REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A COMMUNITY GROUPS/ FAMILY DAY RECEPTION, ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A COMMUNITY GROUPS/ FAMILY DAY RECEPTION, ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN, WEDNESDAY, 8 DECEMBER, 2004
Is cúis mhór duinn fáilte a chur romhaibh go léir chuig Áras an Uachtaráin.
It is a great pleasure for Martin and I to welcome you all to this house at a time of year when it is probably at its loveliest. Thank you for taking the time from the crazy pre-Christmas schedules, away from work or shopping or the myriad other things that keep us busy at this time of the year, to join us and to brighten up our Christmas celebrations this afternoon. We hope that this afternoon will give you a few hours to relax and enjoy each other’s company. There are people here from every part of the country. You are mostly strangers to each other now but we hope that by the time you leave this evening you will have made some new friends. The easiest bridges to build are the bridges of friendship and the easiest bridge to friendship is a handshake.
Christmas is a happy time for most people, a time we enjoy and share with our families and a time when the need to be part of a group, a family, a community is at its most intense. To be welcome around a familiar hearth, to be wanted and loved, these are basic and common human needs and this time of year highlights those needs sometimes cruelly for those who are isolated, or alone or far from home or coping with illness, disability, poverty, depression or coming to terms with bereavement.
Fate deals its hand unevenly and that is when men and women of goodwill respond to the cries for help and support from their neighbours and friends. It is that caring response that builds up community and creates a culture of generosity and kindness. We are privileged on this island to have countless unpaid and uncomplaining ambassadors for everything that is humanly decent, people who selflessly give their time and effort and energy and resourcefulness to simply make life better for others. They do what they do without thought for recognition or thanks but richly deserving both. These people and the organisations to which they belong support and sustain our island’s great heartland of community. I have made it my mission during my presidency to nurture and celebrate that commitment to community, to offer all the thanks that is owed and to encourage our community builders to keep on going.
Today is one way of saying that big thank-you and saying how grateful and proud I am to belong to a nation which values caring communities. During this holy season of Christmas when we celebrate the birth of our Saviour, let us hope that wherever there is a suffering human being, wherever there is a need, someone is noticing and doing whatever it takes to make this Christmas a blessed and a happy time when all are included around that warm hearth and none are left outside as miserable spectators.
I hope you enjoy the remainder of the afternoon. This is a friendly place and I want you to feel at home here. I hope you have had the chance to explore our very interesting visitors’ centre downstairs, if not I hope you will take the time a little later to do so. I would like to say a special thank-you to the wonderfully talented Third Age Choir who are doing a superb job of filling us with festive cheer. I would also like to thank our MC this afternoon, Paul Kennedy, our friends from Civil Defence and the Áras team who have worked very, very hard to make this afternoon enjoyable for everyone and to make this House look its very best for you.
I hope that you will all have a memorable afternoon, a safe journey home and a peaceful and happy Christmas.
Nollaig faoi shéan agus faoi shonas daoibh go léir. Go raibh maith agaibh.