REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN FOUNDATION DINNER, FRIDAY 5 NOVEMBER
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN FOUNDATION DINNER, FRIDAY 5 NOVEMBER, 2004
Dia dhaoibh go léir. Is ocáid an speisialta í seo agus tá an-áthas orm bheith anseo anocht agus í a cheiliúradh libh.
Where would we prefer to be this day of sesquicentenary memories … following Newman through the doors of 86 St. Stephen’s Green knowing nothing of the future that lay ahead of us but driven by the appalling misery all around us or here one hundred and fifty years later looking back at the sweep of history from these prosperous times? We reap today what was sown in that troubled soil, inheritors and vindicators of an unshakeable but then untested faith that education would be the key that would unlock Ireland’s fullest potential. Newman’s famous ‘Idea of a University’ was modestly titled. It was an idea for humankind, for freedom, for the revelation of all that genius, talent, energy and ambition that was wasted by oppression and its weapon of choice, opportunity deprivation. How many of us could say for certain that we would be here for this great celebration without that formidable start - the “tus maith” that was indeed “leath na hoibre”.
The story of this great university is also the story of modern Ireland for it was, in Newman’s words, “the alma mater of a rising generation”. As they rose, Ireland rose with them – they were without doubt the basic building block on which was eventually laid the foundation of this State. Tens of thousands have followed as a still incomplete late 20th century process of educational and social democratisation opened up third level education to those memorably described “intelligences brightened and unmannerly as crowbars” to quote Seamus Heaney. (from the Canton of Expectation). Generations of young Irish people who might, as he said, have “dreamt their lives away against the flanks of milking cows” have “pencilled and paved” new causeways, new roads on which we walk tall, with a confident stride no other generation has known, a wind of remarkable success at our backs.
No, one hundred and fifty years ago when most people were thinking only of nourishment for today’s hungry body and of healthy seed potatoes for next year’s crop, and who could blame them, people of faith and vision were thinking of another kind of nourishment a different kind of seed. That harvest did not fail.
The foundation of this University and the availability over a century later of free secondary education for all, have borne witness to the phenomenon that John Kenneth Galbraith has dubbed “a revolution of rising expectations”. It has been a quiet and powerful revolution, not least in the case of women, and now Ireland flies on two wings instead of floundering on one. The huge growth in participation in third level education, which has doubled in the last 13 years is a cornerstone of today’s prosperity, cultural exuberance and political confidence at home, in Europe, at the United Nations and in the world. Now we are challenged to make sure that no talent is wasted, that lives still mired in underachievement and poverty have a place at this harvest feast and not as mere spectators.
Research currently being undertaken in this very University is expected to show that the children of those who have received a university education are far more likely to go to university than others. Third level education gives a VIP pass to the future and in this republic of equals widening access to third level is a moral imperative, not just an economic imperative. The continued success of our nation depends upon it. And it depends too on the exemplary and courageous leadership that has come from and through this great institution over a century and a half.
Enjoy this year of celebration with pride in your achievements. I am glad to be here to see Newman’s harvest and to marvel at what the next 150 years might bring. Without a shadow of a doubt John Henry Newman would be a proud man this night.
We are grateful to everyone from Newman right through to those here today for all you have done for this great University. I wish you even more success in the next 150 years.
Comhghairdeas libh arís ar an ócáid speisialta seo. Go n-eirí go geal libh. Go raibh maith agaibh.