REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE NEWLY EXTENDED LISNAMULT COMMUNITY
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE NEWLY EXTENDED LISNAMULT COMMUNITY CENTRE, CO. ROSCOMMON
I am delighted to have this opportunity to be here with you today to open the newly extended Lisnamult Community Centre. My thanks for your warm welcome and also to Ellen Miller for her kind invitation. Special commendation is due to Lisnamult Residents Association who have been instrumental in the development of this centre and this fine new extension with its great child-care facilities.
The opportunities for education, training, employment or even simple recreation, that are open to young fathers and in particular young mothers depend to a large extent on access to safe, credible and affordable child-care. The demand for childcare services has increased and here you have listened carefully to that demand and you have set about meeting it as a community. The people of Lisnamult are very fortunate to have such a strong community spirit and sense of community responsibility. Here everyone has a chance to do things with their lives that would simply be impossible if this place did not exist. The crèche will open up new possibilities for young parents just as the music room, art room, the resource room, the computer training programmes the drop-in counselling and all the rest, create life enhancing, life-changing choices for the people of this area.
The Irish saying ‘Ní neart go chur le chéile’ comes to mind – there is strength in unity. This Centre shows just how successful partnerships between the local community and state agencies can be and both can take equal pride in its success. There was crucial advice and financial assistance from the Leader Programme, the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme, FÁS, and the many other groups involved in this project. But at the core of the project driving it, shaping it and insisting on it were and are the residents of Lisnamult. You planned the renewal and development of your own place. You decided you wanted a better future and you didn’t wait for it to drop from the sky- you set about making it happen yourselves. Through your work individuals will grow stronger here, more self-confident, more achieving and as Lisnamult grows strong, this county, this country also become strong. Projects of this kind demonstrate that real community development is about empowering the individual to make a difference.
Wasted opportunities and wasted lives weaken all of us as a society. In this week of the Special Olympics we are witnesses to the extraordinary power of the human spirit to overcome the most serious adversity and to find fulfillment in things others thought were impossible. This area has faced high unemployment and educational disadvantage but it has also faced into its problems with a determination that the future will be different, that it Lisnamult will turn its story around. For thirty years the Lisnamult Residents Association has been rewriting that story. You are fortunate to have such committed community builders and now they have a remarkable list of achievements to their credit and to the benefit of this community.
None of it was done for thanks but they are owed thanks for the energy and affirmation, the facilities and the opportunities they have put at the heart of this area. It is an impressive record and one that sets the agenda for many future achievements for Lisnamult.
I congratulate you all on what you have done here and wish you every success in the future.