BRIEF REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE HANDING OVER CEREMONY OF KANTURK CASTLE TO AN TAISCE
BRIEF REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE HANDING OVER CEREMONY OF KANTURK CASTLE TO AN TAISCE FRIDAY, JULY 14TH 2000
Is cúis mhór áthais dom bheith anseo libh inniu ar an ocaid specialta seo. Tá me buíoch díbh as an chuireadh agus as fáilte fíorchaoin a chur sibh romham.
I am delighted to join you today at this ceremony to mark the handing over of Kanturk Castle to An Taisce. I would like to thank Mr. Norman Campion for the kind invitation.
Cork is a particular pleasure to visit because this county epitomises the spirit of regeneration, optimism and achievement which is reverberating around today’s Ireland. Cork has a formidable store of successes in many fields of endeavour going back over generations but the years straddling the second and third millennium have seen Cork score triumph after triumph from the Rose of Tralee to the football and ploughing championships, from tidy town winners to European model villages. There is an undeniable and righteous pride here in Cork’s past and its present and a buoyant hope in its future. The story of Kanturk Castle captures all those things. An historic part of the past, restored lovingly in the present as a gift of this generation to the future.
Kanturk Castle holds a store of memories that form part of the rich heritage not just of Cork but of Ireland and of these islands. The history of Ireland and our near neighbour Britain has been inextricably linked for many hundreds of years and this Castle is a reminder of a particularly turbulent time of that history. The early years of the Seventeenth century saw the building of a number of great houses which were designed with the protection and defence of the occupants very much in mind. It is said that McDonagh MacCarthy, the Lord of Duhallow heavily mortgaged the land to English financiers to build on such a grand scale – so we can at least take comfort knowing that mortgages are not just the curse of new home owners in today’s Ireland!
The great German poet Goethe once declared that ‘Architecture is frozen music’ and indeed just like Schubert’s unfinished symphony, Kanturk Castle was never completed. It is recorded that when the English Privy Council heard of the elaborate structure they decided that ‘it was much too large for a subject’. In a fit of rage at the complaints and accusations “the subject” had the glass roof tiles smashed up and the building stopped. Five centuries later it remains, a shell of a castle which began in dreams of greatness and which ended then in anger and frustration but now the ending has been changed as a new generation turns to the past with respect and reverence and breathes into it a fresh life.
It is a tribute to An Taisce and Duchas that this building has been rescued from the ravages of time and the environment and has been preserved as a monument to our past. We in Ireland have learnt that cherishing our past, recognising it as a treasure and a resource, is not in any way incompatible with being a modern forward-looking nation. On the contrary the modern world needs to be anchored in a right and healthy relationship with tradition and it is a measure of our maturity as a nation that we are now coming to terms with our rich and complex history. Many forces shaped that history, some of them subtle, others not quite so subtle, some we know well, some we ignore or exaggerate but here in this very place there is an opportunity to look afresh at aspects of our story and to begin to see the glorious kaleidoscope it presents. Here at Kanturk for example we can get a marvellous glimpse of the impact on Ireland of architectural ideas derived from the Italian renaissance and we can take pride in that centuries old partnership between European neighbours.
I would like to thank you, Professor Buchanan, and I am pleased to accept the ‘key‘ of the castle on behalf of the people of Ireland and in turn I am delighted to pass the key to Dr. David Jeffrey, President of An Taisce. I know that this key and this castle are in safe hands with the wonderful partnership of An Taisce and Duchas who will maintain the castle and surrounding areas for visitors from home and abroad to enjoy in the coming years
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.