ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE CELTIC FURROW INTERPRETATIVE CENTRE
ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE CELTIC FURROW INTERPRETATIVE CENTRE BALLINTUBBER, CO. MAYO
I am delighted to be in Ballintubber today and would like to welcome you here to celebrate the opening of the Celtic Furrow Interpretative Centre – the culmination of over four years of hard work and dedication by the Ballintubber Abbey Trust. I would like to thank my good friend, Archbishop Michael Neary and the Trust for inviting me to be part of this special occasion.
Ballintubber with its rich spiritual history is a particularly fitting setting for this visitors centre. It has strong links with our ancient Christian heritage – links to a time when Ireland was a centre of religious learning. We often hear references to that past but here at The Celtic Furrow Centre we now have a dedicated point of access, a place to bring that extraordinary past to life, to remind us how much of the journey we are on in the 21st century, is a continuation of that self-same journey made by generation after generation in centuries long past. The monastic history of Ballintubber – the nearby Abbey, the adjacent pilgrim path, the Tochar Phadraig which leads to that unique place of pilgrimage Croagh Patrick, around these are gathered the stories and the memories which link the footsteps and the faith of Irish men and women through very many different eras in our history.
The Centre interprets, five thousand years of Irish culture and history in an innovative and radical way. Through a series of models, reconstructions and paintings, a common thread is woven into the intricate tapestry that is our heritage – the festivals of Neolithic farmers, the celebrations of the Celtic cattlemen, the feasts of the Golden era of Christianity. It creatively interprets the development of our ancient spiritual roots, grounded in the powers of nature, and cleverly recalls their many connections with the farming rituals of twentieth century Ireland. In fact, many of the more amusing customs we have inherited derive from ancient practices – pulling the wishbone of a chicken, masking our faces at Halloween, using the horseshoe as a symbol of good luck – these things have roots and you can trace them here at the Celtic Furrow.
Here too the visitor can descend through the layers of our rich cultural heritage and become acquainted with the thinking, praying, working, wondering ancestor who lived through very different times but asked the same fundamental questions about life, its meaning and its destiny. Those ancestors showed their reverence for life, for nature and for God in different ways. Today through this centre, the people of the 21st century have added their layer of respect. And to the many stories of faith, endurance and love which have sustained people here over many lifetimes you have added the story of a community which decided to change its own future by telling its past and telling it exceptionally well.
I know that in recent years communities from Balla to Murrisk have pooled their energies and talents showcase their place, to make it even more attractive to tourists, to bring investment, to promote jobs, to give hope in the future to the next generation. Great credit is due to the combined efforts of State and local authorities who with the assistance of the National Millennium Committee had such well-founded faith in the community spirit and community imagination that exists here. Congratulations too to those who mobilized, energized, sustained and harnessed that community spirit, in particular Archbishop Neary and the members of Ballintubber Abbey Trust. Through your commitment and through the hard work of those who were the hands of the work you have put a new resource at the service not just of Mayo but of Ireland. The Celtic Furrow Interpretative Centre will rapidly become a center of gravity in its own right and I am sure many thousands of visitors will have cause to be grateful for the courage and the vision of those who had the idea and saw it through to reality.
It is my greatest pleasure therefore to declare the Celtic Furrow officially open and to wish you all a pleasant evening.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.