REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT HONORARY DEGREE CEREMONY IN TRINITY COLLEGE TUESDAY, 11 APRIL, 2000
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT HONORARY DEGREE CEREMONY IN TRINITY COLLEGE TUESDAY, 11 APRIL, 2000
Pro-Chancellor, Provost, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I feel deeply honoured to be part of this special Commencement ceremony and to share the privilege of accepting an honorary degree with men of such legendary distinction as President Nelson Mandela and Sir James Black.
A considerable part of my own working life was spent (and happily) in this, the renowned doyenne of Irish Universities.
When I came to Trinity in 1975 I came to what was then and is today a thriving and intellectually dynamic School of Law. Among my respected colleagues was one who was to become President of Ireland, United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights and now Chancellor of this University, Dr. Mary Robinson and another, Dr. Kader Asmal, then a tireless campaigner against apartheid and now Minister for Education in the South African Government.
In those two stories alone we get a glimpse of the global reach of this university, for these are only two from a rich reservoir of stories Trinity College has accumulated over four centuries of dedication to humanity through scholarship. Across every field of intellectual discourse and in every corner of the world, Trinity men and women have worked to make a difference. The education they received here, the confidence and self–belief this institution helped to generate in them, helped Ireland and many other lands grow in that vital form of intellectual wealth, the equity that is knowledge. For knowledge itself truly is power and among the most important things we need to know is the remarkable power each individual holds in his or her own hands. Used badly that power can bring untold misery and harm, used well it can bring the light of hope and healing to the world. The biggest tragedy and challenge we face as do so many other peoples across the world is the sheer waste of those lives whose talent and power lie dormant and undiscovered. The loss to the individual is shocking. The loss to family, community, to nation is incalculable. Education plays a crucial role in unlocking our talent base, empowering it, giving it the insight and wisdom to know its worth, the skills to shape and harness it and the values to ensure it is used well.
Ireland of the 21st century, with its economic success and cultural confidence owes an enormous debt to its educators and educational planners. They knew the value of the intellectual resource that was locked up inside each human person. They knew that any country using only part of that resource was destined to realise only part of its potential. We in this generation have been privileged to witness the transformation of our country’s fortunes thanks to the widening of the net of opportunity. We of course have some considerable way still to travel on the road to full social inclusion, some way to go before the talent base we have is truly and fully liberated, just as our globe has a depressingly long way to go before the reverence and respect due to each human person becomes a lived reality.
The scale of the task is sometimes so awesome as to seem overwhelming and yet faith in the possibility of achieving it starts with faith in the self and commitment to the welfare of others. In my two fellow honorary graduates are two people whose lives testify to the astonishing creative energy released by that combination of self-belief and unselfishness. No one has put the destiny of the human person better than Nelson Mandela himself and so I hope he will forgive me for using some of his words, words which are very, very special to me.
“We were born to make manifest the Glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”
In the twenty five years since I first crossed this College’s threshold, Ireland has been transformed and Trinity has played its own critical part in that transformation. Once the ivory tower, associated with one class and one denomination, once identified with Anglo rather than Irish, this College’s seamless absorption of a modern Irish identity, without eschewing its past, its growing outreach to the socially excluded, its celebration of intellectual diversity, its comfortable multiculturalism, all these things have been lights, gently illuminating the pathway to a new future which many others have followed. Today this University is playing its part in switching on the light in all our people.
I am proud to have been associated with this great institution and I deeply appreciate the honour bestowed on me today.
Thank you.