REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT A COMMUNITY GARDEN PARTY, ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN TUESDAY 30TH JUNE 2009
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT A COMMUNITY GARDEN PARTY, ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN TUESDAY 30TH JUNE 2009
Dia dhíbh go léir, agus céad míle fáilte chuig Áras an Uachtaráin inniu.
Hello everybody, I’m delighted to see you all here on this fine summer’s afternoon - hasn’t the weather just been glorious? And don’t we truly deserve a spell of good weather after the last two summers! Though in true Irish tradition we perhaps deserve what we get – two or three good days and you hear ‘God wouldn’t the heat kill you – I’m not able for it.’ Don’t tempt fate I say – earlier this month the coldest temperature ever recorded in the Phoenix Park for June occurred, so ‘factor 50’ and enjoy it while it lasts! Martin and I are delighted to offer each one of you the traditional welcome of the house, céad míle fáilte - one hundred thousand welcomes - to Áras an Uachtaráin.
Today it is my privilege to welcome to my home people from all over this Island who have made it their business to become involved with their communities. I have invited you here to express my profound appreciation and thanks for the work that you do, often unnoticed and unsung, but utterly essential work which helps form the invisible threads that bind our communities together and which immeasurably strengthens us as a society.
We have a marvelous gathering of people here with us today - people who get out into your local communities, doing so many undocumented and often unrecognized things that make life better, safer, kinder for all of us. You have devoted much of your own valuable time to improving the lives of others and your work has gone a long way to dismantling the barriers that so often exist between people. You have helped to turn strangers into friends and move us that essential distance from being just individuals, minding our own patch, to being interconnected, caring communities who understand the need to mind each other.
You remind us that we all need to look out for each other, especially in these challenging times, that this is when we have a chance to show our true mettle as a society. It is now a time that our younger people, those who have never known anything but prosperity and progress, will require the steadying hand of experience and wisdom and support that a caring community provides.
So, thank you all for all your goodness, thank you for all the time and effort and care you put into everything you do. This is a special day for you and I hope that you will enjoy this fine afternoon and take this well earned opportunity to relax, unwind and let others look after you for a change! Enjoy the chance to see the Áras, enjoy the food, listen to some great music, catch up with old friends and I hope make a new friend or two before the day is out.
On your behalf and on that of Martin and myself, I would like to thank the wonderful entertainers who have helped to make today so special for all of us. Thanks also to our friends in the Civil Defence, the Gardaí, the Tour Guides and all the staff here at the Áras who have all worked so hard to make today a success.
Martin and I hope you have a great afternoon, and return home safely, bringing with you stories to tell and a store of memories of an enjoyable afternoon at Áras an Uachtaráin.
Gurb fada buan sibh ‘s go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.