REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF CORK 2005, EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF CORK 2005, EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE, IN THE CITY HALL, CORK 8TH JAN
Tá an-athás orm bheith anseo i bhur measc inniú. Go raibh míle maith agaibh as ucht bhúr bhfáilte caoin chuig cathair Corcaigh.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It was Frank O'Connor, Cork man and master of the short story, who told us over forty years ago that the future of European culture lay with Europe’s small cities. Today our great continent turns its gaze to our small island and to its far South as we gather in Cork, so long jokingly referred to as the “real capital”, but today acknowledged as European Capital of Culture for 2005.
For the next year this city will reveal its own genius and the genius of Europe’s massive cultural tapestry.
I am privileged to have been asked by John Kennedy to open this historic day which has consumed Cork hearts and minds over the many long days and hours of preparation and planning. While this is of course a day of particular pride for those most humble of all Irish men and women, the citizens of the republic of Cork, you can be sure all of Ireland is thrilled that it was our beloved city by the Lee which was chosen for such a great honour. We know the competition was ferocious but with Cork’s formidable cultural heritage already well-established you saw off the opposition like a September Sunday in Croke Park! So this is, to paraphrase Theo Dorgan, an important day in the life of the “real” republic.
This really is payback time for all those years of hard slog in hosting international arts festivals in jazz, in film and in choral works. It is a vindication of Cork’s cultural mix, with voices as diverse as Frank O’Connor, Christy Ring, Sean O Sé, Fiona Shaw, Rory Gallagher and the Bells of Shandon. It is a personal vindication of every Corkonian who ever made the arts their passion and who kept the cultural energy of this city alive and bubbling. Above all, this great new accolade for Cork is a recognition of her people, their love of life, their fidelity to Irish and European heritage and their openness to the stranger. Cork has been entrusted with the responsibility for showcasing and developing not just the culture of Cork or of Ireland but of the family of twenty five nations which is the European Union. It is a formidable task, a huge undertaking for a small city - but then this is not just a city of individuals but a city of villages, a city of communities who work with each other and for each other. That work is the engine of your year as Capital of Culture and not only are you blessed in your people and their talents, but also in your friends and their philanthropy - as impressive today as at any stage in Cork’s history. I had the great pleasure of opening the very fine Glucksman Gallery at UCC just a few months ago and today we acknowledge the debt we owe to those whose generosity has helped this city to flourish and to grow into Europe’s Capital of Culture.
This festival will immensely enrich this city. It will entertain and uplift, it will inspire and provoke. It will be a bridge from the world of arts to the wider community and from Cork to the rest of Ireland and the rest of Europe. It will be both exhausting and energising, prophetic and profitable, a very timely follow on from Ireland’s hugely successful Presidency of the EU, which was accompanied by a cultural programme that introduced us to the spirits and the souls of our ten new European partner states and their peoples. Cork 2005 is planning to dedicate a month to each new Member State to allow it present its culture in its own way. Here in Cork, strangers will become friends, cultural curiosity will be the bridge to shared citizenship of the European Union and the building blocks of healthy open, respectful relationships will be your gift to a new generation. And what a lucky generation it already is. No queues for emigrant ships, no Ireland of the “ceann faoi”. Cork’s children growing up in a confident, successful city, making their homes by the Lee, creating new stories for Cork, a new history for Cork and we hope, creating the best, the most inclusive Cork possible.
Cork 2005 is a programme largely of the public, by the public and for the public. It reflects your wishes, you interests and your dreams. It will be a great success and it will be your success. I thank all those who have set the scene for an amazing year. As we get ready to greet the opening performance of Cork 2005 – the “Red Sun”performed by members of the Cork Children’s Chorus - I declare the Cork 2005 – City of Culture, officially open, and invite you to enjoy every moment of it. Go n-éirí libh.