REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OPENING OF THE BLAKESTOWN AND MOUNTVIEW YOUTH INITATIVE’
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OPENING OF THE BLAKESTOWN AND MOUNTVIEW YOUTH INITATIVE’S NEW PREMISES
Dia dhíbh a chairde.
I am very glad to have this opportunity to be with you today in your celebration of a great milestone in the life of the Blakestown/Mountview Youth Initiative – the opening of its permanent premises. I know that this is a long awaited facility – hoped for and worked for over months and years. Now it is here thanks to your own work and vision, thanks to the partnership established between community, voluntary, and state sectors, and this community has a great new resource at its heart.
There is a history here of looking out for and after the young people of Blakestown and Mountview. This latest initiative builds on the work done since 1993 when the first neighbourhood Youth Project for 9-13 year olds was launched with money from the Eastern Health Board and run by a voluntary management committee of statutory, voluntary and community interests. It was through the work of this group that the need for another project to cater for 14-18 year olds was identified and so began the Blakestown/Mountview Youth Initiative.
It has been anything but an easy road since then, with more than a few changes of location before this new and final home came about. For a lot of the time it was the fantastic work of project manager, Patrick Burke, which kept things moving and I know everyone here thanks him and wishes him well now that he has moved on to become Director of Threshold. I am sure he would be the first to say that tremendous credit is due to the staff involved over the life of the project, whose dedication and commitment ensured that the young people and their interests came first no matter what premises you operated from. I extend a particular welcome to the new manager Stuart Garland, who will lead this excellent work and now in excellent facilities. The management committee worked closely and effectively with Knapton Engineering; the architect David O’Connor and the builders ‘Euroframe’ and every one of them is entitled to huge praise and gratitude. It cannot have been easy to steer such a broad coalition towards a consensus, an agreed design and happy outcome, yet they did, making this a truly deep-rooted community achievement. So, well done to the representatives from Blanchardstown Partnership, Juvenile Liaison, Blakestown Community School, Fingal County Council, the Credit Union, VEC, LES/Joblink and WEB and to the Premises Subcommittee who worked so long and hard. A particularly big thank-you is due to Blakestown Community School who donated the site to the project. That generosity is typical of the goodness and care that is at the heart of what we are celebrating today. Some people did small things, some did big things - but all of them mattered and keep on mattering a lot. For when you put them all together you have a whole new range of experiences and opportunities opening up to the young people of this area. Just imagine what life would be like without them, without the Summer Programme, Youth Exchange and the Youth World Cup. Thanks to you the summer has been filled with terrific memories of fishing trips, barbecues, sports, day trips, new friendships, new confidence. Thanks to you and Youth Exchange, friendships now blossom between the young people of Lithuania and Portugal and the young people of Blakestown and Mountview. I have heard from Michelle Maher, Nuála Smith and Patricia Halligan the accompanying staff on the trip that the young people did Ireland proud and were fine ambassadors for our country. Only one problem, they didn’t want to come home and there were more than a few tears at the airport - a sure sign the trip was an overwhelming success.
And the soccer group played a ‘stormer’ in the Youth World Cup in Dangan Sports Ground in Galway. Just imagine life without those chances, those memories and you quickly realise just how much this place and this work means. Parents worry about their teenage children. They want the best for them. They want them to have friends, safe places to go, chances for friendship, for sport, for fun, for self-development for enjoying life and giving something back to their community. Every parent whose child comes here is a more relaxed parent, a grateful parent and a hope-filled parent. On their behalf I thank the hard-working staff, past and present, who have committed their lives to working for the fulfilment and happiness of the young people of this area.
When you make the young men and women of Blakestown and Mountview strong, you make their community strong and you make our country strong. Long may you continue to do so. Gura fada buan sibh.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh.