Remarks by President McAleese at the 10th Anniversary Common Cents Conference of Clann Credo
Remarks by President McAleese at the 10th Anniversary Common Cents Conference of Clann Credo – The Social Investment Fund
Dia dhíbh a cháirde. Tá an-áthas orm bheith i bhur measc anseo ar an ócáid speisialta seo. Míle bhuíochas díbh as an gcuireadh agus an fáilte a thug sibh dom.
Good morning and thank you for your warm welcome to the 10th Anniversary Conference of Clann Credo – The Social Investment Fund. I am especially grateful to your Chairperson, Ray Murphy, for his kind invitation to share this landmark day with you and the opportunity it gives me to thank you for these years of fidelity to creating life-enhancing opportunities for the excluded and the marginalised.
The bleak landscape of endemic poverty, under-achievement and mass emigration that was such a familiar part of Ireland’s story has been turned on its head very rapidly this past decade. All around the world, when people speak of Ireland, it is in terms of admiration and curiosity about the economic miracle that has brought widespread prosperity, opportunity and confidence. But just as these successful times did not appear overnight or without considerable hardship on the way, neither are they a comfort blanket which covers everyone.
There are, still, many individuals and communities in our society who, for one reason or another, are not benefiting or prospering as they would wish and we would wish for them. You have made their future your business through the work of the Social Investment Fund.
The widely varying nature of the projects supported by the Fund speaks for itself in defining areas of remaining disadvantage and need and I have been privileged to witness, at first hand, the changes you have helped to inspire and make real. I saw the vitality and energy generated when local people respond to local needs, such as the Rathmore Social Action Group in Kerry, the Ballybane Community Centre in Galway City and the Dunhill, Fennor, Boatstrand and Annestown (DFBA) Community Enterprises in West Waterford. Other projects include a rural housing project in Roscommon, independent parenting services in Galway, a specialist food project in west Limerick, transport services for people with disabilities and their families in north Dublin, a Family Resource Centre in north Kerry, a drug rehabilitation and education centre in Co Kildare, a Neighbourhood Youth Project in West Dublin, a novel horse riding centre for young people with special needs in Bray, Co Wicklow. This is real social finance in action, as you say ‘generating inclusive prosperity’.
More recently at Clann Credo you have developed your work in conjunction with other agencies, such as the Western Development Commission, and the Irish Council on Social Housing. It is heartening to hear of your work on issues related to travellers and proposals you have initiated to assist our burgeoning immigrant community. You are even reaching out to needy communities abroad through projects in places like Slovakia and Kosovo.
In many respects, the economic growth of the past decade is only the beginning of change in our society. Ours is a journey that has only started, not a journey completed; our new-found wealth is a means to a long-desired end, not an end in itself. This 10th Anniversary Conference, therefore, provides a very useful occasion both to look back and acknowledge the work done by Clann Credo to date and, at the same time, to look forward to the new and remaining issues to be attended to.
Every good idea must begin somewhere. In the case of Clann Credo that idea first began with Sr Magdalen Fogarty, whose dream more than a decade ago led to its establishment. On this 10th anniversary of the founding of what is now a thriving and vibrant organisation committed to promoting social equality in our society, it is right that we acknowledge the vision and drive of this remarkable woman, and indeed the foresight of her religious order, the Presentation Sisters, in providing the seed funding for the establishment of Clann Credo. Sr Magdalen has often quoted the words of Robert Frost:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference
In the intervening years many other congregations have joined the Presentation sisters on that journey. They have done so out of their commitment to improving the lot of others, their commitment to social justice.
We, as individuals, also have a choice of roads to travel. We can either commit to make real the dream of bringing about true social inclusiveness or we can become utterly absorbed in attachment to the indulgent self and indifferent to needs of the excluded. As a society though we do not have any such choice. Both in the 1916 Proclamation and in the 1937 Constitution we set ourselves a comprehensive social agenda, a collective national ambition that is not achieved until there is no-one on the margins merely spectating at others’ enjoyment of life.
Clann Credo plays a truly invaluable role in giving practical effect to our moral responsibility for the social progress of the poor and the overlooked. You have meshed commercial acumen with the common good, created partnerships with established structures and given communities access to the funding and the confidence they needed to change their own futures for the better. On the U2 album “How to dismantle an atomic bomb” there is a track entitled “Sometimes you can’t make it on your own.” That truth is at the heart of your service. Sometimes disadvantaged communities just do not have the seed resources to kick-start the new future they want and need. Your help fills that gap and at the same time stands as a strong witness to the power of solidarity and of community.
The people here today embody that spirit of community. It’s a spirit that needs a steady supply of champions for it is created by effort not wishful thinking. Clann Credo’s decade long effort has allowed more and more individuals and communities to find their feet, find their voice and find their future. I hope this Conference will set an agenda for the next decade that will take us ever closer to the true social order our Constitution speaks of and closer too to those lovely words of the Proclamation which insists we cherish the children of the nation equally.
Is iontach an obair atá as siul agaibh. Go raibh maith agaibh.