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ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT A CIVIC RECEPTION IN CARRICK-ON-SHANNON, CO. LEITRIM ON FRIDAY

ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT A CIVIC RECEPTION IN CARRICK-ON-SHANNON, CO. LEITRIM ON FRIDAY 27 MARCH, 1998

I’m really delighted to be here in Carrick-on-Shannon on my first visit in an official capacity, and I’m deeply honoured by the very warm welcome and kindness I have encountered since my arrival. I am particularly grateful for the very warm words of welcome from you, Cathoirleach, which have been echoed by the other members of the County Council this evening. Given my family connection with Croghan, just down the road in county Roscommon, I have of course been in County Leitrim many times before, but I’m happy that on this occasion, that I have been invited to be with you this evening to experience some of the warm hospitality for which County Leitrim is so famous.

County Leitrim – Liath Druim, or “grey ridge” came into being in 1583, taking its name from the village of the same name close to the River Shannon at its junction with the Ballinamore and Ballyconnell Canal which, as you know, extends to Lough Erne. I know too that in Irish terms, Carrick-on-Shannon, the county town of Leitrim is relatively young. But like most Irish towns, its origins can be traced through lore and legend to the distant Celtic past of the great Irish clans, when it was known as Cara-Droma-Ruisc – the “weir of the ridge of the marsh”.

It was James the 1st of England who gave it Carrick-on-Shannon its status as a town as part of his policy of supplanting Irish natives by putting Scottish settlers in their place. In 1613 he gave the town a Charter with the right to become a Royal Borough and I understand that the Seal of the Corporation dating from that time is still in existence. Carrick came into its own because of its strategic geographical position on the Shannon and on the land routes between the provinces, having been described in the 1620’s as “a highway for all stealths from County Roscommon into O’Rourke’s country and from Breny (Breffne) into Roscommon”. Today, Carrick is a place where people are quite happy to leave the ‘highway’ – to stop off on the river or the road and spend time here. I’m sure that the population swells several-fold each summer with boaters and tourists who visit Carrick and use it as a base from which to explore the entire county.

Since those earlier times, Leitrim has seen many changes of fortune and character, many reminders of which are still to seen here for instance in Carrick, in places like Summerhill - or “Gallows Hill” as it was known – and which speaks for itself - St. Patrick’s Hospital – which was once a Workhouse – or the “Costello Memorial Chapel”, the smallest chapel in Ireland, which tells a story of a man’s love and dedication to his wife and of hisutter heartbreak at her untimely death in 1877.

Like many other places in Ireland, County Leitrim was touched by the terrible events of 1798. There is a chilling account by an English officer about events in Carrick after action in Ballinamuck when Lord Cornwallis had ordered that “a certain number” of rebel prisoners held in the Courthouse should be hanged “without further ceremony” and where 17 were selected by lottery to be executed in this way. The Workhouse, like so many others in Ireland, featured in the Great Famine and a description by Cecil Woodham Smith in her book, “The Great Hunger”, describes the children as being “like skeletons, their features sharpened with hunger” and “the happy expression of infancy gone from their faces”.

Today, County Leitrim is associated with pleasure boating – both on the canal and on the Shannon. The relatively recent opening of the Shannon-Erne link – the result of the vision, commitment and drive of many of you here this evening – has brought a new life to Leitrim – a new era of trade and commerce, particularly in the tourism field. It has opened up Leitrim to a whole new market of boaters and travellers.

For over a century, until the closing of the Grand Canal Company in 1960, Carrick was a centre for river trade, but the Rowing Club has been in existence since 1927 and is very much alive today. I recall the lines of M.J. McManus, who died in 1951 and whose father and mother were Master and Matron of the Workhouse, “In August sunshine, the eights and the fours and the pleasure boats and the turf-cots competing on Carrick’s day of days”. The August Regatta here at Carrick was the high point of my own childhood. I can vividly recall the warm summer days – the boats - the stalls – the sheer coulour of those days is indelibly marked on my childhood’s happy memories.

Leitrim today has successful industries like Masonite, here if Carrick, which employs approximately 170 people – and which has also spawned a number of spin-off jobs in the area. In Leitrim there are other indutries - like Jetwash Ltd. at Carrigallen - Modular Coldstore Ltd. at Mohill - Leitrim Foods at Drumshambo - and Merenda Ltd. at Manorhamilton - all of which are being supported and encouraged by Forbairt. These arerepresentative of a new Leitrim - where local people are staring businesses – where local effort is turning into commercial success – where there is a new confidence and prosperity that is transforming Leitrim - lifting that dark cloud that hung over the county since the terrible days of the Great Famine which had such a profound effect of Leitrim in particular.

I know that every county in Ireland has at least one ‘Leitrim’ and I know that there at least forty ‘Leitrims’ in townlands, villages or streets. But there is only one County Leitrim - a place which has a welcome for all visitors and traders - I am very grateful to you for the warm welcome that County Leitrim has given to me this evening. I know that the future holds much promise for everybody in Ireland and I hope that as developments unfold, the links between Leitrim and its neighbours, particularly its northern neighbours, will be strengthened.