Remarks by President McAleese at the Gaisce Gold Medal Awards
Dublin, Thursday, 29th September, 2011
Dia dhíbh a chairde. Tá an-áthas orm a bheith i bhur measc anseo ar an ócáid speisialta seo. Táim buíoch díbh as an guireadh agus an fáilte a thug sibh dom.
The presentation of the 2011 Gaisce Gold Medal Awards brings all of us deep into the lives of 70 remarkable young people. Unpack the stories of how they each faced into the Gaisce challenge and you are likely to be amazed, fascinated and overwhelmed with pride, because these are our very finest young people and we have seen their noble character and their generous values shine out in so many remarkable ways. I met some of them this morning at Ratra House and listened to them describe their individual pathways to Gaisce Gold and I thought how very blessed are their families and communities and our country.
They already had busy lives that made huge demands on their time. They had any number of excuses not to take on any more commitments yet they volunteered for the Gaisce Challenge, knowing it would stretch and test them, it would make them uncomfortable and they would have to push themselves hard to make it through to completion.
The path to Gaisce gold is not for those who want an easy life. It is for those who are prepared to make sacrifices so that they can give their very best to life knowing as they do that life can be as capricious as it can be wonderful and we need men and women capable of offering leadership and sound judgement no matter what life throws at us.
The cold economic winds of these past few years turned our plans and expectations upside down. This generation face into an unexpectedly harsh and unforgiving landscape of reduced prospects and increased debts. Where we are right now is not where we wanted to be nor is it where we intend to remain. We are a hard-working, ambitious and adaptable people and we can already see that the tide of hope is turning gradually back in our direction. The journey is far from over but it will be these young men and women and more like them whose talent and tenacity will help this country reach the farther shore. We know their worth for they cast out into the deep where others stayed as spectators passively on the shore, they set out along uncharted paths and found their way, they made themselves to paraphrase Gandhi - the change they wanted to see in the world. Yes they did it to achieve gold but this gold is not about wealth or riches or material things, it is about knowing themselves and their world more profoundly, more compassionately, more intuitively that when they started, it is about being enriched by the experience of learning and growing, it is about giving and giving and coming to understand that it truly is in giving that we receive.
These young Gold Award winners will imbed themselves in Irish life, will be centres of gravity, rocks that others will lean on, role models that others look to, active, responsible citizens we can be truly proud of. I am only sorry that after today I will no longer have the honour and privilege of awarding them their well-deserved Gold Awards but every President who stands here will I know feel the pride, the respect and the hope I feel here today when I look at our awardees. I feel the same respect and gratitude when I think of the President’s Award leaders, the unsung volunteer heroes and heroines who help bring out the best in those who sign up for Gaisce and when I look at the Council of busy unpaid professionals who guide and direct Gaisce, the staff who work so hard to sustain and develop the award, the sponsors schools, workplaces, organisations and supporters who are so faithful to Gaisce and so enthusiastic about its importance and our sister organisations in the International Award and the Duke of Edinburgh Award whose collegial help has been so crucial.
I thank all those with whom I have collaborated as Patron of Gaisce these past fourteen years and in particular I thank Chairman Laurence Crowley from whom I have learnt so much, John McCormick under whose gentle guidance Gaisce spread its wings into Northern Ireland so successfully and our current indomitable CEO Barney Callaghan. I wish all of you a very fulfilling future as champions of Gaisce. Above all I thank the tens of thousands of young people who took the opportunity offered by Gaisce and opened wide the door to their own future and our country’s best hopes.
Enjoy this day that you worked so hard to reach and may the future be good to each one of you for you surely deserve it to be.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.