REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT THE IRISH-AMERICAN HERITAGE CENTRE, CHICAGO,
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT THE IRISH-AMERICAN HERITAGE CENTRE, CHICAGO, SUNDAY, 4TH MAY, 2003
A chairde. Tá lúcháir orm bheith anseo libh ar maidin. Mo bhuiochas díbh as an gcuireadh agus an fáilte a thug sibh dom.
Governor Blagojevich
Senator Durbin,
Justice Hartigan,
Distinguished Guests.
Thank you for your kind welcome to Martin and to me this morning. As Honorary President of this wonderful Centre I should perhaps be welcoming you, but as this is my first visit to the Centre and indeed my first official visit to the great city of Chicago, I happily accept the role of guest and I look forward to taking the guided tour later!
On my arrival in Chicago yesterday evening as I watched twilight fall I could almost hear the words of Christy Moore’s haunting ballad: ‘In the City of Chicago, as the evening shadows fall, there are people dreaming of the hills of Donegal’. The song recalls the Great Irish Famine that condemned many to death and many more to emigration. More than a few found refuge here and in the words of the same ballad:
Some of them knew fortune,
Some of them knew fame,
More of them knew hardship
And died upon the plain.
Among them were members of my own family. To their children they bequeathed a passion for this new world on the shores of Lake Michigan and an aching loving memory of the distant world of their childhood. I come here in celebration and commemoration of those men and women whose courage and resilience helped build this splendid city, whose fidelity and charity helped Ireland’s long journey from poverty to opportunity. Along with their memories they brought the music, poetry, stories, language and dance of Ireland. They did not know it but these things were their riches, brought as gifts to a new homeland, gifts to furnish the heart, to build up the community, to create here a stream of Irish culture which would flow not just through Chicago but which would flow into and be part of the fascinating reservoir from which we draw our Irish heritage wherever we are in the world.
In this building the colour, sound, shape, feel and challenge of that heritage is showcased day in and day out enriching the lives of those who come here, enriching the cultural life of Chicago, keeping Irish heritage fresh and vibrant from generation to generation.
In these rooms you can hear and learn the language of the Gael without ever setting foot in Ireland mar tá ranganna Gaelige ar súil anseo agus is cúis áthas dom go bhfuil suim agaibh sa teanga mar tá doras ann ar ár ndulras.
I am delighted to hear that Irish language classes are underway here because that interest in our native language opens a unique and exciting door into our shared heritage. It also gives us a shared future, for the work undertaken here is not simply about opening a door on the past but about building a cultural highway to the future and inviting successive generations to join the journey.
Making journeys easy has always been a key to Chicago’s success. It was the building of the Illinois-Michigan canal which brought the first large-scale Irish immigration to this region and it was that canal, of course, by which Chicago was destined to become pre-eminent. It was a Kerryman who delivered the oration at the ceremony which marked the start of building on the canal. Irish men led the canal project and more of them broke their backs as labourers on it. Chicago’s story cannot be told without telling the story of Ireland and her emigrant children. So many extraordinary lives make up that story that I hesitate to mention any but in your presence Governor Blagojevich I think it is appropriate to recall that one of your distinguished predecessor’s, Governor Edward F. Dunne was the first President of the Irish Fellowship Club which has given strong support to this Centre. I am told that Governor Dunne is the only person to have served as both Mayor of Chicago and Governor of Illinois – which must say something about the Irish ability to transcend experience with indomitable optimism.
Today I have the pleasant task of dedicating the Library of the Irish-American Heritage Centre. It is the culmination of eight years work by Nora Murphy and her Board. Thanks to many generous donors and volunteers, thanks to the vision and commitment of a great mix of a great many people, this Library has been made possible. For all the wonders of technology books are still a primary tool in the preservation of heritage. We think with gratitude of the work of Chicago’s Chief of Police Francis O’Neill who in an unlikely combination of careers published eight books of Irish music which contained some 3,500 traditional songs and airs. How much would have been lost to us without his work, without his enthusiasm?
I have brought my own contribution to the Library to mark this occasion. There is a gift from today and a gift from yesterday. Today’s Ireland is successful, wealthy and culturally dynamic in ways few early emigrants could ever have imagined no matter how much they hoped for better days for their island home. So there is a collection of contemporary books on Ireland, its history, its culture, its transformation. And then there are two special books which pay tribute to our emigrant ancestors. Perhaps the first, substantial account of daily life for the Irish in America was by Peter Finley Dunne, the editor of the Evening Post. In his “Mr. Dooley” columns, he described the life and times of the Chicago Irish in that most Irish of neighbourhoods, Bridgeport. I am particularly delighted to be able to include in the donation of books two collections of these columns in their original editions. They really summarise what we are doing here - as does the old saying - let those who drink the water remember with gratitude those who dug the well.
I thank all those whose love of Irish heritage has given us this day and this place. I thank each and every one of you for coming here. I hope that you and your children will enjoy the new Library with all the adventures it can offer and I hope that with your support the Irish American Heritage Centre will long serve the people of Chicago and the Mid-West and long be a bridge between Ireland and the home of her children’s children.
Go raibh maith agaibh.