REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE ON HER VISIT TO THE TABOR LODGE RENEWAL WOMEN’S RESIDENCE BLARNEY ROAD
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE ON HER VISIT TO THE TABOR LODGE RENEWAL WOMEN’S RESIDENCE BLARNEY ROAD, CORK SATURDAY, 29TH APRIL
Tá lúcháir orm go bhfuair mé cuireadh bheith anseo libh inniu agus ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil libh go léir as fáilte fíorchaoin a chur romham.
It is a great pleasure to join you here today in Renewal and I would like to thank Sr Margaret Kiely for her invitation and Sr Cait O’Leary and all of you for your warm welcome. With a visit from the Lord Mayor last week, and a President this week, I am sure you’re dying to see who Sr Margaret is going to produce next week!
The fact that there are so many people who have supported this initiative, who wish you well in your work, is a mark of the very high esteem in which Tabor Lodge is held both here in Cork and further afield. It is now more than a decade since the Tabor Lodge Addiction Treatment Centre was established with such vision and generosity by the Sisters of Mercy. Throughout that period it has provided a beacon of hope to people suffering the misery of addiction, supporting individuals and their families as they struggle towards recovery.
Now this new residential centre adds an extra layer of help and support to women recovering from addiction. The need for such support is, in one way, a sad reminder of how prevalent addiction, whether to drugs, drink, gambling or food, is in our society. But the opening of this centre is also a cause of great hope. It springs from the certainty that no matter how entrenched the addiction, change is always possible.
There are probably as many causes of addiction as there are addicts, each person with a unique story to tell, each one with a particular set of circumstances that brought them to this point in their lives. What unites every one of you, is the realisation that you, and you alone, have the power to take charge and transform your life. It takes a lot of courage, a lot of soul-searching and facing up to painful truths, to reach that point. But each person here has travelled that difficult journey. That is why you are here and you deserve great credit for your determination and perseverance in coming so far.
There is still a long way to go, each day bringing its own difficulties and temptations, setbacks and successes. I know that the wonderful support that you receive both from each other, and from the staff here, will continue to be of great help on that road – building up self-confidence and self-belief, strengthening your capacity to stay going even on the bad days. I would like to pay tribute to Sr Cait and all of the counselling, catering, FÁS and night staff, for the tremendous dedication, compassion and caring that they have shown in helping to make this a place of community, of friendship and of renewal.
I congratulate you on all that you have achieved so far and I wish each one of you heartfelt good wishes for the future.
Go gcúití Dia bhur saothar daoibh.