Media Library

Speeches

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY MC ALEESE, AT A DINNER HOSTED BY THE HONOURABLE ARTHUR MAXWELL HOUSE

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY MC ALEESE, AT A DINNER HOSTED BY THE HONOURABLE ARTHUR MAXWELL HOUSE

In the same way as it was the custom in biblical times to save the good wine until last, you could say that as we near the end of the first ever State Visit by a President of Ireland to Canada – that we are in a sense saving the best part until the end – and by coming to Newfoundland for the last part of a magnificently successful visit, we are giving it the status of a truly great vintage – something to be savoured – something to be remembered. Since we arrived in St. Johns this morning we have been given the warmest of welcomes – as you would expect from a place as Irish as this island of Newfoundland – and it has echoed the warm welcome and hospitality that we have received throughout the entire visit.

Over the past ten days, we have been to a number of towns and cities in Ontario and in the Atlantic and maritime provinces - meeting Irish and Canadian-Irish communities that have brought their own sense of culture and identity to bear on their lives – linking and interweaving with the other ‘nationalities’ with whom they work and live – and producing a new river of culture which values as much as it depends on the rich streams of identity and tradition that feed and sustain it.

The Vikings are said to have briefly colonised Newfoundland about a thousand years ago. Although disputed by some, the earliest exploration of Newfoundland by the Irish is said to predate the Vikings by several centuries. While we may never know for certain if St. Brendan made it here in a boat made of leather - though I for one like to think that he did – we do know that the Irish community played an important role in the settlement, evolution and development of Newfoundland, as indeed they did in each of the provinces that I have visited.

Newfoundland has the distinction of being the only part of North America which has a specific name in Irish - Talamh an Eisc - the land of fish - for like every other race, the Irish first came to Newfoundland for fish. Five hundred years ago John Cabot reported on what he called his “discovery” of Newfoundland saying that “The sea there is swarming with fish, which can be taken not only with the net, but in baskets let down with a stone”.

Of course we now know that those days of plenty - when we thought there was an endless supply of fish - are no longer with us. Whether we see ourselves as concerned environmentalists or hard-nosed fishermen, the conclusion we have reached is the same – there is a limit to what you can take out of the sea if it is to be a renewable resource. But the effect can be devastating on the communities who depend on fish for their livelihood. And there are many such communities – but not just here in Newfoundland. In Ireland and in all the coastal regions of Europe and North America there are communities that have been affected by the depletion of fish stocks. And the imperative now is to redress the natural imbalance and to plan for those communities to survive.

The economic conditions which led generations of Irish people to seek new lives overseas have been completely transformed in recent years. The Irish economy is now in the first rank of developed modern industrial economies - and decades of investment in a high quality education system, have given us a particular advantage in attracting the new high tech industries on which the economies of tomorrow will be based. I spoke last week to the CEO of a Canadian company that has recently moved into Ireland. He told me that they had decided to invest in Ireland, not because of favourable tax rates - though they are an undoubted attraction - but because he saw an environment which was prepared to do business, because he found an administrative system which helped rather than hindered him in his work. He told me that in Ireland he has found some of the best, most enthusiastic workers he has ever had - well educated, willing to learn and keen for success. It is an Ireland that does not fit the old stereotypes; it is an Ireland that I am very proud to represent.

Ireland has also seen a parallel cultural renaissance. From Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa opening on Broadway, to Seamus Heaney being awarded the Nobel Prize for literature - from the growth of Irish cinema to the worldwide success of Riverdance – all of which are the signs of a confident, modern European nation.

Ireland and Newfoundland have faced common challenges over the years and have adopted similar strategies for resolving them. We are both on the periphery – both aware of the difficulty of communication that comes with that. We can appreciate the real opportunities that advances in communications and information are bringing – the new possibilities that are being opened up. Your Honour's own experience in the field of telemedicine and distance education is a testimony to this. The similarity in the directions we have taken has meant that the Memorandum of Understanding which we signed in 1996 was indeed timely – helping to cement the cultural and historical links that have always existed between the two islands - and expanding those ties into the economic field.

Both of our islands have known the pain of relative poverty and stagnant economies in the past. Both have been able to rise to the challenges that fate and location have cast our way. In the coming century we face a world that is in a constant state of flux – where the challenge is to turn adversity to opportunity – to be constantly prepared to review and critique what we are doing and where we are going. Newfoundland has always been loved by her sons and daughters in good times and bad – that is its real strength. I can do no better than close with the words of Cavendish Boyle:

 

“As loved our fathers, so we love,

Where once they stood we stand,

Their prayer we raise to heaven above

God guard thee, Newfoundland”.