REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION IN ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN FOR REPRESENTATIVES
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION IN ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN FOR REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NORTHERN IRELAND FARMING
Is cúis mhór áthais dom fáilte a chur romhaibh go léir chuig Áras an Uachtaráin inniu.
Both Martin and myself are delighted to welcome all of you here to Áras an Uachtaráin today. We would like to say a very special thank you to all those who organised this day - especially Minister Joe Walsh, Councillor Burgess, An Bord Bia and officials from the Department of Agriculture and Food.
We have invited you here today to pay tribute to the farming community, to acknowledge the crucial role you play in agriculture and food production, which are so basic and essential to the well-being of our island home. Today is also about acknowledging your central role in preserving the rural fabric of communities throughout this island.
Agriculture and the issues that impact on it tend not to respect boundaries or borders as we found out during the Foot and Mouth crisis in early 2001, but we also saw the wonderful solidarity which everyone on this island demonstrated in playing their part to tackle that crisis. All communities, both urban and rural showed a remarkable sense of responsibility and generosity. We know from instances like this that we can work well and successfully together on this island focussed on solving common problems which build up our friendships and capacity for partnership without diminishing in any way our unique particularity and identities.
Both agriculture and food production is of major importance to both our economies here in Ireland. More than that, it is part of our shared identity and a way of life. Many of us, whatever our religious or political perspective, can trace our roots back to rural farming communities. My parents were reared on small farms – in different parts of the country I hasten to add - and I particularly remember the subsistence economy of my paternal grandfather, which was so simple that when rural electrification came he refused to tolerate installing it in his cottage because he was fearful, as a subsistence farmer, of coping with the tyranny of regular bills! And we know what that means – hardly a day goes by without one bill or another popping through the letterbox!
In the farming community neighbours help each other. Few people understand the need for community generosity and kindness as well as the farming community does for it is an essential part of the farming culture. With peace beginning to take hold in Northern Ireland, difficult though its journey is, we now have an opportunity and an obligation to ensure that we create trust and respectful friendships on which a better, more secure and a less fearful future will rest.
Change is a feature of the modern world and farming has experienced that at first hand. The use of technology, the changes in environmental and food sciences, the ever-changing demands through membership of the European Union, the diversification of the farming profession, the creeping urbaniation of rural areas are all testament to change. I’m sure that most of us in this room would remember digging potatoes manually, footing the turf and building the hayricks but we know those days are fading. The pace of change affects farmers wherever they are on this island and it is essential that the entire farming community develops effective shared approaches to common challenges and opportunities so that it can face the future with confidence, determination and enthusiasm.
We each have something to learn from the other and indeed something to share with each other. I hope that your visit to Dublin today has been useful in terms of sharing experiences and examining possibilities for greater co-operation between us. Your visit will help to nurture a spirit of friendly co-operation in which people who look at the world differently in some important respects, whether in terms of history, politics, faith or ambition also share many values, perspectives and problems and importantly solutions in common.
Martin and myself hope that your visit here today will be a memorable occasion, a chance to meet others, exchange experiences and views. Most of all we hope that you will relax and enjoy yourselves.
I would like to thank our entertainers, Mona McMahon who entertained you so beautifully in the Front Hall and Kylemore College String Quartet who did an equally wonderful job here in the State Reception Room. I would also like to thank Catherine Donaghy Civil Defence Officer for her expert assistance.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.