Address By PRESIDENT McALEESE TO THE World Affairs Council of Philadelphia 17 May 2000
“ Ireland Today: Looking Confidently to the Future”
Dia dhaoibh, a dhaoine uaisle. Ta áthas mor orm bheith anseo i bhur measc ar an maidin seo.
It is a great pleasure to address this distinguished gathering here this morning and I wish to thank you for the very warm welcome you have extended to me.
The subject of my address is today’s Ireland’s – looking confidently to the future. We meet at a particularly auspicious time - a time when a prosperous, peaceful, globally engaged Ireland, can look forward to the huge reservoir of energy and creativity which increasingly harmonious relations between North and South will soon release. This emerging Ireland is neither the nostalgic Ireland of the Quiet man nor the tragic homeland overshadowed by the gunman.
Anyone taking a serious look at Ireland today must be impressed by the amazing transformation of the Irish economy and living standards, the cultural vibrancy with its global reach, that have turned Ireland into a modern, sophisticated, confident country - a very far cry from the picture of rural stagnation and resignation to poorer expectations that characterised the stereotype of Ireland even in the relatively recent past.
The real Ireland of the new millennium is one which contrasts markedly with the Ireland, real or supposed, of the past. Instead of stagnation we have burgeoning growth, instead of declining living standards and mounting debt we have prosperity and investment, instead of unemployment, emigration and depopulation we have rising employment, net immigration and a rapidly increasing population. Our people face a transformed and still transforming landscape. It forces us to face questions about or values, our temper as a people, our debt to the past, our potential role in our own destiny and in the destiny of mankind. If ever there was an exciting time to be alive and in Ireland then this is probably it. No generation has been given so much. No generation has had so much to live up to.
Life has many layers, each interwoven, each leaving its track on the other. We are not a shallow people and if we take pride as we do in today’s Ireland with its economic success story it is not simply because of the visible benefits wealth brings but it is fundamentally because a free people have used their liberty well and now have within their grasp the unique opportunity to make this Ireland of the 21st century the best, the most egalitarian Ireland our people have ever known, though many dreamt of it, fought for it and indeed died for it. We take pride in the fact that our wealth allows us to continue and develop our historic outreach to the third world, a place we know well because we once were part of it and not so long ago. We take pride in the fact that it allows us to plan and deliver an end to poverty among our own people. We take pride in the fact that other nations, struggling with poverty or oppression see in us the possibility of a new destiny for themselves. Never unduly inhibited by our smallness as a nation, we dare to imagine that a new generation is engaged in charting the glorious destiny an Irish poet once wrote of and which a youthful President John F. Kennedy reminded us of on his visit in June of that fateful year 1963.
So let me begin then unapologetically with the economic success which is one of the things that has given us such reassurance about our potential and our genius. Statistics are never the most fascinating – or indeed trustworthy – of creatures, but I would like to share a few of them with you which illustrate the extent of the economic transformation. Ireland is now:
- the fastest growing economy in Europe over the past decade;
- the world’s number one exporter of software in the world (this year outstripping even the United States);
- the fastest growing market for tourism in the world in the past five years;
- has by far the best record of job creation and falling unemployment in the EU over the last five years;
- has achieved the greatest reduction in the ratio of debt to GDP in the EU over the past decade.
This transformation, which is more than just economic progress in the normal sense, speaks of a revolution affecting how we think, how we work, how we relate, how we embrace change.
The extent of change can be seen strikingly in many ways but two particularly are worth mentioning here for they say something about our collective identity as a people:- the first is our successful membership of the European Union. The second, in which this country has played a critical supporting role, is the development of healthy new relationships within the island of Ireland and with Britain. These are significant indicators of our maturity as a State, of our emergence from under the shadows of that long period of uncertainty, of conflict and lack of confidence, the grim physical and psychological legacy of colonialism.
Our membership of the European Union since 1973 served as an opportunity to break away from the economic domination of Ireland by Britain; in this objective, as the evolution of our trade statistics clearly shows, we have been very successful. It also helped us to throw off the more subtle emotional and cultural shackles. We rediscovered our vocation, suppressed for centuries, to play a constructive and beneficial role on the broader international stage and to interact with our continental fellow-Europeans in a manner that brought mutual enrichment, in the broadest sense of that term - in economics, politics, culture and philosophy.
