REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT A RECEPTION FOR THE IRISH COMMUNITY AT THE CONSULATE GENERAL OF IRL
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT A RECEPTION FOR THE IRISH COMMUNITY AT THE CONSULATE GENERAL OF IRELAND, NEW YORK
Tá an-áthas orm a bheith anseo libh tráthnóna sa chathair “Ghaelach” seo cois Hudson. Is brea liom féin agus m’fhear céile Martin cuairt a thabhairt ar an Úll Mór agus blaiseadh arís dá bheocht agus dá anam. Dear friends it is a delight to be back in a city which has such a distinctly Irish feel and yet is home to the peoples of the world. That fusion of cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity makes this one of the world’s most exciting places to visit but yet for the Irish it never loses the indelible mark they have made here and keep on making here generation after generation.
The story of the Irish in New York spans many different Irelands, many different New Yorks, times of hope and times of heartache through which we became something far beyond friends to one another. My own schedule today says something about the complexity and the sophistication of our relationship. It took me to the New York Stock Exchange and a room filled with investors – those from Ireland who are investing in America and those from the US who are investing in Ireland. Our focus was on the future and how we could deliver jobs and prosperity to our people on both sides of the Atlantic through and despite these tough economic times.
Then I got a lesson in the history of tough economic times, for on this day which marks Ireland’s National Day of Commemoration of the Famine, I met children at PS 197 who have been studying the Great Irish Hunger. For them it is not simply an epic part of Irish history but a seminal part of American history through which Ireland and the United States developed a network of mutuality so strong that when it came to breaking free of the sectarian and political violence which had dogged Ireland for centuries, it was our friends in the United States who helped us to create a fair and lasting peace.
That same network unites us in our endeavours to solve the problems that beset our world. This afternoon I spoke at the opening of a seminar, here in the Consulate, on how Ireland and its international partners are addressing food security challenges around the world today. Those great NGOs Concern and Self Help Africa deserve huge credit for highlighting these issues and I strongly recommend going upstairs to visit the Lender Family Special Collection of rare art and literature portraying the tragedy and suffering of Ireland’s Great Famine. The generosity of Quinnipiac University in lending the collection is deeply appreciated and for anyone with a hint of Irish blood, it is a bridge back into the history that shaped us.
We are enormously proud of what our global Irish family has achieved here, where the Irish and Irish-Americans play such a significant role in the culture, economic and social life of this great city and its hinterland. In every decade, the migration trail brought a different mix of Irish men, women and children. Some came because they wanted to, others because they had to. Many prospered, some did not. The vast majority entered the mainstream, others still live in the shadowlands of the undocumented hoping for a resolution of their plight. Many sent hard-earned money back home to a poor Ireland and many more have lived to see their native land, or that of their emigrant ancestors, become, with their help, a peaceful, sophisticated and progressive nation at the heart of Europe but also with a big place in its heart for America.
No-one knows more about having a heart big enough for two homelands than our emigrants and especially our older emigrants. I met some of them today and was delighted to see the work being done by the volunteers from Senior Connect – an initiative that is a bulwark against isolation and social exclusion among the elderly. The idea for Senior Connect came from a similar programme called the Senior Help Line in Ireland where it has spread all over the country from modest beginnings in Summerhill in County Meath. So here is a great example of our global Irish family, with their shared culture of volunteering and outreaching to those in need, working together on both sides of the Atlantic to keep the Irish individually and collectively, strong and cohesive.
On Sunday I look forward not only to officially commemorating An Gorta Mór at the Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park City where I am sure I will see many of you again, but also to restoring to memory a forgotten story from those dreadful times in Ireland. I will be visiting Congregation Shearith Israel to celebrate an extraordinary link between the Irish and Jewish communities created when the Jewish community in New York in 1847, reached across the Atlantic in mercy, generosity and compassion to donate funds to ease the suffering of the millions of Irish suffering from starvation.
As I mentioned earlier, we have been beneficiaries of that transatlantic solidarity in many ways not least the building of peace in Northern Ireland. Three years ago, when I last visited New York, the power-sharing institutions in Northern Ireland under the joint leadership of Dr. Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness had just been re-established. Three years later, partnership politics are working with a reassuring robustness consolidated and strengthened through the recent transfer of policing and justice powers from Westminster to Stormont. The outcome of this month’s Westminster elections was a real vindication of those who offered a positive vision of partnership and a rejection of those who espoused division and continued sectarian conflict. Our friends here in New York and throughout the United States have had a powerful impact on today’s peace and it is my hope that your investment in us will be rewarded by the onward advance of the benign forces of reconciliation so that Ireland’s best and fullest potential can be revealed and soon to a new generation.
We work as you do towards a solid, sustainable prosperity free from the dreadful instability which has brought so much worry into so many homes both here and in Ireland and elsewhere. Coming here and reflecting on the many Irelands you have kept faith with over the generations, I know that working together we can overcome today’s troubles because that is what we do best. Thank you for the love of Ireland which you retain in your hearts and which you continue to express in words and deeds.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh agus guím gach rath ar gach duine idir óg agus aosta. Slán agus beannacht.