REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION FOR SENIOR CITZENS TO MARK INTERNATIONAL DAY
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION FOR SENIOR CITZENS TO MARK INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE OLDER PERSON
Is cúis mhór áthais dom fáilte a chur romhaibh go léir chuig Áras an Uachtaráin.
Both Martin and I are very happy to have this opportunity to welcome each and every one of you to Áras an Uachtaráin today. We have people from just about everywhere throughout the country with us today and I hope that this get-together will give you all a chance to meet and mingle, swap stories and experiences and, hopefully, build a few new friendships and leave with a store of long-lasting and fond memories.
This is a particularly important day for us all because it is a celebration – just one of many around the country – of the International Day of the Older Person. And you are, each of you a wonderful advertisement for the vitality and fun, energy and creativity of people who while not quite in the first flush of youth have a ‘get up and go’ mentality that would shame many a younger person.
Most of you in this room knew days when there was no Celtic Tiger, and very little of anything else for that matter. You grew up through frugal times, when jobs and money were very scarce, when education was only for the privileged few, when emigration was the only serious option for thousands and when Ireland faced a huge up-hill struggle to bring opportunity and prosperity to her people. It was through your efforts, your sacrifices and your determination that a modern, high-achieving Ireland was created, the first to know low unemployment, widespread opportunity, inward migration and recognition around the world for its cultural and economic success.
A Chinese proverb says that ‘those who drink the water should remember with gratitude those who dug the well’. We do that here today, remembering the debt we all owe you and your generation and remembering too that the decent values you believed in and lived by are an important part of that legacy, unselfishness, neighbourliness, thriftiness and moderation in all things.
Today we face a very different and much more demanding Ireland. We have a lot more in material terms and we waste a lot more. Your wisdom and experience are going to be very important in the dialogue we need to have across the generations about the values, principles, the very morality which will underpin the emerging Ireland successful in so many ways that make us proud but also the site of certain worrying trends which make us uneasy.
In his beautiful novel about the Korean War – entitled “I Am the Clay”, the author Chaim Potok tells the story of an elderly couple, fleeing for their lives across icy mountains. They waken each morning to find the dead bodies of their fellow refugees – dead from cold and hunger. The old handcart they use to help them cross the mountain, to carry their bedding and bits of firewood is essential to their survival. En route they meet a badly injured child and the old woman nurses him back to life against the old man’s better judgment. He is angry because the boy has to be fed and food is scarce. He is weak, has to be carried. But the boy grows strong. The wheel falls off the cart. All three are in danger of dying because they cannot go on to safety without it. The old man knows how to fix it but hasn’t the energy to scavenge for the materials he needs. The young boy has no idea how to fix it but has the strength to gather the materials. Together old man, young boy, they fix the cart – they make it to safety together. On their own, none would have survived but with the wisdom of the old and the strength of the young, a formidable partnership changed all their lives – created new chances, fresh opportunities. Openness to each other, acknowledgment of the need we have for each other, the creation of places and spaces where we can work effectively together, these are crucial to the kind of intergenerational partnerships on which a happy future depends. Our country’s fullest and best potential will reveal itself only when we harness the giftedness, the genius, the energy, the strength, of all our people whatever their age. Enjoy this day which is your special day of thanks and honour.
I would like to say a special thank you to Mary Kelly who played the harp so beautifully in the entrance hall as you arrived together with the talented and aptly named The Jolly Sunbeams for providing us with such wonderful entertainment this afternoon. I would also like to thank our MC Paul Kennedy for doing such a good job at keeping the show on the road, the civil defence members on duty, and of course the staff here at the Aras who have worked very hard to make today enjoyable for everyone.
Go maire sibh go léir. Go raibh maith agaibh.