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ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT HER MEETING WITH THE GLENBOE ACTION GROUP

ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT HER MEETING WITH THE GLENBOE ACTION GROUP GLENBOE, 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 meet with the Glenboe Community Action Group to hear what you have been doing and of your plans for the future.

Like other community groups that I have visited over the last two days, your group is a relatively young group – but is part of the great self-help movement that is thriving in Ireland today. You recognised a problem and decided to do something about it. 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.

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 Glenboe Community is 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 commend you on your approach to focusing your energies and talents for the good of the community – I want to give recognition to the great work that you have done in raising awareness of the needs of your area – particularly the needs of the young people in the community – in setting goals to be achieved – and drawing on those who can give the help and advice that projects like yours require. Clearly the community of Glenboe place a high value on the youth of the area – and are prepared to embark on ambitious projects focused mainly on enhancing opportunities and options for them.

Young people are the lifeblood of every community. And as we approach the new millennium - as we face the many challenges and opportunities that that will bring - I wish you well in your work as an active community partnership - working to enhance your own area - to make it a place which you can all be proud to call your own.

ENDS