REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION AT ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN, THURSDAY, 12th FEBRUARY, 2004
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION AT ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN, THURSDAY, 12th FEBRUARY, 2004
Is cúis mhór áthais dom fáilte a chur romhaibh go léir chuig Áras an Uachtaráin inniu.
Martin and I are delighted to welcome you all here to Aras an Uachtarain today.
We hope that you are all in good form, relaxed – well you should be as you are relatively unencumbered this afternoon – we took pity on you and put an exclusion order into the protocol for today’s event – adults only! Hopefully that ensures you will get the maximum benefit from this brief respite. The rest as they say is up to you.
It’s a nice time of year, isn’t it? The promise of Spring, evenings getting that little bit longer and better again January, that dismal, dank and often dreary month firmly dispatched. February is also the month in which so many solemn, and earnestly made new year’s resolutions are no more – firmly consigned to far-back places in our subconscious to be resurrected and dusted down again next year.
And there’s proof that February sees this – apparently there’s more chocolate sold on 1st February than any other day in the calendar. And then there’s the exercise regime at the gym – new memberships, renewed memberships whose likely level of use thereafter will result in cost per workout session roughly equating to the price of a month in the Bahamas, and still we do it. And yet we with tortured tendons and sore sinews have to tolerate the enlightened looks from those whose only interaction with routine exercise is through the sports pages of the morning paper or as Louis MacNeice put it:
“as those who are not athletic at breakfast day by day
employ and enjoy the sinews of others vicariously”.
The rights and wrongs of it all, I’ll leave you to judge for yourselves. I’m married to a fitness fanatic – maybe fanatic is too strong a word, but early on in our ‘walking out days’ it became abundantly clear that if it was a choice between me and a ten-mile road race - enjoy the solitude!
Anyway, whatever about other resolutions, I hope that you will resolve to take some time this afternoon to explore this wonderful house which has witnessed and tells something of the story of the changing fortunes of this island through the centuries. It was built as a modest hunting lodge in the mid 18th century - it was much smaller then but was added to over the years. It became the home of the Viceroys some twenty years later when it was bought by the British Government and remained so for the next one hundred and fifty years. Following Independence it served as the residence of the Governors General and since 1938 the official residence of all eight Presidents of Ireland. It has many treasures and an impressive visitor centre downstairs which you should feel free to explore a little later.
In this house we have been blessed by many visitors who in the past would have found it impossible to contemplate coming here because of history, politics or religion or all three. But they took a chance, they wanted to be part of the new mood of optimism that depends on stranger making friends with strangers and we have been rewarded by the blossoming of rich new friendships with people whom we otherwise might never have known. The future for all the people of this island is brighter because old hatreds and intolerance are been replaced with respect and understanding and above all else a desire for peace that has gained such momentum that we know there is no way back – it is unconscionable that we revisit those darker days. We can only move forward. Not everyone has joined the journey to a better future yet but we pray that even the most doubting and frightened may begin to believe that friendship takes nothing from us but strengthens us against life’s ups and downs and gives us hope. We have come a long way and I am confident that this year will prove to be the best yet.
This year promises not only to be a good one for Ireland but also for all of Europe.
On 1st May, we will be privileged to host The Day of Welcomes as we celebrate the ten new member states return to the European family. And so as we now see new and exciting possibilities unfold for this island, north and south as we consolidate this new and respectful future, we also see new and exciting opportunities unfold for all the people on this island and indeed all Europeans in this new expanded Europe we welcome. We are in a good place right now with the promise of even better things to come. We hope that the building of this healed Europe, at peace with itself, will provide a renewed hope and a fresh resolve to find solutions for what is very much a broken world.
My thanks to you all for taking time from your busy schedules to come here today.
Most of the people here will be strangers to you right now – I hope that that will have changed by the time you leave, as the easiest bridge to build is to extend a hand in friendship to someone else.
I would like to thank our wonderfully talented entertainers today, string quartet Teadaí and harpist – Mary Kelly. I would also like to thank our MC, Eugene Downes, our friends from Civil Defence and the staff here at the Áras who have worked hard to make today special for everyone.
Go maire sibh. Go raibh maith agaibh.