Remarks by President McAleese at a reception in Áras an Uachtaráin for Educators North and South
Remarks by President McAleese at a reception in Áras an Uachtaráin for Educators North and South Thursday 2nd March, 2000
Is cúis mhór dom fáilte a chur romhaibh go léir chuig Áras an Uachtaráin.
Firstly let me say how delighted I am to welcome each and every one of you to Áras. I wanted to offer this little bit of hospitality to you all to honour the contribution you make on a daily basis as educators all over this island. I want you to relax and enjoy yourselves and our wonderful musicians will certainly help us do that – Hazel Tuohy who played the harp so beautifully in the entrance hall and our friends here in the State Reception Room Louise Dennehy on flute, Ciara Moroney on piano and Hugh McCarthy on cello.
Part of the reason for bringing you all together from North and South, as well as East and West, is that similar problems and challenges face those involved in education everywhere. That is why there is particular truth for educators in that old Irish saying ‘Ní neart go cur le chéile’: there is strength in unity. We have much to learn from each other – in relation to the common problems we face and the various solutions and strategies that have been tried out, not just on this island, but right across Europe.
These days, there is evidence all around us that our young people are taking on the world and they are succeeding in every field of endeavour. But while we celebrate our success stories we must not forget that there are many others not yet achieving their potential, so many starving for want of opportunity. This is a fast moving society. If you are stuck and going nowhere, those who are moving disappear from view very rapidly. We cannot allow that to continue. We now have the means – we must match it with our will and determination.
In the century just past, society in Ireland has seen profound changes. This part of Ireland has gone from a fledgling state to a modern prosperous democracy, participating fully in a new Europe, with a highly skilled population ready to take on the very best. Northern Ireland has faced turbulence and conflict yet remarkably has managed to keep its head economically and educationally and sits poised to capitalise on the benefits of the Peace Process. You and your predecessors deserve much credit for the prosperity of today because central to our metamorphosis has been the education system, and the educational institutions. We learned that opening up access to education, far from diluting its value, liberated a wealth of talent. The impact is described brilliantly by Seamus Heaney in his poem ‘From the Canton of Expectation’ – the ‘books open in the newly wired kitchen’ and the ‘Young heads that might have dozed a life away… paving and pencilling their first causeways across the prescribed texts’ – their ‘intelligences brightened and unmannerly as crowbars’.
That generation transformed their fortunes and the fortunes of this island. Through them, and many of us are those people, we clearly saw how every human being is a repository of part of the national talent grid, the national knowledge equity, whatever nation claims his or her allegiance and failure to unlock that potential is profoundly wasteful both to the human being, his or her family, community and country.
We have the wisdom and the resources to make this the last generation which tells too many stories of neglect and squandered potential, of high levels of illiteracy in those who have been to school, of the tragedy of early school leaving which leads straight back to the margins. If education is about leading out, one of its most crucial tests has to be can it bridge the gap from the margins to the centre.
Education has a central part to play in the development not just of both well-rounded individuals but of healthy communities. North and South many of those involved in the world of education have been champions of cross-community and cross-border relationships, advocates of respect for diversity and creators of opportunity for people to bridge historic divides. You have kept at that important work of seed-bedding a new future, through difficult times when there was little support and no shortage of cynics. Today’s Peace Process which is deeply and profoundly owned by the people, and which will please God flourish, despite the log-jams it hits from time to time, is in part-ownership of our educators. You are respected and looked to for leadership, particularly at times of doubt and blame and despair. I want to thank you for your fidelity to building and keeping on building simple friendships during these difficult times. Our education systems have a crucial role in teaching people to be comfortable with diversity, to respect it, to be curious about it, to approach it not as a threat, but as a source of enrichment.
And besides these huge tasks we entrust you with the job of preparing the next generation for business, commerce, industry, politics, parenting, the arts, setting the scene for inward investors, giving support to indigenous business, and helping to end social exclusion. If ever a group of people deserved an afternoon off and a glass of wine to go with it, you do. Thank you for all you have done, all you are doing and all you will do to bring fulfilment to each human being, to bring intellectual strength and vision to this island and to secure a future we can all take pride in.
I want to encourage you to keep at your tasks, to keep believing in your vocation as educators. I hope you bring away with you pleasant memories of today – re-charge your batteries, meet with old friends and contacts and perhaps make a few new ones.
Go méadaí Dia bhur stór. Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.