REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION, ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN, SATURDAY, 9th JULY, 2005
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION, ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN, SATURDAY, 9th JULY, 2005
Is cúis mhór áthais dom fáilte a chur romhaibh go léir chuig Áras an Uachtaráin inniu.
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and boys and girls.
Martin and I are delighted to welcome each and every one of you to Áras an Uachtaráin with the traditional céad míle failte - one hundred thousand welcomes. This afternoon is about relaxing, enjoying the company of others, meeting some new friends and generally winding down for a few hours in what I hope you will agree are pleasant surroundings. The gardens are looking their very best, the Áras team have been working round the clock to make the place shine with all those welcomes, so I hope you feel at home and will take the time to explore this historic house over the next few hours.
We have a lot of families here today and so it is a day of shared memories and a day to be grateful for the love and support that families give us. We all know only too well that not every day is like this and that all families face ups and downs, crises and difficulties from time to time. That is when many of us are tested and when we discover how much we need family and friends and community to help us through. So today we all enjoy each other’s company and give thanks for all the goodness, kindness and compassion of our children, our teenagers, our young adults, our middle-aged and our senior citizens.
We are blessed, in this country, to have an abundance of marvellous people who give their time, energy and talent to helping neighbours and strangers alike. Often they make the difference between enjoying life and enduring life and that is quite a difference! They also add a lot of fascination and pride to my job as President. So today I say my own big thank you.
Lots of people here are strangers to each other so maybe before the day is out you will take the opportunity of making a new friend by offering your hand to someone you don’t know - I can almost guarantee that after three minutes conversation you will find you have many things in common, you might even find you are distantly related … It would be nice to leave here with not just a happy memory but with a new friendship made.
I would like to finish by thanking our wonderful entertainers who have helped make today special for all of us; the Arklow Shipping Silver Band, Máiread Hickey, the splendid young fiddle player, the great members of the traditional group, our balloon modeller, and the face painters who have given so much pleasure to the youngsters. I would also like to thank our friends in St John’s Ambulance Brigade, the Civil Defence, the Gardaí and the staff here at the Áras who have worked hard to make today a success.
We hope you have a great afternoon, and return home safely, bringing with you some fond memories of your visit to Áras an Uachtaráin.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.