REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY MCALEESE AT A RECEPTION FOR THE CZECH COMMUNITY IN IRELAND
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY MCALEESE AT A RECEPTION FOR THE CZECH COMMUNITY IN IRELAND HOSTED BY H.E. JOSEF HAVLAS FOXROCK
Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Good Afternoon, Dobri den
I am so pleased that Martin and I have the opportunity to join you this evening in the Residence of Ambassador Havlas. I thank him and his spouse, Ivana, for their hospitality, and for bringing members of the Czech community in Ireland together for this function.
It gives me great pleasure to recognise the huge contribution being made by migrant communities to today’s Ireland and to have this opportunity to record my admiration and gratitude for the contribution being made by Ireland’s growing Czech community.
About 8,000 citizens of the Czech Republic have come to Ireland since May 2004, joining the smaller band of Czech men and women who have been here much longer. We are delighted to have you here. You come from a country we have greatly admired and with which we have the strongest fraternal relations.
I recall with fondness the State Visit I paid to the Czech Republic in October 1999. Among the many happy memories I retain from our few days in the beautiful city of Prague, was the privilege of meeting one of the great Europeans of our time. Vaclav Havel, the last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic, was a wonderful host. It was an inspiration to hear at first hand the story of his journey from dissident to President. Indeed Vaclav Havel’s own journey was part of a journey that you all had to make as part of the Czech Republic’s transformation into a modern democracy with a proud place at the heart of a free Europe.
In his farewell speech to the citizens of the Czech Republic on 2 February 2003, President Havel summed up the task that had faced his beloved country after the Velvet Revolution. He said:
It is easy to destroy the fine web of civic institutions and relations that developed over the long decades, to place everything under state control and to subject the life of the entire country to a single political entity. But it has been extremely challenging and time-consuming to put everything together again after those decades when time stood still – just as it would certainly take a lot longer to restore a piece of antique furniture than it would to kick it to pieces.
In Ireland, we have watched with tremendous admiration as the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe rebuilt their societies and reclaimed democracy and we were honoured to host the Day of Welcomes in Dublin in May 2004 when Prime Minister Spidla brought the Czech Republic into the European Union.
Ireland, having gained tremendous benefit from an earlier enlargement, was an enthusiastic supporter of the Czech Republic in its bid for EU membership. We have also benefited greatly from our decision to become one of just three EU Member States to admit citizens from the new Member States to work here without restrictions from May 2004 onwards.
Some of those who have come will stay forever, some will go back to plant their experience and skills in their homeland’s new future. The lives you live here will make even greater friends of our two countries and greater partners.
I am very conscious that there is also a vibrant Irish business community in your country, taking advantage of the great economic and investment opportunities that the new Czech Republic has to offer. This two-way flow of people, taking with them their energies, talents, ambitions and stories, can only serve to strengthen both of our countries for the future.
The Irish and the Czechs are not strangers to one another historically, for Bohemia once formed part of the ancient lands of the Celts, and so we share a common Celtic heritage. During my visit to Prague, I was delighted to visit the historic Charles University where that Celtic heritage is reflected in the Centre for Irish Studies and Czech students can learn about Irish literature and culture. I know that some of our poets and dramatists are well-known to Czech audiences, just as Czech music is well known here and I hope your presence here will open up the world of Czech music, literature, dance, cuisine and culture to a wider Irish audience.
I hope that you have found a warm welcome here for we have a tradition of hospitality which is now being put to good use in accommodating so many people from other lands. Ireland is growing and changing rapidly, more prosperous than ever before, more multicultural than ever before. Your hands and hearts are helping in that process of change. Through you, we are deepening our mutual understanding, deepening the wells from which our culture draws and helping mature our European Union into a common homeland where her diverse peoples prosper in each other’s company. I wish each of you every success and happiness in Ireland.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.
Děkujeme moc