REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE CENTENARY CONFERENCE OF ROTARY IN IRELAND SLIEVE RUSSELL HOTEL
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE CENTENARY CONFERENCE OF ROTARY IN IRELAND SLIEVE RUSSELL HOTEL, BALLYCONNELL, CO. CAVAN
Tá an-áthas orm bheith anseo i bhur measc inniu ar an ócáid speisialta, ócáid stairiúil seo. Míle bhuíochas díbh as ucht bhur bhfáilte chaoin agus cneasta. I am very grateful to Rotary’s Governor for Ireland, Wes Armstrong for inviting me to Rotary Ireland’s celebration of its one hundredth birthday. It is part of the President’s job to write a letter of congratulations to all Irish citizens who reach 100 years of age – but I came to this event in person to congratulate you and thank you but also to break the bad news that unfortunately you don’t qualify for the centenarian’s cheque!
I extend to every delegate our traditional céad míle fáilte, one hundred thousand welcomes and an especially warm welcome to the delegates from Britain who have travelled to this beautiful part of Ireland to participate in this very special District Conference.
What we celebrate here is one hundred years of service to others, service that was not paid or commanded or forced but volunteered. It is service that involved itself in making the world a happier, more wholesome, more decent and fair place to live. It is a form of service that has always been about caring for those who were overlooked or neglected, helping those who would otherwise have been left to struggle or sink alone or filling the gaps through which vulnerable people fall. Rotarians made themselves faithful and reliable companions to people who were on otherwise tough and difficult life journeys. There is an Irish saying that “two shortens the road” and through your work in Rotary, many people have known the joy of helpful companionship on their road through life. Your volunteers are ordinary people doing extraordinary things – not because there is a selfish personal reward or recognition at the end of it but because there is a chance to infuse goodness into community life – and that chance is not taken by spectators but by active citizens who make it their business, as you do. Rotary is a repository of unsung heroism. George Eliot (in Middlemarch) said of unsung heroes that
“… the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts, and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life and rest in unvisited tombs”.
This work that has never been done for thanks is nonetheless deserving of them and so today I am delighted to have this opportunity to say thank you in a very public way for that decision each of you made to become Rotarians, volunteers, active citizens, problem solvers, enhancers of life and witnesses to the power of goodness.
Your Rotarian vision and reach is both local and global, concerned with the familiar streets around you and the far-off, unknown places around the world where help of all sorts is needed. Commitment to Rotary depends on individuals choosing membership of this organisation over a thousand other things they could be doing. It depends on your individual commitment and drive for that is the basic fuel. But when over a million individual members across the world work together, the momentum gathers, the power surges and you become capable of things that would be impossible if tackled alone.
One of Rotary’s key features and particular witnesses in our world of strangers who too often demonise one another, is its non-religious, non-denominational status and, in Ireland, your all-island status is a particular and respected hallmark. Members of all faiths and politics discover that the things which are different about them are no barrier to harnessing the energies of the values they share in common, especially that belief in Rotary’s motto of ‘Service Above Self’. It has been said that volunteers don’t get paid, not because they are worthless but because they are priceless. On this day when we look back over 100 years and try to add up all that has been done here in the name of Rotary, we realise that it is a futile exercise because it could never be reduced to a simple number – the number of members would tell us something, the amount of money raised for good causes would tell us something else. The list of people or places helped would tell another story and it would be a very long one but none of these summaries would get close to true value and worth of Rotary’s investment. One thing we do know is that, unlike some investments, this one has paid and continues to pay huge dividends for us as a society. For each of you, the work of Rotary brings fulfilment and friendship and in these simple things you find the constant renewal of the generosity of spirit which is the life blood of Rotary.
There have been wars and rebellions, depressions and recessions, poverty and prosperity, mass emigration and mass migration, conflict and peace over these very dramatic one hundred years. When you ask yourselves where you would rather be in the scheme of things - at that first Rotary meeting a hundred years ago or at this one which can see what grew from a modest beginning, I know I would rather be here to marvel at the truth of that old proverb - a good start is half the work. The next one hundred years starts here and I hope the second half of the work finds as many willing volunteers and has as much to show in a century’s time. Meanwhile you have much to celebrate, to look back on with pride, to be grateful for in the present and to build on for the future. Thank you again for all that you have done and continue to do for others. Congratulations to all members of the Rotary Movement on the past century. I wish you and your organisation every continued success in all the years ahead.
Comhghairdeas libh arís sa bhliain seo. Is iontach an obair atá ar siúl agaibh.
Go raibh maith agaibh.