REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A CELEBRATION TO MARK THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF COMHALTAS CEOLTOIR
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A CELEBRATION TO MARK THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF COMHALTAS CEOLTOIRÍ ÉIREANN IN THE MANSION HOUSE
A Dhaoine Uaisle,
Tá gliondar orm bheith i bhur measc anocht chun an 50ú Cothrom den Comhaltas Ceoltoirí Éireann a cheiliúradh.
I am truly delighted to have been asked here tonight to join with you in celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the founding of Comhaltas Ceoltoirí Éireann, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the enormous contribution you have made to Irish life over so many years.
Much of the success and vibrancy of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann can be credited to the relevance it holds for people, the place it holds in their hearts, and the extent of local community involvement and participation which can be only described as quite extraordinary. The success story that is Comhaltas will continue to grow and blossom because of the intrinsic ethnic emotional bond that Irish traditional music evokes in people from all cultures and all walks of life. From the early recordings of Michael Coleman, Jim Morrison, Paddy Kiloran and then Leo Rowsome, to the present-day recordings of people like Joe Burke and Pádraig Ó Riain, Kathleen Nesbitt and Michael Tubridy, we have delighted in the members of Comhaltas Ceoltoirí Éireann singing, playing and dancing into this new millennium. You have taken Irish music firmly and confidently to the centre of the international stage while preserving, protecting and nurturing its roots, within the community. Take Comhaltas out of the equation, turn back the clock and contemplate Ireland without Comhaltas and the sheer scale of what we owe you is revealed.
There are some who think that Irish music, dance, song and story are the icing on life’s cake and it is true that they give us great days, greater nights and great memories. But they are not the icing on the cake, they are the leaven, the very rising ingredient itself. From them comes those intangible things that go to make up communal memory, to create identity, to nurture pride and self-confidence, from them comes that space inside a person that dreams and hopes, that space that the worst of times cannot overwhelm and the best of times vindicates.
And these are the best of times for Comhaltas. Not by any accident or coincidence but by hard work and determination, can you boast 400 branches world-wide. The efforts of an army of volunteers all over Ireland, Britain, the US, Canada and in places further afield like Russia, Japan, Hungary, Sardinia and Australia have showcased Irish culture with a zest no other nation can match. And in showcasing our music you have opened a window on the heart of our people. You don’t just bring Irish music to those other shores, you bring Ireland, her people, her heart, her nature, in a remarkably effective spontaneous, ambassadorship.
Around the world you have generated many friends for Ireland and many audiences for our traditional music. To our global Irish family you have given them the gift of a piece of home; you helped them find the courage to build new lives far from Ireland and when their children and grandchildren arrived, you were there to encourage their love of things Irish. You nurtured their talent and today we take enormous pride in the fact that the tributaries, which feed the well of Irish culture, extend thousands of miles beyond our shores. You enriched the cultural development of so many far away places and here at home, the pride and self-confidence you injected into our unique but neglected musical tradition cascaded into every other sphere of life, bringing into our national consciousness a ringing, singing, new confidence. I would be very surprised if the Celtic Tiger didn’t stride to the beat of a bodhrán.
Historically, Ireland has been renowned world-wide for the wealth of our literary skills – the land of saints and scholars. But in times when literacy was confined to the fortunate few, it was in traditional music that many smaller communities throughout this island could best express themselves, in the one truly frontierless language. That link back to where we came from, the people we came from and their unique stories told through music, could so easily have been lost for the forces ranged against it were formidable - but the forces ranged for it were more formidable still. Tonight, we celebrate with gratitude and affection that legacy which has been cared for, protected and sustained by Comhaltas, not as you might guard a museum but as you would tend a wonderful garden.
The teachers are the most important labourers in the garden - no two the same, their versatility multiplying with the talent base grown by Comhaltas. You are owed a very special thank you. The brains behind important initiatives which seed-bed a healthy future are also due our gratitude - things like the establishment of the Irish Music Teaching Diploma Course, the national archive of traditional music and song housed at Cultúrlann na hÉireann in Monkstown, the publication of – Treoir – these are the bridges to the future over which will travel safely all that wonderful heritage from the past, gathering as it goes the ingenuity of each generation, the names of legends, adding to our store of memories, replenishing the source.
Whether we hear it in the world’s finest concert halls or the local community centre, the pub, the kitchen or the street corner during a fleadh ceoil, something in the music goes beyond simply pleasing our ears. It links us to each other, across all the barriers of age, gender, class, religion, or politics - it speaks a language of wide and blind embrace. It links us down through the centuries to this thing we call heritage. It opens us up to friends of music all over the world. Above all it binds us inextricably to this thing we call Irishness. It is a vital part of the badge of identity that we hold so dear. You, of course, have always known that and that is why you have committed yourselves to Comhaltas these past fifty years, since those bleaker early days when the mission was to revive and invigorate a failing culture. If ever there was a job well done this has got to be it and no wonder with champions like the tireless Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú. Tonight a new generation listens in perplexity to talk of a failing culture. They have no memory of it thanks to you. There are no weeds choking this garden now but as every gardener knows the work goes on - and so we mark fifty outstandingly successful years and look forward with joy to a very musical fifty more.
Níl amhras ach go bhfuil obair dhíograiseach déanta ag Comhaltas Ceoltoirí Éireann tríd na blianta agus mar focal scor, ba mhaith liom treáslú leo uile as a gcuid iarrachtaí.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.