REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT BANDON TOWN HALL MONDAY, 21 DECEMBER 2009
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT BANDON TOWN HALL MONDAY, 21 DECEMBER 2009
Dia dhíbh a chairde. Many thanks for your warm welcome to Bandon today. I was deeply saddened to see the dreadful consequences of the flooding here and today I am here to express my solidarity with the people of Bandon whose homes, farms and businesses were damaged or even destroyed by water. It is also an opportunity for me to say a sincere thank you to everyone involved in the crisis management and recovery efforts. This includes the various official bodies, charitable organisations, voluntary groups and the individual residents of Bandon who all played their role in this community effort.
The past month has been far from easy for people living and working in Bandon. This has been a tiring, traumatic, distressing time. To see your home, your business, your town under water is a frightening, deeply upsetting sight. But what shines through has been the spirit of community and of neighbourliness as everyone puts their shoulder to the wheel and makes their own contribution to this Trojan effort. The ancient spirit of the meitheal is alive and well as neighbours look out for the vulnerable, statutory agencies and charities work in cooperation and partnership, and offers of assistance flow in from volunteers and organisations in Bandon and beyond. To the neighbours, friends, Bandon Town Council and Cork County Council services, the Army, Gardaí, the fire services, ambulance crews, Civil Defence, local business people, and all the groups and volunteers who have given of their time and resources during the crisis and its aftermath; my sincere and deepest thanks.
I am delighted to be here to experience at first hand the resilience of the people of Bandon. Despite all the hardship that you have gone through recently, the town’s beautiful Christmas light display is up and running, sending a clear signal that the town is ‘open for business’ and looking towards the future. I wish you all the very best with the clean-up effort; it will not be overnight but I am confident that the sustained hard work and selfless effort that we have seen over the past month will enable Bandon to recover from this enormous challenge. I congratulate you once again on your work to date and I wish each of you a very Happy and Peaceful Christmas.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.