REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT DINNER HOSTED IN HONOUR OF PRESIDENT FISCHER, RESTAURANT GUTH
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT DINNER HOSTED IN HONOUR OF PRESIDENT FISCHER, RESTAURANT GUTH, WEDNESDAY, 19 JULY, 2006
Es ist mir eine grosse Freude, Sie heute abend hier begrüssen zu dürfen.
It is my great pleasure to welcome you here this evening.
President Fischer, Mrs. Fischer, Governor and Mrs. Sausgruber, Mayor Linhart, Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen.
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the last official event on my State visit to Austria. I am particularly pleased to have this opportunity to repay to President Fischer and Margit some of the very gracious hospitality which Martin and I have enjoyed in such abundance over the past two days.
I am also delighted to recognise many other faces from our short visit to Bregenz and to welcome also members of the small Irish community in Vorarlberg.
President Fischer,
My sincere thanks to you for the invitation to Martin and myself to make this State visit to your exquisitely beautiful country. We have come here on private holidays many times and in all seasons, drawn by the beauty of place and the kindness of its people. On this visit we have seen again your uniquely beautiful capital, Vienna – a city we have come to know well but could never tire of. It has been a great joy to get to know a part of Austria we had not seen before and to see it at its cultural, its artistic best. Governor Sausgruber, Mayor Linhart, and all those in Vorarlberg and Bregenz who have been involved in the planning for this year’s Festival (Festspiele), you are to be congratulated on this exciting musical showcase. The official opening ceremony earlier today was a truly memorable event and with the recent renovation and extension of the Festival Hall (Festspielhaus), Bregenz can look forward to many more wonderful festival memories. I am just sorry that I won’t be staying long enough to enjoy the opening night tomorrow of ‘Der Troubadour’ on the outdoor stage!
Austria has only recently relinquished its major role on the European stage with the completion of a highly successful Presidency of the Union. There were difficult problems to be faced and faced they were, effectively and imaginatively, proving once again the considerable influence small countries can achieve in the affairs of the European Union.
In the magnificent surrounds of the Hofburg Palace I discussed with President Fischer - no stranger to Ireland himself - the dynamic bilateral relationship between Austria and Ireland, which encompasses the political, economic, cultural and many other fields.
Membership of the Union has profoundly altered Ireland. We have come to see ourselves very differently. The blight of post-colonial malaise has given way to a culturally confident nation, a booming, entrepreneurial economy and an end to the centuries old tide of emigration. We are the beneficiaries of a profound recalibration of our historically fraught relationship with Great Britain. That has now matured into a close and friendly partnership, best exemplified by the joint efforts of Westminster and Dublin Governments to bring about a lasting peace settlement in Northern Ireland.
Austria understands aspects of our journey, for you too have emerged from the shadow of a larger neighbour. Your solid economy and social stability bear witness to the skill and foresight of Austrian politicians and business leaders over recent decades. From the great city of Vienna to your provinces and smaller towns like Vorarlberg and Bregenz, the vibrancy and self-confidence is tangible.
In Ireland too, we are experiencing a flood of exceptional talent in every area of the arts, both traditional and contemporary and excelling at both national and international level. We have a sample of that talent for you tonight for we are accompanied by two of Ireland’s most talented harpists, Denise McDonnell-Kelly and Jean Kelly and I know you are going to enjoy listening to them later.
Today's renaissance in Irish arts echoes much earlier golden periods when Irish pilgrims, missionaries and scholars travelled to continental Europe, bringing with them the gift of their learning and wisdom. And Brigantium - the modern-day Bregenz - was one of the areas in which they settled. Two important figures from my own northern part of Ireland, Saint Columbanus and Saint Gall, played a significant role in bringing the Christian faith to the people of this region and it was a privilege to visit the beautiful baroque church of St. Gall, on the site of an earlier church founded by St. Gall himself. Through our guide, Father Anton Bereuter, I now know just how tough those saints found life here but they would I am sure be vindicated to know of the twinning of Bangor in Northern Ireland with Bregenz in 1987, for both Columbanus and Gall were students at a monastery in Bangor, Co. Down founded way back in 555. As it happens Bangor is a town I know very well, being very close to where I was born and raised. I am glad of this opportunity to get to know its twin.
The tradition of an Irish presence in Vorarlberg region continues to this day and I am delighted to welcome tonight a number of fellow Irishmen and Irishwomen for whom this is home. You bring the name and character of Ireland into everyday life here, each one of you a living bridge between two old friends, Ireland and Austria who share a love of tradition, a love of music and the arts, a love of life itself and an ambition to make our countries the best they can be, to give all our people the best lives possible. To each of you I wish every success and happiness.
Darf ich nun die Gäste bitten, das Glas auf die Gesundheit und das Wohlbefinden des Bundespräsidenten und Frau Fischer und die Österreichische Bevölkerung zu erheben.
May I now ask our guests to raise their glasses to the health and prosperity of the Federal President and Mrs Fischer and of the people of Austria.
Nochmals herzlichen Dank für Ihr kommen.
Once again, thank you very much for coming.