REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT AN IRISH COMMUNITY RECEPTION MADRID, MONDAY, 21ST MARCH, 2011
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT AN IRISH COMMUNITY RECEPTION MADRID, MONDAY, 21ST MARCH, 2011
Buenas noches a todos. Es un placer y un honor para mí estar aquí en España para celebrar los estrechos lazos Hispano-Irlandeses. It’s a great pleasure to be here with you the evening of the first full day of my visit. Thank you so much for your wonderfully warm welcome. I’m thrilled and proud to see that, in recognition of Ireland’s special relationship with Spain, the iconic monument of the Puerta de Alcala was lit up in green last week in celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day and now again this evening to mark my visit. Earlier today I thanked Mayor Gallardón in person for this special honour. It is clearly proof that the members of Madrid’s Irish community are outstanding ambassadors for Ireland in their host city. This marvellous gesture by the city is unique to Ireland and an honour that we deeply appreciate for it shows the true, the deep friendship that unites us, a friendship forged over centuries by men, women and children who opened up to each other their lives, their cultures, who opened up Ireland to Spain and Spain to Ireland.
I’d like to thank all the performers for the wonderful entertainment that we’ve just enjoyed. Our Irish musicians were involved in a very special collaboration tonight with Carlos Nuñez, the renowned Galician piper, a longtime favourite of mine. Carlos has a very close relationship with Ireland and with Irish musicians, so much so that we almost claim him as one of our own! Of course, the fact that he is from Galicia – a Gallego – gives us a very strong case. Recent genetic studies in Trinity College in Dublin have shown that the closest relatives of the Irish people are found in the Northern Iberian Peninsula, particularly in Galicia. It is wonderful that scientific research has now proven beyond doubt the deep affinity with Spain which we in Ireland have always felt instinctively and I know I certainly felt on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in recent years, or when I first heard Federico Garcia Lorca’s poetry from the lips of the legendary Ian Gibson, in Belfast over forty years ago! Most of you in the audience tonight are lucky enough to experience that affinity in your daily lives, whether through your spouses and partners, your friends, your children, or your colleagues at work and I thank you for being such vital building blocks in the warm and friendly relationship between our countries and our peoples.
The purpose of my visit to Spain is to celebrate that unique relationship and also to bring a strong message about today’s Ireland, an Ireland that is open for business, with an economy in recovery mode and continuing good export performance despite the current tough global economic environment. The Government is working, with the solidarity of our partners in the European Union, to address Ireland’s particular problems within the wider framework of measures to strengthen Europe’s economic performance. Ireland is shouldering its responsibilities to future generations in laying the basis for a return to sound economic growth.
I was very warmly welcomed earlier today by King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia and I had the great honour of attending a lunch at the Palacio Real in tribute to the Spanish-Irish relationship. Those present illustrated the depth and breadth of the values and interests we have in common: Spanish and Irish historians working together to chart our shared history; writers, artists and musicians representing our rich cultural links; Irish business people who are finding success in the Spanish market; multinational Spanish companies with a presence in Ireland; people involved in the travel and tourism industry who help to bring us closer together; our State representatives who are working to build new relationships between our countries.
I am happy this evening to be leaving behind a small cultural legacy to this wonderful venue. For the rest of this week a travelling exhibition on the life and work of William Butler Yeats will be open to the public here at the Circulo de Bellas Artes. David Cruz, who prepared the Spanish translation, is here with us tonight and I hope that many of you will return to enjoy his work and this exhibition. Yeats spent time in Mallorca in 1932 where he collaborated on a translation project of his own.
I would also like to acknowledge another special contemporary Spanish connection with WB Yeats, Antonio Rivera Taravillo, also here with us this evening. Antonio is the translator into Spanish of a wonderful collection of Yeats’ work, published last year, which I understand continues to be one of the best-selling poetry books in Spain. Antonio, we thank you for bringing this unique body of work to the Spanish-speaking world.
The programme during the rest of my visit includes a meeting tomorrow with Prime Minister Zapatero, a Bord Bia event to showcase the excellence of Irish food and a visit to a bilingual school to honour Ireland’s very special educational ties with Spain. This visit to the school in the company of President Esperanza Aguirre is particularly important as many young Spaniards continue to come to Ireland to learn English and they light up our summers with their enthusiasm and exuberance. I am also looking forward to visiting the University at Alcala, site of one of the historic “colegios irlandeses”. On Wednesday in Barcelona, together with President Mas, I will open a conference and workshop on the Irish pharmaceutical sector being organised by Enterprise Ireland. This visit therefore celebrates not only the fascinating historical links between Spain and Ireland but also the vibrant economic, cultural and personal partnerships of the present day that help to enrich all our lives. I am confident that these will continue to prosper and grow in the future.
I am delighted to have the opportunity to meet with so many of the Irish community this evening. You are all part of the wider Irish family abroad, which is one of our most remarkable strengths as a country. Your enthusiasm in fostering Irish traditions and culture in your adopted country is a source of great pride for people at home. I know that the GAA in Spain boasts eight clubs around the country from Seville to A Coruna and from Barcelona to the Costa del Sol. I would also like to mention the love of the Irish language and I would like to pay tribute to one man in particular who has done so much to promote it here in Spain, through his work at the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas and the creation of the first Irish-Spanish Dictionary. Pádraig Ó Donnelláín – I salute you.
I would like to say a particular word of thanks to Ambassador Harman and his team for creating tonight’s opportunity to meet Ireland's family and friends in Spain. I would also like to say a special thank you to a very important group of people – Ireland’s ten Honorary Consuls in Spain and the Canaries, who are with us this evening. I know that together with your colleagues in the Embassy you deal each year with hundreds of Irish citizens, either resident or holidaying in Spain, in need of consular assistance and I want to thank you all sincerely for your selfless work and your personal kindness to me on many occasions.
Los irlandeses nos sentimos vinculados al pueblo español y a España con eslabones de sincera amistad. Estoy segura de que esta amistad será duradera y que va a enriquecer la vida de las próximas generaciones en nuestros dos países.
Míl gracias.