REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS RECEPTION ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS RECEPTION ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN TUESDAY, 10 JUNE, 2003
A cháirde, a bhuachaillí agus a chailíní.
Cuireann sé an-áthas orm agus mo fhear cheile, Maírtín, fáilte a chur romhaibh go léir go dtí Áras an Uachtaráin inniu.
Martin and I are delighted to welcome you all to the Áras today. I was somewhat concerned though that you mightn’t have wanted to miss too much school. Now that Summer is upon us – though you’d never know it with all the rain we’ve been having lately - and with it the prospect of long school holidays ahead many of you I’m sure, would have much preferred to stay at school today and be working hard at your Irish, or Maths or History. But I hope that we can help you get over this disappointment and you might even enjoy yourselves!
I would like to thank you all for the fantastic projects you presented me with today - you have all worked really hard and put such a lot effort into them - very well done to each and every one of you and I will treasure them for many, many days to come. We have a wonderful Visitor’s Centre here where we will display many of your projects so visitors can enjoy all your hard work.
It is a source of great pride to me to be President of Ireland and I see it as part of my work to promote links and contacts between people, in other words - to build bridges. What better way to go about that than with children - the decision-makers of the future. Who knows, we could have a future President of Ireland in this room right now!
We have hundreds of children here today from all parts of Ireland, and you will meet lots of new people and I hope will make many new friends. That is what building bridges is all about. It is also about ‘extending the hand of friendship’ to a new boy or girl in our class, an elderly or sick neighbour who might be lonely or need help, or to people who are different to us, who might have a different religion, different nationality or background. Every time you say or do something nice for another person you make a place of goodness and happiness in your heart and in the hearts of those around you. This is your world and you can help make it a better place. Just think, if more people were like that – what a world we could have.
Each and every one of us is important and all of us should be valued as the special people we are. Everyone has something to give. Building bridges is also about being brave and courageous – standing up for those who maybe are not as strong as you, refusing to pick on someone because they are different, making friends with those who don’t fit in.
I would like to say a big thank you to your teachers for bringing you here today and for giving you the chance to come to experience a visit like this and for everything they do in preparing you to become the ‘doers’ of the future – to help you grow and develop and explore your true potential. What they do for you is vitally important – so be nice to them!
Just before I meet you all I would like to finish by thanking Paul Kennedy our MC, and the wonderful Hallelujah Choir for entertaining us. My thanks also to John Gold, the Civil Defence Officer on duty for his expert assistance, and of course the staff here at Áras who put a lot of effort into making occasions such as this enjoyable for everyone. But most of all, I thank you all for visiting me and making today very special and very enjoyable.
I hope you will have very happy memories of the day you visited the Aras.
Go raibh maith agaibh.