REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION FOR REPRESENTATIVES OF THE N. IRELAND FARMING COMMUNITY
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION FOR REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NORTHERN IRELAND FARMING COMMUNITY ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN
Céad Míle Fáilte rómhaibh go léir chuig Áras an Uachtaráin inniu.
Good afternoon, everybody.
Both Martin and I are delighted to offer you the traditional céad mile fáilte to Áras an Uachtaráin. A very special thank you to all those who organised this day – especially Minister Mary Coughlan, Councillor Burgess, An Bord Bia and officials from the Department of Agriculture and Food.
We are delighted to have you with us here today so that we can show our appreciation of the agricultural community and especially for the crucial function you fill in preserving the natural balance of the small island home we all share. The farming community is the backbone not just of rural life but it is the custodian of our landscapes and the guardian of our food chain at its source. Your work and livelihoods are vulnerable to the vagaries of weather and of capricious disease as we saw with Foot and Mouth and now with Avian flu.
There is a strong argument for joint planning and for working together in order to keep such threats at bay and to maximise the potential of this industry across these islands. Farming communities have a long tradition of good neighbourliness. It is an essential part of the farming culture. I know because like so many city folk my grandparents were small farmers and the sheep farm my mother was raised on, at the summit of Slieve Croob, is still being farmed and still in the family. Like so many city kids, the family farms are where we spent our holidays. I still remember my paternal grandfather refusing to install electricity because, as a subsistence farmer, he was fearful of not being able to find the cash to pay the bills!
He would barely recognise his native county of Roscommon today – nor would he recognise the world of the farmer with technical sophistication, the Common Agricultural Policy the creeping urbanisation, the industries and rows of houses growing in fields where there were once rushes. This complex, fast changing environment is your world, and yours to deal with its ups and its downs. I hope that as the peace beds down in Northern Ireland, and people turn to the bread and butter issues that beset them, we will find many opportunities to meet, talk, discuss, swap ideas and experiences and to grow the good neighbourliness and the partnerships which can give us and our children good, fulfilling lives, on and off the farms.
Like strands in a rope, the people who share this island have shaped and been shaped by each other. This house holds the stories of all sides, all perspectives from the days when it was home to the Viceroys to today when it is home of the Presidents. It is an appropriate place for the diverse traditions and cultures of this island to gather in celebration of the contribution each makes to civil life and in the hope of building the friendships which secure peace and help prosperity.
We hope that today will be a day of happy memory for you all, and of the seeding of new networks of friendship and endeavour for the future.
Most of all we hope that you will relax and enjoy yourselves.
I would like to thank the musicians from Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann for entertaining us so beautifully this afternoon. I would also like to thank our friends from Civil Defence and the staff here at the Áras who have worked so hard to make today enjoyable for everyone.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.