When we look back on our scholars and philosophers of the early medieval period - our Golden Age – it is with a sense of pride at their role as erudite champions of the civilisation and culture of western Europe in the turbulent years after the fall of the Roman Empire. The names of Columbanus, Kilian, Gall, Virgilius, and Scotus Eriugena inscribed on monuments across Europe attest to that legacy to this day. As our own nation became submerged in the expansion of our strong and ambitious nearest neighbour, our links with continental Europe were curtailed, though the Continent still figured in our collective imagination as, from time to time, a sympathetic haven for the exile or the student, or more rarely, a source of alliance and assistance against a common foe. And “on far, foreign fields from Dunkirk to Belgrade...”, as the old poem says, the valour of exiled Irish warriors assisted the causes of almost every side in almost every war that was fought in Europe down through the centuries. This was true also of the extension of those conflicts into the New World and it was therefore not surprising that so many sons of Ireland - mainly, it must be said, from the North - figured so prominently in the events that led to the foundation of these United States.
When EEC membership enabled us in 1973 to renew our familiar relationship with the rest of Europe we seized it more enthusiastically than any other new adherent either then or since then. It was in a very special way for us a homecoming. Indeed, the latest Eurobarometer opinion poll shows that Ireland is still the most enthusiastically pro-European of all the Member States. It is hardly surprising. Despite some ups and downs along the way, and no major change is ever totally smooth, our experience of membership has been extremely positive. It would be no exaggeration to say that we are regarded as the success story of European integration. We have progressed from being one of the poorest members to attaining an average or even above average level of prosperity, an exemplary vindication of the policy of economic and social cohesion. We also believe that in our contribution to European culture, to the development of the union, to the debate on its core values and its vision for Europe’s destiny, we have punched way above our weight.
This was borne home to me when I visited recently some of the East European countries who are now candidates for membership of the European Union. The degree to which the people of those countries - such as Hungary and the Czech Republic - look upon Ireland as the model to be followed and to be held up as an example of what can be achieved is indeed striking. They are also deeply impressed by the fact that Ireland, far from being defensive about Enlargement or seeking to put up protective barriers against the entry of the new applicant states, has taken an encouraging and welcoming line on the expansion of the membership of the Union. This is one single illustration of our new confidence in our own ability to rise to challenges and adapt to change, as well as our appreciation that these candidate countries, having just emerged from years of totalitarian oppression, deserve the same kind of chance that we got to work out their destiny in the broader European context. It is also an illustration of our own lived experience that widening the embrace of opportunity does not dilute or divide the resources of this earth. Rather it unlocks them, frees them to flourish, to multiply, for our genius lies in our people - all it needs is space to grow and a nurturing environment and when it has those the future becomes a place of hope, not fear. That is what today’s Ireland is a place of real, rooted, realisable hope.
Part of the journey we have travelled since our admission to the European Union has been the way in which we perceive ourselves and our culture in the international arena. Before we joined the Union, people were not surprisingly fearful of the potential for our small island to be culturally overwhelmed by our bigger neighbours. Almost thirty years later we know the dynamic has worked in the opposite way. The showcase for our distinctive language, music, literature, theatre, dance, art and architectural heritage, has extended exponentially and with it our cultural confidence.
Those who know our history well will know the extent of our mischievous pride in having taken our revenge on British imperialism by colonising the English language and in particular in the fact that we have produced four Nobel Laureates for English literature. At a time when our native Irish language which came so close to obliteration is enjoying a phenomenal resurgence of interest and energy, it is undoubtedly, ironically, the case that our island’s legendary proficiency in the English language is a major advantage in doing business internationally and in attracting foreign investors looking for a springboard into the EU Single Market of 350 million consumers. But our membership of the European Union has also stimulated a new and active interest in European languages and culture especially among our young population. One happy consequence is that Ireland is now one of the world’s leading locations for multi-lingual call centres for global businesses. The days of the monotonal either/or culture are gone. Today’s generation carry with them many stings to their bows, parallel track identities, Irish, European, Irish speaking, English speaking, fluent in French or German or Italian or Spanish, at home in Boston, or Brussels, the World Wide Web or Waterford.
