REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE PRESENTATION OF GOLD PRESIDENT’S AWARDS – GAISCE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE PRESENTATION OF GOLD PRESIDENT’S AWARDS – GAISCE DUBLIN CASTLE THURSDAY, 15th MAY, 2003
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.
I am delighted to be back in Dublin Castle today for a day when we celebrate and acknowledge the remarkable personal achievements of our President’s Gold Award winners. This is a day of pride. You are naturally entitled to be proud of yourselves but you should also know that you have earned the pride and respect of many others and this day is our way of showcasing the pride we feel in you. It is also a day of hope. Ireland is a great country with a great story to tell of its journey to prosperity and opportunity. We want our country to keep getting better and we know the future rests on the character, the values and the leadership of our young people.
Our gold awardees have voluntarily submitted themselves to be tested and tried. They have pitted themselves against self-doubt and self-pity, against all the distractions that fritter away time and potential. They have used their time and talents well on a journey of self-discovery and self-development, not a selfish journey but a journey in which they grew stronger, wiser, more skilled, more compassionate, in short they became the kind of people who build up good communities and a good country.
The President’s Award is an open invitation to get to know yourself better and to make yourself the best you can become. You have been stretched, you have found endurance you did not know you had, you have discovered initiative and imagination you did not know you were capable of. No two stories are the same but at the end of each Award journey there is a young man or woman who has been changed, even transformed and whose future is brighter because they have triumphed over the emotional, intellectual and physical challenges the Award demands. When an employer is looking through the cv’s of job applicants, your Award will tell him or her that here is a very fine, an already proven, future employee. And we know you are already fine citizens, good friends, reliable colleagues, the kind of people who build up communities, who care for the less fortunate, who are brave in the teeth of challenges, who do not give up when things get difficult. You are the very kind of people a great Ireland needs if it is to become the best Ireland it can possibly be.
The President’s Award is privileged to have 1,000 leaders or PALS working all over Ireland North and South helping, guiding and encouraging our young people to take up this invitation to excellence. They are wonderful volunteers who are making a huge investment in Ireland’s future. Among them are many previous Gold Award winners and I hope that among today’s Awardees there will be a few more recruits for the PALS. At the back of the President’s Award is a formidable team effort from the staff who organise and promote the Award, to the Chairman and Board of the Award, all volunteers from exceptionally busy lives whose interest in and care for our young people is itself inspirational, from the sponsors, the benefactors, the schools and employers who give the Award considerable support, to the parents and families who encourage and congratulate. That team effort has also earned our respect and our gratitude. I am very proud to be part of that team and to be able to share its special days.
Today’s recipients of the Gold Award will carry through their lives the fascinating and adventurous stories which have earned them this day of celebration. More than the stories, they will carry the mark of a process through which they blossomed and grew. You are shining examples of your generation’s genius and goodness. I congratulate you and thank you for saying yes to the President’s Award. You are centre stage today and the rest of us are here to salute you and wish you well.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.