REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT INNISKEEN COMMUNITY CENTRE, CO. MONAGHAN FRIDAY 8TH MAY, 1998
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT INNISKEEN COMMUNITY CENTRE, CO. MONAGHAN FRIDAY 8TH MAY, 1998
Firstly, I’d like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to meet with the members of the Inniskeen Community – and to see the Patrick Kavanagh Centre – a centre which is a great tribute to the people and community of Inniskeen – a tribute to their sense of belief in themselves – and their appreciation for the contribution of one of their own to modern Irish literature.
Earlier today I visited the Farney Community Resource Centre in Carrickmacross – and saw their plans to renovate an old Workhouse for use as a new Centre for the Community. Indeed, like the many other communities which I have visited since my inauguration - the community here at Inniskeen - have equally demonstrated what can be achieved at local level - by people who know their area intimately, and who know best what is needed to address the problems which the community themselves see as priorities.
I want to pay tribute to the Inniskeen Enterprise Development Group for their initiative in drawing together so many local organisations and individuals - into a partnership of like-minded people - with a common focus and a shared mission – and drawing in support from the EU Special Support Fund for Peace and Reconciliation. That process is a progressive process – where experience builds on experience – and where there is a realisation that there is plenty of talent and energy – with strong leadership skill and ability – to transform communities into vibrant and progressive places of which people can be proud.
In establishing the Patrick Kavanagh Centre - the Development Group have seen an opportunity to build on the reputation and renown of their own Patrick Kavanagh - to use his love for his native landscape – its influence on his writings – and to harness the wide universal interest in the poet - for the benefit of the community.
The extension of that concept – by linking up with the Navan Centre at Armagh in the Joint Education Programme – a Programme which explores the literary tradition of South Ulster – from Cú Chulainn to Kavanagh - and the strong influence of land and place on that literature – is a natural progression of the local development initiative. It will serve to increase accessibility to the rich culture and tradition of this region - through the writings of those who has left such a valuable and enduring contribution to the legacy of Irish literature – spanning the history of the ancient province of Oriel to the modern province of Ulster.
Today Ireland is a much changed place form what it was like in Kavanagh’s time. While his writings in many ways reflected the struggles of a rural community – toiling in an industry that had not yet seen the impact of Europe - and the surge of modernisation that radically changed that way of life. That Ireland is captured so well in his poem, “Spraying the Potatoes” –
“And I was there with the knapsack sprayer
On the barrel’s edge poised. A wasp was floating
Dead on a sunken briar leaf
Over a copper-poisoned ocean
The Axle-roll of a rut-locked cart
Broke the burnt stick of noon in two
An old man came through a cornfield
Remembering his youth and some Ruth he knew.”
Today we have an Ireland full of self-confidence – with a rich talent of literary genius – an Ireland that has seen a cultural renaissance - with respect for Irish poets – including Kavanagh himself – both at home and abroad – where the seeds of creativity that were planted by Kavanagh and his contemporaries – have yielded a rich harvest of literary achievement.
Kavanagh’s poem, Shancoduff – the first poem I taught my eldest daughter Emma – her ‘party piece’ for many years! – opens with the lines,
“My black hills have never seen the sun rising,
Eternally they look north towards Armagh.”
Inniskeen is looking north towards Armagh - in linking with the Navan Centre – and the sun of prosperity is rising in the old province of Oriel. In the poem – Patrick Kavanagh remarks on how ‘incurious’ those hills are – today the people are curious about each other – and anxious to grow together in friendship and partnership. You are bringing a new brightness into your community – building new bridges and linkages in a spirit of openness and friendship - which will yield many benefits for this and future generations.