REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION IN TEACH FÁILTE NA nGAEL/THE IRISH HEARTLAND SHEFFIELD
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION IN TEACH FÁILTE NA nGAEL/THE IRISH HEARTLAND SHEFFIELD, THURSDAY, 13 APRIL, 2006
Dia dhíbh a cháirde go léir. Tá mé iontach sásta bheith anseo libh inniu san áit speisialta seo. Míle bhuíochas díbh as an fáilte sin i dTeach Fáilte na nGael.
I am delighted to be here at the Irish Heartland - Teach Fáilte na nGael - and to have the opportunity to see the home you have created in Sheffield for this city’s strong and vibrant Irish community. Thank you for inviting me here today and for the very warm welcome you have extended to Martin and me.
The Irish have been in Sheffield for almost 600 years but I think it’s no exaggeration to say that it is only in the last year that they have truly found their home from home. Over the centuries the Irish community here established an Irish Quarter in the Solly Street area and set up a trading post known as the Irish Cross which flourished into the twentieth century. But things have not always been easy for the Irish community in Sheffield or anywhere else in Britain. The challenge of moving from a rural environment to an urban one, to a society with a different culture and often a different religion, was made all the more difficult by the recent Troubles which are finally on their way to resolution thanks to the slow but steady advance of the Peace Process.
This centre has been a dream for the Irish Community in Sheffield for many years, years when there was an urgent need for Irish cultural and care services but where there was no local facility or no place to come together. Back in the 50s, 60s and 70s the first Irish support services were established at Vincent’s Centre and this good work has been carried on by the Sheffield Irish Forum and the Sheffield Irish Community Co-operative.
Thanks to the dedication of some very dynamic individuals in this room I know that now the St Patrick’s Day Mass in Irish has been an annual event since 2000 and the Irish Festival here in the month of March is growing bigger and better each year.
The wonderful, social ambience of these rooms belies the flurry of activity that goes on behind the scenes here, and indeed above the stairs, where the Sheffield Irish Peoples Development Group runs its offices and where all manner of care, cultural, community and social services are provided for. It is a sad fact that the Irish ethnic minority continues to have the poorest health, above average unemployment rates and homelessness, problems which are magnified for the city’s Irish Traveller population. For this reason the work that you are doing here is critically important because it provides a safe and welcoming environment where people of all ages can access welfare services and express their cultural identity through the familiar fáilte and ceol, craic agus caint.
I am very glad to see representatives of other ethnic minorities here today which serves as a testament to the truly Irish welcome that this Centre extends throughout this community by bringing people together in friendship and mutual support. We have representatives here from the African and Kashmiri communities who also use these facilities to provide cultural, educational and community services for their communities.
There is one very special lady here today who deserves a great deal of thanks for turning this dream of the Irish Heartland into a reality. Betty Tynan has worked tirelessly with her husband Sean and daughter Bernadette to provide care to the community. Without Betty, this centre probably wouldn’t exist. In fact, the warmth and welcome of this building is a direct manifestation of the warmth and kindness that Betty has shown to her fellow Irish men and women in Sheffield for the past thirty years or more. I thank your Chairman John Dowling and your generous sponsors Matsy Kelly and Padhraic Gaffney for being so dedicated to this project.
I also thank Judith Bower and the team of volunteers who run and work in the luncheon clubs based here at the Centre and I know that your elders will all be here for lunch today just as they are every Thursday. Thank you for the dedication you show and the happiness you bring into the lives of the older Irish people living in this community and the opportunity you provide them with to come and meet their friends here in this homely place.
And last but certainly not least, I would like to commend the work of Chrissy Meleady MBE, who has done so much to raise awareness of Irish needs in South Yorkshire and has been a stalwart campaigner on racial equality and human rights. Your vast contribution and ongoing commitment to the Irish community in Sheffield has been instrumental in bringing about today’s event and for that I thank you. This work continues the tradition of concern for one another so strongly exemplified by the great Michael Davitt whose centenary we are currently celebrating. He would surely be proud to see the two countries in which he lived and grew up, Ireland and England, so democratic, egalitarian and so at peace with one another, such very good friends at last.
May you continue to flourish here in your Irish Heartland and also to express and share your Irish identity and culture with pride.
Go n-éirí go geal libh ‘s go raibh maith agaibh.