Media Library

Speeches

ANNUAL PRESIDENT’S DINNER OF THE DUN LAOGHAIRE RATHDOWN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE ANNUAL PRESIDENT'S DINNER OF THE DUN LAOGHAIRE RATHDOWN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

I am very grateful and honoured to have been invited to join you this evening at your President's Annual Dinner, and for this welcome opportunity to address you and your guests from Derry – with whom you have established a very successful twinning relationship – and with whom you have much in common – not least in your respective traditional roles as points of embarkation for what was perhaps our most successful export for many generations – people!

On my recent State Visits to Australia and Canada I was proud to link up with many Irish communities and people of Irish provenance – people who take pride in their connections with Ireland – people who brought their culture and traditions with them, and who were able to add something of their culture to those of their adoptive countries – out of which have evolved places with a wealth of diversity in traditions which are now celebrated and embraced as their own. All over the world today there are about 70 million people who boast of their Irishness – some relatively recent emigrants, and some who have never set foot on our shores, yet regard themselves very much as being of Ireland.

On my visit to Canada I was struck by the ease with which people from the two traditions live and work side by side – and in organisations like The Apostles of Ireland – whom we met in Toronto – how they work together in common cause, promoting dialogue and understanding based on respect for their respective traditions. In a way, it echoes what the Irish succeeded in doing in earlier generations – where both traditions grew to respect and preserve their differences, yet work together in building up new lives in a new country. I was struck by the lessons in their experience for us.

If you pause and look at the changes that have taken place in this country over the last twenty five years you can begin to appreciate the potential that we have. Look at the closer ties with Europe which have opened up whole new markets and have given us access to the kinds of financial support which were essential to build up a modern infrastructure. Consider the inward flow of foreign investment which has spawned an enormous growth in industrial employment. Think of the social partnerships which have brought all sectors of the economy together to build one of the most progressive economies in the world today. Think of the greater access to education which has ‘liberated’ a new generation of self-confident believers in themselves who are ready and eager to take on the world. That opening up of education was so beautifully described by Bellaghy’s famous son, Seamus Heaney, in his poem “From the Canton of Expectation”, where he talks about those with “intelligences brightened and unmannerly as crowbars” with

 

“Books open in the newly wired kitchens.

Young heads that might have dozed a life away

against the flanks of milking cows were busy

paving and pencilling their first causeways

across the prescribed texts”.

 

The “intelligences brightened and unmannerly as crowbars” were the liberated – those who were given access to education – who could finally attain the skills and learning to break out of an existence that looked in on itself. They and many of you here this evening were the ones who started the quiet revolution in Ireland that has brought us to where we are now.

Take all these changes in our society and add the recent developments in Northern Ireland with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and the eagerness on all sides to move forward in a new context. Coming to the end of a century which has seen profound shifts in Irish society – a shift in our focus to the European and world stages – and a level of self-confidence which allows us to let go of our past conflicts yet treasure our shared histories as being part of us all and very much a part of what we will be - you cannot but have great hope for the coming generations who can continue to build in this new context.

We now live in a mature Ireland that is able to deal with so many of the things that we have had difficulty dealing with. We are getting rid of the culture of conflict. We are creating space to deal with the First World War – moving to a culture of consensus where we won’t have to chose loyalties between those who went away to fight for the British and those who stayed to fight the War of Independence at home. We will be able to take both of those allegiances strongly with us – and offer respect to both. Indeed, Professor Tom Kettle, who died in that war said that ‘for Ireland to deeply find her identity, she would first have to become European’. That was 80 years ago – and he prophesied correctly. And of course he also said that ‘this Ireland with its deep identity would have Ireland as its centre but the universe as its circumference’ – and too is as it has proved to be.

As members of two Chambers of Commerce you will be very much aware of the new economic order that prevails – and indeed you will have been very much a part of the successes that we have achieved. My role this evening is really to give recognition to those who have been at the heart of our success – the people who have made this country what it is today. The capacity of the business community to change is the key to its survival and, indeed, its future success. Today survival and success are also about change. Success has built up our self-confidence – our national self-esteem – we are a people not afraid to adapt to change.

Advances in modern communications and the advent of the information superhighway have added to the pace of change and are profoundly impacting on the way businesses compete, and indeed co-operate. Management theorist Igor Ansoff coined the phrase ‘environmental turbulence’ back in the 1960's to describe the change from a static to a dynamic view of business. That phrase has even more resonance today for enterprises facing the challenges of a globalised, high tech world.

Commerce is about meeting the challenge of change, generating competition and yet ensuring that a stable economy is the backbone which allows us to control or harness that turbulence, and use it as a source of energy with which to drive forward. It is also about achieving high standards of customer care – of meeting customer requirements and demands – of maintaining high levels of quality and service. The Chambers of Commerce have played a major part in the developing Irish economy, in fostering strategic links and in developing business and trade, based on those high standards of customer care.

Without the calibre of leadership that we are very lucky to have today, we would not be able to sustain the strong position that we are in. There is a professional discipline and commitment across all of the social sectors – people prepared to work long hours, to take risks, to hold their nerve, to work towards a vision. And in an ever changing global economy, where the sands are constantly shifting, the ability to respond to change - to turn the ship about if that’s what it takes - that is the key to survival and to success.

You have been central to our success up to now – and your role in the decades ahead will be crucial to maintaining and building on that success.