REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF HER VISIT TO THE ARMAGH CAMPUS
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF HER VISIT TO THE ARMAGH CAMPUS OF QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY TO MEET PARTICIPANTS
I am delighted to join you today here in the Armagh Campus of Queen’s University, and to have this opportunity to meet those who have been involved in the Women and Peace Building Programme. During my own time at Queen’s, I took a particular interest in helping to support the development of this campus, and so it is a source of enormous pride to me today to see how it is thriving, how much it has grown and expanded even in the two years since I was last here. It goes without saying that women have been at the forefront of those developments, not least through this ambitious Programme and the opening a few months back of the Women’s Resource Centre. These are wonderful achievements and deeply heartening steps in building peace and reconciliation on the island of Ireland.
It was the writer George Elliot – or Mary Ann Evans to give her real name – who wrote in her novel, “The Mill on the Floss” back in 1860, that: “The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history”. Here on this island, we have never had a shortage of history, indeed so generous have we been on that front, that we have been able to offer a choice of histories, competing and conflicting versions of the past based on our own identity and perspectives. One of the few common threads across each version has been the virtual absence of women from the picture, other than as passive icons or helpless onlookers. Yet behind the scenes, it was often the women who held things together when the men had marched off to create the headlines; it was women who kept the homes and the farms, looked after the children, bore the brunt of conflict and of stitching the fabric of family and community back together. That role as lynchpin remains as important as ever. What has changed, thankfully, is the widened range of opportunities for women in today’s Ireland to apply their gifts widely and generously beyond the traditional sphere of home and family. I have no doubt that we would not have come so far on the journey towards peace if it had not been for the efforts of women, both behind the scenes and, increasingly, in the public eye, preparing the ground on which peace could take root.
There is no doubt, however, that we still have a distance to travel in terms of enabling all women to fully develop their potential, and to put their talents at the service of the wider community. That is where this Programme has a crucial role to play, building up the skills and confidence of women, affirming their achievements and encouraging new networks of support. The fact that there is almost equal participation by women from both traditions, is testament to the Programme’s success in reaching out to the community as a whole. And that principle of widening access as far as possible has been further underpinned by addressing the barriers to education that can discourage women from taking up places – for example, the holding of courses in 10 different locations throughout the district has helped overcome the transport difficulties faced by women in rural areas, and the fact that the courses are free of charge with financial contributions towards childcare, have been of enormous benefit to many participants. The ultimate proof of the programme’s relevance and success is that it is heavily over-subscribed and I have no doubt that will continue in the future.
I would like to pay tribute to all those who have supported the development and implementation of the Programme, especially Richard Jay, Academic Director; the Development Worker, Alison McCullagh; and Elaine Reed who provides administrative assistance. The Programme would not have been possible without the financial support of the EU Peace and Reconciliation Programme, channeled through Armagh City and District Partnership. Most of all, I would like to commend all of the women who have taken part in the Programme, juggling their families and other commitments to make the time to attend classes. I hope that you will see that participation as an enabler, a step into the arena of community development and public affairs that will be followed by many other steps in the years to come.
When future generations look back on this time and ask themselves what enabled a lasting peace to finally take root, they will look at the key political developments of the day but also, if they are wise, at the day-to-day work being done in communities by people who have taken risks to bridge old divides and to make a difference at local level. Their names may be forgotten with time, but many of them will be women including those here today.
There is a line in Seamus Heaney’s poem, ‘From the Canton of Expectation’, which tells us “the future lies with what’s affirmed from under”. Women have emerged from under the shadows of history and today they bring fresh illumination to the world, making us think differently, act differently, see things differently, see ourselves differently. Last year I visited an exhibition in Trinity College where pages from the ancient Book of Kells had with the benefit of modern technology been hugely magnified and backlit. Suddenly things which had lain invisible for centuries came to light. Old theses were in doubt, or were manifestly no longer valid. The Book’s full story has not been told and was only just beginning to reveal itself. So it is with women. The best is yet to come. This Programme is part of that illuminated future we have to look forward to, and all of you are helping to build it. I wish you every success.