ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE DONEGAL CHESHIRE APARTMENTS
ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE DONEGAL CHESHIRE APARTMENTS LETTERKENNY, CO. DONEGAL ON SUNDAY, 19 APRIL 1998
I want to thank you all for the very warm welcome you have given me this afternoon, and to say how delighted I am to have been given the opportunity to visit the Donegal Cheshire Apartments - to meet the tenants, staff and the Management Committee. It is a great tribute to those who saw a real need for this residential facility in the county - and who set about finding a solution.
As is the case in all situations like this, solving the problem involves linking up with others who share the problem and those who can provide the solution – and drawing them together in a partnership. Indeed, this ‘partnership’ approach to solving local needs has achieved great success in many communities - in the cities, towns, villages and counties of Ireland. Yesterday I visited a new facility for adult learners in Killymard near Donegal town – and they too have very successfully applied this approach in getting a site from the parish – advice and assistance from the North Western Health Board – along with material help from the National Lottery and others.
It is important that people and communities come together to form self-help partnerships. It is a vital step in the re-vitalisation of communities – in harnessing the energy and talents of people who know their own area and who have a vested interest in addressing their own problems. Communities – both urban and rural – are constantly having to face change – to overcome new hurdles and obstacles in a changing world. Throughout Ireland there is a great movement towards partnership – a tremendous realisation that the solution to local problems lies in the locality – that the communities themselves know best what they want and how they can get it.
The Donegal Cheshire Apartments are another example of what local people can do – of how determination and commitment born out of the clear perception of a need in the community, can have such a great impact in such a short time. The pace of change today means that communities and community-based groups need to have the capacity to respond to new demands and new situations if they are to keep up. Today especially, change is the only real constant – and the ease with which people can meet that change is the measure of their success. I want to give recognition to the great work that you have done in raising the funding and involving those who can give the help and advice that a project like this requires.
Finally I would like to wish those who use the apartments – along with the management and staff every success for the future. I hope that you will get much benefit from the facilities for many years to come.
ENDS