ADDRESS AT THE STATE DINNER IN HONOUR OF H.E. THE PRESIDENT OF THE PORTUGUESE REPUBLIC
ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE STATE DINNER IN HONOUR OF H.E. THE PRESIDENT OF THE PORTUGUESE REPUBLIC
Cuireann sé athas orm fáilte a chur romhaibh anseo tráthnóna. Fearaim céad míle fáilte roimh ár gcuairteoirí ón Phoirtingéil, a shoilse Uachtarán Phoblacht na Portaingéile agus Bean Jorge Sampaio.
This visit marks a further deepening of an old friendship. Portugal and Ireland, partners in Europe and linked by a rich variety of interest old and new, look forward to an ever closer relationship in the years ahead.
The warmest wishes of the Irish people go out to the people of Portugal, Mr. President, on this happy occasion.
Portugal and Ireland, countries on the western seaboard of Europe whose peoples have down the years spread over the seas to the farthest corners of the earth, share a long history.
Antonio Vieira, a 17th century Jesuit priest and gifted writer, once said that “God gave the Portuguese a small country as cradle but all the world as their grave”. The same could be said of our own people. From often difficult, even tragic beginnings has grown an extraordinary network of relationships that today marks the extended Irish and Portuguese families throughout the world.
The great Portuguese discoverers of five hundred years ago truly revolutionised the world of their times. As John de Courcy Ireland, himself a noted maritime expert and enthusiast, has written:”not one of the world’s great powers, let alone any small nation, ever so totally altered world history for good or ill as Portugal did between 1434 and 1580 with a population a little over a million”.
These men and their later successors brought with them to new lands the Portuguese culture and language which today is spoken by some 200 million people. I know how much Portugal cherishes these links, with its own diaspora, and works to foster the Lusophone community which plays an important role at many levels in today’s world. Here in Ireland we too accord a special place to our global Irish family and know how important it is to keep the relationships alive and fresh from generation to generation. It gives us a special understanding of the Portuguese spirit.
The award last year of the Nobel Prize for Literature to José Saramago was a tribute to the vitality and richness of the Portuguese language, its traditions and of that very Portuguese spirit.
This year, Mr. President, you have been celebrating in Portugal the 25th anniversary of the 1974 Revolution. What tremendous changes have come about in this brief quarter of a century. In these changes you yourself have played an active part, helping to establish Portugal firmly in what you have described as a “European model of a society, anchored in human rights, the pre-eminence of law, pluralist democracy, and an open and competitive economy”.
You have rightly emphasised the role of solidarity in this process – a solidarity that refuses exclusiveness and respects the rights and aspirations of all members of society and the balance between humankind and nature.
Portugal today can feel rightly proud of the place it holds in the community of nations. Negative relationships of the past have been transformed into new channels of assistance and cooperation. At the end of this year Portugal and China will witness together the transfer of Macau to Chinese sovereignty. We welcome this transfer which will take place in a free and open manner to the benefit of all concerned.
I want, in particular, Mr. President to congratulate the Portuguese Government on the remarkable developments which have led to the signature in New York on 5 May of the agreement with Indonesia on the future of East Timor. For many years we in Ireland have followed with the greatest concern and sympathy East Timor’s pursuit of the right to self-determination. Ireland has wholeheartedly supported the policies of the Portuguese Government to this end. Last month the Minister for Foreign Affairs visited Dili to express personally his solidarity with the people of East Timor and to offer his support to them in their long struggle against oppression.
The danger of violence continues to threaten the process. But the way is now being prepared, with the active involvement of the United Nations, for the people of East Timor to make known their views of the their future on August 8. We rejoice at these developments and at the prospect of success they offer for Portugal’s advocacy of the rights of the people of East Timor. We recognise that this would not have been possible were it not for the principled and courageous stand taken on the issue by Portugal over many years.
Next year, Mr. President, Portugal will hold the Presidency of the European Union for the first semester. The Union has brought significant benefits to both our countries. I hope that during your visit you will see something of the remarkable vitality that characterises Ireland today in so many aspects of our national life. The same process of growth and development is, I know, underway in Portugal.
Our two countries share much in our broad approach to Europe, its enlargement to the East and its institutional development. We should not, as smaller countries in Europe, underestimate the importance of regular contact and consultation between us. The recent tragic events in Kosovo only remind us of the crucial value of our shared purposes and the principles that underlie them.
The European Union has brought with it, as Portugal may also have found, an easier relationship with bigger neighbours. In Northern Ireland the peace process has involved a patient and determined search for new structures and relationships. The culture of conflict with its deep-rooted mistrusts is at last on the wane. We have had to confront many difficulties and challenges on the road to a fresh new culture of consensus where all are equal and equally respected. Whatever the setbacks and stumbling blocks it is clear that the people want this fresh start and they want it to work. They know we can't change the past but we can shape the future. Throughout these difficult years the consistent support of our EU partners including Portugal has been a great encouragement and source of energy.
Mr. President,
The image of the nations who slaughtered each other in millions in the Second World War working together in partnership in the EU, is an image of hope not lost on all peace-makers. The progress in the bilateral relationship between Ireland and Portugal within the EU partnership, is there for all to see.
Trade between us is growing steadily and tourism likewise, though the blessed sunshine of Portugal causes some imbalance here that the many Irish tourists to Portugal can appreciate! - my own family included. We have a steady programme of cultural exchanges. The educational contribution of the Dominican Order in Lisbon and of Portuguese lecturers at Irish universities are highly appreciated. Here the Portuguese-Irish Chamber of Commerce and the Ireland Portugal Society maintain a variety of activities consistent with our interest and close friendship.
All of this activity can only be a stimulus to new efforts and initiatives. Sometimes the best of friends can take for granted things that less easy partners must cultivate more carefully. I am confident that in the period ahead in our day-to-day business, whether in trade, tourism or investment, we can look creatively at new undertakings and initiatives that will help to expand still further the successes already built up in these fields.
Mr. President,
This year you have been celebrating the bicentenary of the birth of Almeida Garrett, the energetic liberal and writer at the forefront of the romantic movement in Portugal in the first half of the nineteenth century, whose grandparents were Irish. Garrett wrote:
“Portugal would not be truly independent if it were not situated by the sea; let’s hold on to the sea, and our patriotism and pride will keep us independent ashore”.
Things have changed a little since Garrett’s day, not least in maritime law; but perhaps this asset of the sea, so precious to Portugal and to Ireland, still contributes strongly to our national identities. Together with our common Celtic history, the patriotism and pride of Portugal and Ireland are today, I am sure, as strong as ever, rooted in our many new relationships and, above all, in our shared European destiny, our shared European identity. We have learnt an important lesson together that we do not have to make choices between identities – to be Irish is to be European just as to be Portuguese is to be European. Each of our nations contributes in a very profound way to that shared European identity – it takes nothing from our Irishness – our Portugueseness – rather it adds the great adventure of being members of a common family focused on creating the best possible future for all of its many and different children. We look forward to sharing that adventure in the new Millennium as we have in the closing quarter of this century.
Tá súil agam go mbeidh ard-tráthnóna agaibh agus go mbainfidh sibh sult agus séan agus siamsa as an chuid eile den turas seo go hÉirinn.