REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING RECEPTION ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING RECEPTION ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN TUESDAY 1ST DECEMBER 2009
Dia dhíbh a chairde. Is cúis mhór áthais dom fáilte a chur romhaibh go léir chuig Áras an Uachtaráin inniu. Martin and I would like to wish you all a céad míle fáilte and thank you for joining us here to today to mark the official start of Christmas 2009 at the Áras. I’m delighted you are with us to help turn on the Christmas lights and thank you so much for the wonderful decorations you have each brought for our tree. I’m looking forward to reading all of your special messages between now and Christmas day.
But we all have a special message for all the boys and girls whose homes have been damaged by the dreadful floods in our country in recent days. Lots of people who should be enjoying their homes and putting up their Christmas trees this weekend are living through a nightmare of loss and destruction. Many people who have businesses or farms have seen their hopes, their incomes, their very strength swamped by the sheer brutal force of the flood waters. We are lighting this tree for all of them. We are lighting this tree for all those who are helping them whether professionals or the army of terrific neighbours and volunteers who have made our country so proud this past fortnight as they gave their all to help one another. Since the beginning of the flooding I have been on the phone to frontline people in Cork, Galway, Mayo, Roscommon and Leitrim, to people facing the flood waters every day, the Civil Defence, the Army and Gardai, the Fire Service, the County Managers, business owners and families, the St Vincent de Paul Society and the Irish farmers Association, the GAA; it has been astounding to hear of the massive community effort that gathered and galvanised so spontaneously in answer to the worst floods in living memory. People have gone without sleep, have opened their homes up to flooded-out families, have gathered money and goods and clothes, have filled sandbags, have kept watch, have distributed drinking water, have waded through cold murky water to save people, to save animals. No one asked for a word of thanks but we surely thank them all from the bottom of our hearts. Ireland has faced the worst that nature could throw at it and the Irish people have shown their very best in reply.
We are lighting this tree for all of them and we are asking everyone to remember the hardship and the suffering so many of our people are enduring right now and will continue to face for quite some time to come - for even when the flood waters subside as they will, those beautiful homes, those businesses and farms will be a very long time getting back to anything like normal and they will need all and more of our help in the weeks and months ahead. Though money is tight for a lot of people and this has been a particularly difficult year I would ask those who have jobs and dry homes to dig really deep this Christmas and help all the agencies that are looking out for Ireland’s flood victims, especially the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the Irish Red Cross.
We also light this tree for all those who as children in Ireland suffered abuse and whose stories were ignored or deliberately suppressed for so long but which have now been vindicated and told out in the open. May they know the gift of peace of mind this Christmas and we thank them for the courage and perseverance that brought us to face appalling truths and helped us to construct greater safeguards for the protection of children and childhoods.
We light this tree for all our children, especially those who are displaced this Christmas, in the hope that each will have a very happy, peaceful and safe Christmas with friends and family. Between us we have the capacity to bring that miracle of a happy Christmas to those who are wondering right now where that miracle might come from.
I thank the children of the Palestrina Choir for their wonderful singing, Daithí O Sé for being such a great MC and keeping everything under control today, and our musician Seamus Brett who will play for us outside when we sing Jingle Bells together in just a few minutes time. I’d like to thank all the team at the Áras who worked so hard to make this day special and the Civil Defence who are looking after our safety today. And of course I’d like to thank our very special guest Santa Claus’s helper for taking time to join us – I know he’s at his busiest at this time of year, we’re delighted he could make it and we wish him all the best for a safe trip back to the North Pole this evening. Last but not least, thank you to all of you for coming. I’m going to need all of you to join in as loud as you can with our countdown! But before that, I’d just like to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful time here, a safe journey home and a happy and peaceful Christmas. Nollaig faoi shéan agus faoi mhaise daoibh go léir. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.