REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON THE LAUNCH OF MACRA NA FEIRME 2009 KNOW YOUR NEIGHBOUR WEEKEND
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF THE LAUNCH OF MACRA NA FEIRME 2009 KNOW YOUR NEIGHBOUR WEEKEND SHELBOURNE HOTEL
Dia dhíbh a chairde. Tá an-áthas orm bheith i bhur measc anseo ar an ócáid speisialta seo. Míle bhuíochas díbh as an gcuireadh agus an fáilte a thug sibh dom.
Good evening everyone and thank you for the warm welcome to the Macra na Feirme 2009 Know Your Neighbour Weekend. My thanks in particular to Macra President, Michael Gowing for inviting me to launch this year’s event. From its beginning just a few short years ago, this event has proved its worth but this year more than ever, as Ireland struggles with serious difficulties, we need to reinforce that resource that has always been our strength - the good neighbourliness, the tight bonds of community, the leaning on one another and the pulling together which has seen us through worse times than these.
As Mother Teresa of Calcutta eloquently put it, “to keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it”. Those who founded Macra na Feirme back in 1944 knew how important it was to keep putting oil in the lamp. Young farmers needed good training to be good farmers and they needed active social lives to be fulfilled human beings. Macra na Feirme filled a huge gap in rural Ireland and by dint of the work of its mighty volunteers it grew into a success story, told over and over again in the lives of the tens of thousands of men and women who benefited from the opportunities it offered. Even in its sixty-five years there have been many different Irelands and Macra has adapted and flourished through them all with 300 clubs and 8000 members bearing witness to its vitality in today’s very complex Ireland.
Part of that vitality is Macra’s deep intuitiveness about the needs of Irish society. Rural Ireland has always depended on a culture of spontaneous good neighbourliness, of looking out for one another, looking after one another, sharing life’s ups and downs, sharing labour, sharing food and friendship. These things helped melt away the fears of loneliness or sickness. They helped bring in harvests that could not be brought in alone. They made people feel welcome, wanted and contented in their own place. “Don’t be a stranger” was a phrase often heard. And, truth to tell, few of us want to live out lives among strangers. But with so much mobility, commuting, inward migration and new housing it is very easy in today’s Ireland to find ourselves living among strangers yet yearning to be part of a neighbourly community. Community does not appear by accident but by design. We have to build the relationships, the bridges of handshakes and smiles, of gatherings and groups, of committees and small courtesies that grow over years into a dynamic, caring community.
Once again Macra saw the challenge posed by today’s Ireland, saw the gap that needed filled and got on with the job of filling it with this special focus on getting to know your neighbour. An American writer, Elbert Hubbard, says that “your neighbour is the person who needs you”. We need one another and through this initiative Macra has enabled groups of strangers up and down the country to become vibrant communities underpinned by the commitment of volunteers who alone make community happen. No government can create community. It can help it, support it and encourage it but it cannot create community for that only germinates where there are generous hands and hearts. And let’s be clear, Ireland has a wealth of generous hands and hearts, enough to ensure that no-one is a stranger in our land.
I hope that the weekend’s event will be a tremendous success. Once again, ESB Customer Supply has stepped up to the mark to kindly sponsor the event and my thanks to them and to all in Macra for the vision and organisation that makes this Know Your Neighbour Weekend possible.
I hope you enjoy this special weekend.
Comhghairdeas libh arís agus go raibh maith agaibh.
Thank you.