REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT A RECEPTION IN LOURDES HOTEL MÉDITERRANÉE, LOURDES
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT A RECEPTION IN LOURDES HOTEL MÉDITERRANÉE, LOURDES SATURDAY, 24 MAY 2008
Good afternoon, and welcome to this gathering of old friends and comrades as well as new first-time pilgrims. This is a pilgrimage where enduring friendships and memories are made, a unique place where armies march to prayer not war. This evening we welcome a great Irish gathering with representatives from all of the groups on the pilgrimage: the cadets, the ONE, the IUNVA, Civil Defence, the Pipe Band, the Military Band, the RDF, the PDF, not forgetting those of us not in uniform. Our Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Dermot Earley and his wife Mary are here and it’s just as well for Roscommon football needs all the prayers it can get. We are delighted to see Lieutenant General Pat Nash, and his wife Deirdre here too, for as Operational Commander of EUFOR Chad, Pat carries a huge burden of responsibility and his appointment is both testament to an exceptional officer and an exceptional Defence Forces.
On this Pilgrimage we celebrate and commemorate a trio of important anniversaries. One hundred and fifty years ago the young Bernadette Soubirous came face to face with an apparition that was to change this corner of France forever and to make of it a renowned place of prayer and healing. Fifty years ago, in the aftermath of a bloody and bitter war that took the lives of tens of millions of young men in uniform, the French military authorities invited their former German adversaries to Lourdes to pray together for peace. By any stretch of the imagination their prayers have been answered in the success of the European Union where old enemies are now partners and colleagues. Among us are some of those who were present on that very first military pilgrimage in 1958 and I hope that for them these changed times bring great hope and vindication. Fifty years ago, our own militarily neutral country began its service with the United Nations, a service in which it has distinguished itself and earned for us a reputation as peacekeepers that is second to none. Over the fifty years of this pilgrimage our own island had its very troubled times, its violence and litany of loss and death.
When I first came on this pilgrimage ten years ago we had just signed the Good Friday Agreement with its hope that peace might grow. Today we come from an island that has at last found peace and is making its way towards a future of partnership and good neighbourliness. There were politics in the making of the peace and there were prayers too. We are grateful for all who have prayed for peace and particularly grateful for the prayers of those who defend peace on our behalf around the world.
It is wonderful to see over 1400 join this pilgrimage from Ireland. The logistical challenge would have needed an army to sort it out— but luckily we had one, so a big thank you to all the organisers and to all those whose music, liturgy, entertainment, friendship, craic, conversation and general good humour makes this week so special. You are legendary.
This evening our minds must inevitably turn again to Chad and to our colleagues who are deploying there. Our prayers go with them, for them and for those who need their help to bring hope and humanity into their tormented lives. Our prayers go to our troops wherever they are and to their families at home who miss them so much. We think of those who have died serving as Irish soldiers, their loss and absence robbing family and friends forever of peace of heart, yet their generous sacrifice bringing the gift of peace to the world’s oppressed peoples. We think of those who serve at home and abroad in Ireland’s name and thank them for choosing this life, this unique vocation. God bless all you do and may the next fifty years see that great gift of peace spread like a benign virus stopping at last the cruel waste of human life, revealing at last the power of love let loose in the world.