and in particular to David O’Callaghan, Chairman and Donal Forde, Secretary General of the Irish Red Cross, for your kind invitation to share in this special occasion.
Tá súil agam go mbainfidh sibh taitneamh agus tairbhe as an bhfoirgneamh seo sna blianta amach romhainn agus táim cinnte go mbeidh sí ina áis chabhrach daoibh maidir le dul chun cinn na seirbhísí a chuireann Cumann Croise Deirge na hÉireann ar fáil anseo.
[I hope that this building serves you well for many years into the future and I have no doubt that it will assist you in improving and enhancing the services provided by the Irish Red Cross here. ]
The landscape in which the Irish Red Cross Society was born into in 1939 was very different to that of today, providing as it did assistance, without discrimination, to the sick and the wounded, to prisoners of war and to civilians. And following those dark days of war, in times of peace, your work turned to the improvement of health and the mitigation of human suffering wherever it may be found.
Today the Society’s valuable work can be seen in parts of the world as diverse as this beautiful setting here in rural Co. Wicklow to the stricken villages of Niger where up to six million people, many of them children, are hungry today.
As I salute you for all your humanitarian efforts I would like to take this opportunity to commend you on your recent ‘Restoring Family Links Strategy (2011 – 2016)’ which commits, as David O’Callaghan states in its introduction, to responding to those who have lost contact with family members because of armed conflict and other situations of violence, the increase in the number of natural and manmade disasters and as a consequence of internal displacement or migration. A debt of gratitude is also owed to Philip Berman for the extensive research and development of the strategy and one of the veritable army of five and a half thousand dedicated Irish Red Cross Volunteers.
From my years serving on the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee, some of the most harrowing accounts of conflict situations that I witnessed were the stories of displaced people, refugees, often the most vulnerable, children, people with disabilities, the weak and ill separated from family. The inclusion in that strategy document of Ali’s story of living in a war-torn country (and I know that this is an assumed name to protect his identity) underlines how important that work and this strategy is. From his new home in Ireland Ali gives thanks to the Red Cross ‘that my family are with me now and that we can be together without fear of persecution.’ It is powerful testimony indeed to the life-enhancing work of the Red Cross in Ireland and elsewhere.
The Society has a well earned and distinctive reputation for the skill and commitment of the delegates that its sends to work in disaster zones around the world. This is achieved through the provision of funding and personnel as well as directly implementing projects and activities in a number of countries, particularly in Africa and Asia.
Both nationally and internationally, the Irish Red Cross has been to the forefront in the provision of relief to alleviate suffering and I know that it has over the years attracted some very notable talent. The novelist and Nobel prize-winner, Samuel Beckett, gave his services to the Society at the hospital that the Irish Red Cross set-up in St. Ló in France after the Normandy town was bombed in July 1945.
Further illustration of the important work done at that time was Operation Shamrock which saw the transfer of hundreds of German children to Ireland by the Irish Red Cross with the children being temporarily housed by Irish families for up to three years while their homes in Germany were being rebuilt. Ernest Bekenheier, one of the first children to arrive in Ireland in October 1946 vividly remembered the warmth of the welcome they received in Dublin: - “As we got off the boat at Dún Laoghaire the pier was lined with tables, covered with white sheets, lots of Red Cross nurses standing behind serving out cocoa and bread with lots of butter on”.1
Throughout the decades, the Irish Red Cross Society here at home has built up both its safety and community services which include youth work and the care of the sick and elderly. The ‘Meals on Wheels’ service which was set up almost 50 years ago (1964), was commented on in the editorial of the Irish Independent: - “The loneliness and sheer discomfort of many old people living alone is a serious matter; and the Red Cross deserves all credit for its willingness to go into action”. 2 In addition, the Red Cross has secured both national and European recognition for the high quality of its First Aid courses. It is a strong endorsement of the success of the Irish Red Cross and the quality of its volunteers and its administration that the Society has been chosen to host the First Aid Convention in Europe (FACE) competitions which will be held in Dundalk next July.
The commitment of the Glen of Imaal Mountain Rescue Team is renowned and self-evident in that since its foundation 27 years ago this Team has operated without fixed premises, relying on team members’ homes for vehicle and equipment storage and use of community and National Park buildings for training and administration. This is the kind of active citizenship that I spoke of at my inauguration – what finer example of that commitment than this 30 member team working together and comprised of IT workers, mechanics, sales personnel and park wardens, a community of people who live, and for the most part work, in this local area allowing them to reach these mountains within minutes when and if duty calls.
Through their efforts, through their leadership, these volunteers are reaffirming the old decencies in Irish life and drawing on the ethical values that are being forged by our talented and energetic people of all generations; they are demonstrating community cohesion, neighbourly cooperation and creative endeavour; they are renewing our Republic so that it does full justice to the values of fairness and participation.
I would like to take this opportunity to commend you, to thank you volunteers, for your selfless and vital efforts to help people who are lost or injured in the mountains, providing a 24 hour on-call service throughout the year and in all weather conditions. Wicklow is, it is said, the ‘Garden of Ireland’ and there is nowhere more beautiful on a Spring or Summer’s day with its magnificent landscapes including so many accessible mountains – mountains which equally bring much enjoyment for so many but in other circumstances can be perilous. Whatever the circumstances, I know that your efforts in the cause of all at risk are always fulsome, and rightly so.
Tá sé ceart freisin go mbeidh an foirgneamh seo agaibh mar áit tarrthála oibriúcháin sa todhchaí, ag cur cosaint níos fearr ar fáil le haghaidh trealaimh éigeandála riachtanach. Cuirfear oiliúint Foirne agus riaracháin níos fearr ar fáil freisin. Níl aon amhras ann ach go mbainfear úsáid as an áit seo mar dúradh liom go bhfuil sé ina áit lárnach do ghníomhaíochtaí pobail cheana féin. Baineann grúpaí áitiúla áirithe úsáid as an bhfoirgneamh le haghaidh traenáil gharchabhrach agus gníomhaíochtaí eile.
[It is also right that you will from now on have this fine facility as an operational rescue base, providing greater protection for vital emergency equipment and allowing for more streamlined Team training and administration. There seems to be no question but that it will be fully utilised as I’m told it has already become a focal point for community activities with a number of local groups using the building for First Aid training and other activities.]
My congratulations too on this new resource being a centre of excellence for the promotion of environmental awareness and appreciation of Wicklow’s upland wilderness. And it is to be welcomed that the building has utilised sustainable technologies through integrating solar panels and provision for water harvesting. In these days of rising energy costs the foresight of the design team will certainly result in lower running costs, so important for a voluntary organisation, but just as importantly I welcome the fact that the facility has minimal environmental impact.
I renew my thanks to you for the invitation to be a part of this celebration of your new premises. I hope it will serve you well for many, many years into the future as I know you will continue to serve this community, the Red Cross, and those who may encounter danger on our mountain sides. Is iontach an obair atá ar siúl agaibh anseo ar son pobail contae Cill Mhantáin. Gurb fada buan sibh ‘s go raibh míle maith agaibh.
11. Germany and Ireland 1945 1955. Two Nations Friendship. Cathy Molohan. Irish Academic Press
22. The Irish Independent. 8 September 1964