REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT A RECEPTION FOR THE LITHUANIAN COMMUNITY IN IRELAND
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT A RECEPTION FOR THE LITHUANIAN COMMUNITY IN IRELAND HOSTED BY H.E MRS IZOLDA BRICKOVSKIENE
Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Good Morning, Laba Diena.
Martin and I are very grateful to Ambassador Brickovskiene for giving us this opportunity to join you today. We thank you for your hospitality and for bringing members of the Lithuanian community in Ireland together here at your residence for this function.
Irish people, myself included, are acutely aware of the great economic and social contribution being made by migrant communities to our country’s well-being. We now have a truly multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society on our island. In recognition of this, I am having a series of informal meetings with representatives of many of the different nations who have made Ireland their homes in recent times and I am here today to record our sincere appreciation for the constructive role being played by the members of the Lithuanian community in Ireland.
It is fair to say that, until recent times, the Irish and the Lithuanians did not know that much about each other. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, there was a sizeable Lithuanian Jewish community in Ireland. Indeed, Robert Briscoe, who was a well-loved Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1956-57 and 1961-62, was the son of Lithuanian immigrants to Ireland and his family have long continued that duty of public service.
There are also some strong parallels in our respective histories. We have both been accustomed to living in the shadow of a large and powerful neighbour. We each have strong and enduring national traditions in music and dance. We both have a unique national language which we cherish.
Happily, relations between Ireland and Lithuania have flourished since your country regained its independence in 1991. I remember with fondness the State Visit to Ireland by President Adamkus in September of 2001. The President’s own story of growing up in independent Lithuania and then fleeing Communist tyranny to exile in Germany and later the United States was a compelling personal narrative. Like so many emigrants to America from both our countries, he started out in a modest occupation, in his case as a car assembly worker in post-war Chicago. He rose to become Head of the US Environmental Protection Agency and returned to a free Lithuania to be elected to the highest office in the land on two occasions.
The President’s story is an example of how emigration can become a positive experience for the individual and the wider community. Tens of thousands of Lithuanians have come to Ireland in recent years. We are delighted to have you here and benefit from your presence in our midst. Many will, I realise, go back to Lithuania enriched by the time spent in Ireland just as we in Ireland are enriched by your presence here. If our experience is anything to go by, returning migrants will play a vital part in developing your own country as it seeks to reap the full advantages of EU membership. We know from our own experience that those who return bring with them varied and valued skills that can greatly benefit a growing economy.
We are confident too that some Lithuanian citizens will stay here in Ireland and create a vibrant and strong Irish-Lithuanian community. It is encouraging to see that the Lithuanian community is making sure that its children growing up in Ireland have the opportunity, as far as is possible, to continue to learn your own language and traditions. Modern communications also mean that Lithuanians living in Ireland have advantages that previous generations of emigrants, from both Ireland and Lithuania, never dreamed of. Ours is a generation that can remain in regular contact with home and can equally enjoy the opportunity to return without prohibitive cost. We witnessed another example of the growing relationship between our two countries when last Sunday, Lithuanian citizens living here had the opportunity to complete the Census 2006 forms with the help of instructions in your native language. That in itself is an indication that, in a very short time, your community has become a key part of Irish society and that the Government recognise your importance as a group.
We witness too the strong trading and business links that are developing. Direct flights between Ireland and Lithuania have been a great success. I am told that Ireland is now the fourth most important destination for air traffic from Lithuania. There is too a small but vibrant Irish business community in your country, taking advantage of the significant potential that Lithuania has to offer. This flow of people back and forth, taking with them their knowledge and their ideas, their talent and experience, can only serve to strengthen our relations into the future.
On Monday next, Lithuania will celebrate two years membership of the European Union. Ireland was proud to host the Day of Welcomes in Dublin on the First of May 2004. Together with the Taoiseach, I had the pleasure of greeting the Heads of State and Government of the enlarged Union, including Prime Minister Brazauskas. It was a day on which all Europeans can look back with great pride and satisfaction.
We in Ireland benefited from being part of the first European enlargement in 1973 and are conscious of how valuable European Union membership has been for us in helping to transform our country. Our hope is that Lithuania too will benefit greatly from membership. Here our own experience of emigration helped shape our decision to become one of only three EU Member States to allow citizens from the new Member States to work here without restrictions from May 2004. We believe that this has been the right decision for Ireland and for our new partners in Europe. We welcome the fact that a number of other Member States have recently announced that they will now open their labour markets in similar fashion.
Given our close friendship within the European Union, it is fitting that Irish and Lithuanian delegates are now seated next to each other at all EU meetings. Indeed, when Lithuania holds the Presidency of the Union for the first time in 2013, it will do so immediately after Ireland. This will involve our Governments working very closely together on European issues.
I hope that those of you who have come to Ireland recently have found a warm welcome here. I know that very regrettably there have been a number of tragic motor accidents in which young Lithuanians and other newcomers to Ireland have lost their lives. Local Irish communities have in many cases generously helped friends and families of the deceased and injured. I sincerely hope that this has been of some comfort to those so tragically affected.
Whatever the future holds for you, I hope that your experience of today’s Ireland will be a positive one. Remember also to tell us about Lithuania, its culture and traditions, its history and achievements. Our daily contact with Lithuanians gives us a precious opportunity to learn more about your fascinating country.
The ever closer union between the peoples of Europe, to which the architects of the European Union aspired a half a century ago, is being furthered every day in the towns and villages of Ireland as the Irish and the Lithuanians mix and mingle not as strangers but as fellow Europeans. These everyday encounters, and the many benefits they bring, are worth cherishing and celebrating. They are the building blocks of a new future for Ireland, Lithuania and Europe.
Ambassador, friends, I thank you for everything you do to enrich life in Ireland and I wish you and your families every success and happiness now and in the future.
Go raibh maith agaibh.
Thank you.
Aciu labia.