REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE INAUGURATION OF THE ACADEMY GOLD MEDALS AT THE RIA
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE INAUGURATION OF THE ACADEMY GOLD MEDALS AT THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY, ACADEMY HOUSE, DAWSON
Dia dhaoibh go léir. Is ocáid an speisialta í seo agus tá an-áthas orm bheith anseo chun í a cheiliúradh libh.
Good afternoon and thank you for your warm welcome. A particular thank you to Professor Slevin for inviting me to be part of this very special day in the history of the RIA when I have the privilege of presenting the Inaugural Academy Gold Medals in the Humanities and the Physical and Mathematical Sciences.
Science and the arts have combined to give the Royal Irish Academy a beautiful setting - so it is only right that the Academy should return the compliment by rewarding the sciences and the humanities with a gold medal. These Academy Gold Medals bring wide and righteous respect and recognition to the men and women of insatiable intellectual curiosity and ability whose fascinating achievements in the humanities and physical and mathematical sciences have deeply probed our complex and mysterious world.
I am particularly delighted to see the Academy revive the historic practice of awarding Gold Medals for the kind of scholars they honour are so often people who work quietly, unassumingly, with no prospect or thought of special reward but simply propelled by the adventure that is scholarly enquiry. Their work builds causeways of insight and understanding, shifting us from times of bafflement to times of knowledge. They are the seed-bed of a culture of enquiry and intellectual curiosity which is utterly essential if our ambition to be a front-ranking knowledge economy is to be realised. These are the heroes and heroines, the inspirers and leaders of tomorrow’s young scholars at home and abroad, the men and women who put and keep Ireland on the world scholarship map.
The Higher Education Authority’s sponsorship of the Medals is a sure indicator of their national significance and of the value that the Authority places on reward and recognition as enablers and empowerers, not just of the recipients, but of our society generally. These medals allow us to take pride in the achievements of the recipients, to take pride in the work and endeavour they represent and to send out a strong message to the coming generations that the list of great scientists and scholars is not closed, nor it is exclusive the domain of historic figures. Each generation can and must reveal its own genius, make its own contribution to the sum of what we know and the revelation of what we don’t know. These medals are now a challenge to a new generation and in the breadth of disciplines they cover they surely honour beautifully the great polymath William Rowan Hamilton, the bicentenary of whose birth we have been celebrating this year, and who was President of the Academy in 1837. Hamilton was not only a scientist of international renown but he had an intense interest also in philosophy and literature, and himself composed poetry. It is true that his friend William Wordsworth, to whom he showed his poems, tactfully suggested that he should not be tempted to divert in that direction, from his work in subjects of infinitely greater importance, but his life and interests exemplified the intricate and integrated world of a fine mind enhanced by a love of both arts and sciences.
Education has transformed Ireland. Since the widening of access to second level education at the end of the 1960’s we have begun to effectively harvest and harness our greatest untapped resource – our individual and collective brainpower. Sustaining our success into the future will depend on greater numbers of young highly educated men and women committing themselves to original research and scholarship. The Academy has just added considerably to the attraction of that vocation. It has also taken on, of course, a big headache in choosing between contenders for the awards. But thankfully they got there and so today’s awards are made in one case for original and significant research into the classical foundations of western culture, and in the other for equally original and significant research at the leading edge of the scientific development of that same culture. A very apt set of inaugural awards. My heartiest congratulations to today’s distinguished recipients: Professor John Dillon, Regius Professor of Greek at Trinity College Dublin and Professor Michael Coey, Professor of Experimental Physics, Trinity College Dublin. To you both go all our good wishes for continued success and our respectful acknowledgment that these awards were hardearned over a lifetime of passionate commitment to the highest standards in scholarship.
My thanks to the Higher Education Authority for their sponsorship and to the Royal Irish Academy for their leading role in promoting a culture of commitment to original research and scholarship in Ireland. Among all the possible rewards and incentives that word “Gold” still has the power to inspire.
Go raibh maith agaibh.