REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE GAISCE GOLD AWARD CEREMONY DUBLIN CASTLE MONDAY, 26TH FEBRUARY
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE GAISCE GOLD AWARD CEREMONY DUBLIN CASTLE MONDAY, 26TH FEBRUARY 2007
Is breá liom bheith anseo i bhur measc ag an ócaid seo, agus ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a chur in iúl dibh as an chuireadh agus as fáilte fíorchaoin.
Good afternoon and welcome to each one of you.
This annual event is about as good as it gets in Ireland for it showcases our young people at their determined and courageous best, it showcases the generous spirit of volunteerism at its best and it showcases the remarkable stories that emerge when Gaisce participants and PALS work together in pursuit of Gaisce Gold. Each story is of a young man or woman who made a decision to move way outside their comfort zone, who took on tough challenges and who stayed the course. The Gold Award each will receive today, tells us as much about them as if it was a full scale autobiography. We know they have a love of life, a sense of adventure, a heart for those less fortunate, a hunger to learn – we know that when tested to their limits and tempted to give up or give in, they hung on to the commitment they had made. We know they grew emotionally and socially, they grew in wisdom and in self‑understanding, they grew in compassion and in stature. They surprised themselves at times and as their strengths revealed themselves, as they overcame their weaknesses, as they got over the gold line, they provoked in all of us huge respect and pride.
From an amazingly diverse range of activities that demonstrate just how unique each participant is, they have a store of memories and experiences to last a lifetime and more importantly to inspire a great life, lived well and fully. They are the kind of young citizens who build happy families, resilient communities, great countries.
Gaisce offered each of them a challenge, to test themselves, to stretch themselves not because they had to but because they wanted to. If there is a competition in Gaisce it is with the self, with our own weaknesses, our preference for taking things easy rather than pushing ourselves hard. The Gaisce Gold Award winner had to battle all those inner demons and overcome them over quite a period of time. They have earned our trust and our confidence as well as our pride and they would, I know, be the first to acknowledge that the PALS made it easier to stay the course, they made it fun and they made it fascinating. So a huge thank-you to those PALS who also had to stay the course and whose work is at the very heart, it is the engine, of Gaisce’s success.
Ireland is blessed with a strong, resilient and caring civic society, replenished in each generation by people like the PALS and their students and also like the people who work for Gaisce, and with Gaisce, in so many ways, from the professional staff who run the Award, to the Chairman and Board members who guide and direct it, the schools, clubs, organisations and employers who offer the award, the patrons, sponsors, fundraisers and contributors, parents, families and friends who keep participants going, the neighbouring awards who give help and encouragement… together these blend into a network of common endeavour and shared success which is a crucial investment in Ireland through the empowerment of her people.
A huge thank-you to you all and warm congratulations to those whose achievements are the centrepiece of the day. You take your places and make your contribution to an Ireland that is confident and successful as never before. In this year, when we remember the tragedy of the Flight of the Earls 400 years ago, that awful event that it has taken the full four centuries to even begin to recover from, it is worth remembering that fifteen years earlier Red Hugh O'Donnell, and his companion Art O’Neill, were prisoners in Dublin Castle and became two of only three ever to escape from it. In the bitterest of winters as they fled, O’Neill died of exposure and Red Hugh lost his foot to frostbite. No generation will, we hope, ever be called to make such personal sacrifices again for freedom, for human dignity and for the right to respect.
But life tested them in ways they would have preferred had been different and even in the best of times it is impossible to know what life will throw at us. Today these, our modern gaiscíoch, reassure us that whatever lies ahead, they have the resilience, the character and the spirit to deal with it and deal with it well.
I wish you all every success and blessing in your future lives.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir agus go n-éiri go geal libh amach anseo.