REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE CELEBRATION DINNER TO MARK THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE CELEBRATION DINNER TO MARK THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SHANNON COLLEGE
Tá luchair orm bheith anseo libh. Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a chur in iúl daoibh as an chuireadh agus as fáilte a bhí caoin agus croíúil.
I am delighted to be here this evening to join with you in a double celebration marking the 50th Anniversary of the Shannon College of Hotel Management and the Conferring of the Michael Governey Class. May I thank Philip Smyth and Tadhg O’Donoghue for inviting me to this wonderful setting of Dromoland Castle – a truly splendid and most fitting venue to host such a memorable event.
1951 was clearly a very significant year – not only was it the year in which both Martin and I were born, a circumstance we ourselves had little control over but it was also the year that the vision and foresight of Dr. Brendan O’Regan brought into being the Shannon College of Hotel Management.
From very modest beginnings in a borrowed classroom, the College developed into an internationally recognised training centre of renowned excellence with a graduate list which reads like the who’s who of the industry. So emphatically has it put Ireland on the Hotel Management and Training local and global maps that it has more than vindicated the faith of its creators and its valued supporters among them in particular the Dromoland McDonough’s and Aer Rianta - and to each we owe a debt of gratitude. Self-confidence in an industry and in a nation comes from solid and sustained achievement, in success forged by self-effort and from admiring recognition by our neighbours, competitors and peers around the world. Among the sources of self-confidence which fuel today’s dynamic Ireland is the name of Shannon itself and especially Shannon College of Hotel Management. Time and time again on my own travels I have met its graduates and heard it spoken of with deep respect and I have felt that glow of pride which is the seed-bed of faith in the talents and abilities of our people, our country. This school came into being when Ireland’s tourism industry was little more than a pipe dream. Today it is a thriving and hugely important part of our economy but it is an industry which is always vulnerable to times and tides not of its own making, so it has known days of triumph and days of uncertainty.
This past year has been especially difficult as the industry faced the downstream consequences, first of Foot and Mouth disease, economic slowdown in many economies including our own and the impact of the tragic events set in train in the United States on September 11th. In the aftermath of the Foot and Mouth scare I made it my business, on every occasion that I visited an Irish hotel to ask how they were coping and without exception I was both surprised and reassured by the sheer resilience, creative imagination and tenacity of our tourism management sector. Far from being overwhelmed or self-pitying, I met people well-trained in the science of coping with the unexpected, people undeterred by the scale of the challenge because they have faith first, of all in themselves and importantly, faith in the product which ultimately is Ireland itself.
Our country has a wealth of magnificent landscapes. We have a rich culture, a fascinating heritage and in our people, our greatest strength. Research carried out by the Irish Tourist Board has highlighted the fact that Ireland’s core competitive advantage lies in the ease of interaction with our friendly and engaging people. That reality makes each one of us a stakeholder and an actor in the tourism industry. The human side of the holiday experience or the business visit is worth reminding ourselves of, and frequently. It is a very human thing to want to feel welcomed, to want to be treated with kindness, to be greeted with a smile, to be comfortably at ease in a strange environment. Every handshake, every greeting consolidates our reputation as a place of real “fáilte”, every visitor who receives it is an ambassador for Ireland abroad, every person who offers it honours a centuries old tradition which today is a natural resource as valuable as any gold. When you add to the fáilte, high standards of service right across every aspect of the sector and a vigilance that puts the customer first you have the key elements of Irish tourism.
Recently I had the pleasure of welcoming the President of Lithuania, H.E. Valdas Adamkus, on the occasion of his State Visit to Ireland. After the visit I received a letter of thanks from a member of the delegation which referred to the visit as “a present to their country” and he commented on the “warmth of Irish wholeheartedness”. For me those words encapsulate the world-renowned appeal that is a feature of the “Irish Experience”. Every person who works in the tourism sector is in a very real way a custodian, a guardian of that “Experience”. Carefully guarded it will keep growing, keep blossoming. Badly treated it can be damaged and the damage of even one poor steward can undermine the great efforts of others. The creation of good stewards is the mission of this School and in that its teachers have excelled.
As you graduate today, and prepare to take the path to the future and what it has in store for you, I ask that you pause to reflect on the great contribution that your educators, the staff of the Shannon College of Hotel Management have made to what you have achieved, to offer gratitude for good teachers and to take pride in the partnership you created with them which allows you this day of celebration. As Cardinal Newman put it; “The mind must go half-way to meet what comes to it from without. . . .”. You the students have opened your minds and embraced the wonderful gift of knowledge offered by the College staff. Everyone here takes pride in what you have achieved. Long after you leave here the staff will hear of your successes and they will feel vindicated and renewed in their vocation. Long after you leave here you will look back with satisfaction on an education, which prepared you for a career in one of the most vibrant, exciting and diverse industries in the world. Everyone of us here wishes you well as you leave here to add your own genius, your own stamp to that industry whether in Ireland or around the world. Wherever you go you take the name of Shannon College with you. On you it will be judged. On you Ireland will be judged. Its quite a burden in some ways but it is a load made lighter by the generations who have gone before you and through whose lives the name of both Ireland and Shannon College of Hotel Management, shine brightly.
Congratulations to each member of today’s graduating class. Congratulations to Shannon College. May the future be good to you all.
Go raibh maith agaibh. Go n-éirí go geal libh.