But the European Union is not our only centre of gravity. Ireland has long been linked to the United States with bonds of human affection that go very, very, deep. Often those bonds have been characterised as based on whimsy or nostalgia yet the period of our EU membership has also coincided with a significant intensification of our economic links with the US. The United States is today Ireland’s largest source of inward investment and that relationship is an integral part of our current success story and our future.
There are many reasons why U.S. investors choose Ireland: our common language, our young, well-educated, flexible and enthusiastic workforce, our position as a gateway to the vast markets of the European Union, the positive approach to inward investment at the highest political levels, and our social partnership framework which has contributed over the past 13 years to financial stability and industrial harmony – all these are important factors. But I also believe that our strong historical links with the United States through the global Irish family, the fact that the name of Ireland is so well known and so warmly regarded, has also contributed to around 500 American companies having set up plants in Ireland – and the number keeps growing.
The key sectors which attract new US investment in Ireland are: electronics, software, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and financial services. Ireland is also poised to become a major centre for international e-commerce and we are devoting considerable resources to upgrade our infrastructure in line with the demands of the most modern technologies.
Ireland looks forward to a secure and increasingly prosperous future in the decade ahead. There is at present no sign of a significant slackening of the spectacular growth that we have enjoyed over the last decade, though it would be reasonable to assume that the rates of growth are likely to taper off to more sustainable long-term levels in the next few years. The opportunity of a bigger European Union of 500 million consumers offers great scope for our new, hi-tech industry, provided, of course, that we are able to keep pace with the inevitably rapid rate of change in technology. Thus far, our education system has proven itself to be very responsive to those changing needs and we certainly fully realise the key importance of this sector for the future.
Our population structure is still young by comparison with most other EU countries, so we are not - at least immediately - faced with the problem of a ‘greying’ population as many of our partner states are. And of course, Irish women are now taking their rightful place at the centre of our economic, social, political and cultural spheres. The release of their energy and talents, their creative genius have contributed in no small part to our current success and will continue to be a key driver of our future prosperity. All in all, there is an air of hope and optimism in Ireland today which is tangible and pervasive and this augurs very well for our future.
One of the greatest sources of hope and optimism is, of course, the prospect of a permanent peace in Northern Ireland which seems to be at last within reach. There is no doubt that our younger generation, North and South, passionately believe in this ideal of a permanent peace based on the principles of the Good Friday Agreement and I am confident that this belief will deliver and secure such a peace for our island for future generations. But it will secure much more than peace. In time, and in a shorter time than many imagine, it too will see a huge surge of new energy as old conflicts give way to new partnerships, as people work with each other and not against each other.
Ladies and gentlemen.
It is my confident hope - and firm expectation - that the first decade of this Millennium will usher in a new era of peace and prosperity for Ireland. A time of transformation is at hand such that in the not too distant future our children will look back and wonder how a successful people, achieving so much together, could ever have been so bitterly divided.
No computer will generate this change. It is generated in each human heart because that is where the hurts and hatreds are stored which provoke and sustain conflict. I believe enough people have now acknowledged their need to change a little, to trust a little, to remember the past a little less and think of the future a little more - enough to make real the hope wrapped up in the Good Friday Agreement.
The landscape of Ireland’s future looks very different from even a decade ago. But now a blessed generation has a set of tools not given to any generation before. With those tools we can craft, if we choose, a fully inclusive society, where opportunity reaches to the farthest margins and draws in those whose lives have been blighted by disadvantage. We can craft a culture of respectful co-operative coexistence between diverse identities. We can put the language of bigotry, of racism, of sexism, the language of contempt, behind us and create a culture in which it has no room to grow. We can honour those our emigrants who came here, poor and wretched, who met hardship and prejudice, but who carved decent lives out of the opportunities this country offered. We can and will honour their faith in Ireland by making it, in this generation, a place to take righteous pride in Ireland’s future looks better today than it has ever done. Comfortable in fast paced world of e-commerce, as much at home in Europe as in the United States, more relaxed than ever before with its neighbouring island, at peace within itself, its culture and its spirit drawing from the many wells filled by the global Irish family both historically and currently. When that hopefilled President John Kennedy came to Ireland in 1963, he promised to return. It was a promise fate decreed he would never be able to keep. He told us then that he believed Ireland had something to give the world - a future of peace with freedom. Those of us who believe in the God he believed in, believe he is watching that very thing, that very future, at last, beginning to unfold.