REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE WESTCOURT HOTEL, DROGHEDA WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 1998
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE WESTCOURT HOTEL, DROGHEDA WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 1998
I would like to thank you for the very warm welcome to Drogheda this afternoon - and I would like especially to thank Tommy Burns, the Chair of the St. Oliver Plunkett Committee, for inviting me to join with you at St. Oliver’s Shrine for the Service of Peace.
Throughout Ireland there is an overwhelming desire for peace – a desire that is being expressed by many through their prayers and in their actions – and one which is bringing us so much hope for a lasting peace - where there is respect for the different traditions and creeds that make up this island – and where diversity is a cause for celebration rather than a source of the division and strife that has brought so much misery to so many generations.
The significance of St. Oliver Plunkett in our prayers today is not just in his association with Drogheda, but in his own involvement in that same conflict – albeit at the other end of its history, in the aftermath of the Cromwellian years, at a time when there was much strife and conflict between “Planter” and “Gael”. Oliver’s status as a saint today is a reflection of the esteem in which he was held by all religions – for his readiness to reach out to others in the pursuit of understanding – and for his role as a broker of peace.
Oliver lived in turbulent times – within Ireland and within his own Church. In addressing both, he worked tirelessly and travelled widely within Ireland. In his dealings with the Raparees he reached a settlement which has distant echoes of the Good Friday Agreement of this year in the inclusion of a provisions for the treatment of prisoners. Some say that St. Oliver’s influence as a peace-maker in Ireland is reflected in the fact that the truce which ended the War of Independence in 1921 came into force on his feastday – 1stJuly – which is also the date of the first meeting of the new Northern Ireland Assembly this year.
Whether or not it is just coincidence, his role as a broker of peace – as a builder of bridges between communities and traditions - more than qualifies him as a symbol and patron of the process of reconciliation that we are engaging in today in Ireland. Through such initiatives as the Drogheda Ecumenical Peace Group – which has so far organised two very successful services for peace – you are continuing in his mission in an era of new hope and new horizons.
Ireland today is a vastly different place to what it was three hundred years ago – and the world is a vastly different place. The march of civilisation has brought much conflict and suffering – which sadly is still with us in many countries. Our mission in Ireland is to bring about a resolution of age-old conflict and division – a process, which for some, will not be easy. But we can all look to our faith and our ethos for the guidance and strength to take the right path – and to go the extra distance to meet those whom we need to know and understand if we are to live side by side.
Much has been achieved in recent years – but we are all very aware that so much remains to be done to bring the process to full bloom. Our example in bringing communities together can and will be followed by others – and as Christians, you are setting a fine example here in Drogheda – the town of St. Oliver Plunkett.