REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION TO CELEBRATE FORTY YEARS OF RTÉ TELEVISION
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION TO CELEBRATE FORTY YEARS OF RTÉ TELEVISION AT ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN
Cuireann sé an‑áthas orm agus ar Martín, fáilte ó chroí a chur romhaibh go léir go dtí Áras an Uachtaráin inniu.
You are all heartily welcome to this celebration of forty years of RTÉ Television at Áras an Uachtaráin today.
My predecessor Eamon de Valera is said to have equated the power of TV to atomic energy and television has certainly landed its fair share of bombshells since those early days when a suspicious but curious public greeted our first national television station.
The snow lay thick on the ground on New Year’s Eve in 1961 when that new era in broadcasting was born, just in time to capture in pictures, an exceptional decade loaded with drama and memories on which television conferred a new and at times, unsettling intimacy. John Kennedy visits his ancestral home and we are all at his elbow. He dies on the streets of Dallas and it might as well have been in our living rooms. New names, faces and places become as well known to us as our local post office, Martin Luther King, Christian Barnard, the Beatles, Biafra, Ho Chi Minh. The convulsion of civil rights movements shakes political kaleidoscopes from the United States to Northern Ireland and human beings walk on the moon. You inform and entertain us, capture and captivate us and for the first time it is Irish culture, which is the backdrop, the warp and weft of a television station and RTÉ starts the remarkable journey of showcasing Ireland to the Irish people. You gave us pride in ourselves, opened a window on our own fantastic talent base, gave it a platform, took us from Ireland of rural electrification to Ireland, the world’s largest exporter of computer software.
We probably did not fully realise it back then but we were on that snowy day taking our first tentative steps along the path that would open us up to both the outside world and to our own genius. Today we live in a decade characterised by surging cultural self-confidence and dynamism - a far, far cry from the introversion and ceann faoi of earlier days. RTÉ has been a crucial element in that process of transformation, a chronicler of change and an instrument of change. Ironically, this modern successful Ireland which you helped to shape and drive forward is today energised by a culture of competition, nowhere more brash or cut-throat than in the world of broadcasting and of course it creates huge, relentless challenges for public service broadcasters. Those challenges are the work of the next forty years and difficult though they may appear at times, on this day of celebration it is worth reminding ourselves that RTÉ has a proud track record of achievement, of distilled wisdom and experience in the service of the Irish people, second to none. An alliance between that experience and the mosaic of creativity of this new unfettered, entrepreneurial and highly educated generation will reveal the answers that will make the next forty as good as the first.
There is a proverb that says, those who drink the water should remember with gratitude those who dug the well. That is what this reception is about- saying a heartfelt thank you to those who dug the well.
On behalf of the Irish public, I thank RTÉ and all those who worked for it over the years, for the tremendous service you have provided to us. Long may you continue to do so.
On your behalf and my own I thank MC Eugene Downes, the wonderfully talented Teadaí String Quartet and of course Mary Kelly on harp, who played so beautifully on your arrival, and we will shortly hear from a very talented group of young people, the Cor na nÓg Choir. Special thanks to John Gould our Civil Defence Officer and not forgetting all the staff here at Áras who have worked so hard to ensure that you all have an enjoyable afternoon.
Take some time to chat with some old friends and I hope that you will leave with fond memories of your day at the Áras.
Go maire sibh go léir. Go raibh maith agaibh.