REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT RETURN HOSPITALITY/IRISH COMMUNITY RECEPTION OSLO
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT RETURN HOSPITALITY/IRISH COMMUNITY RECEPTION OSLO WEDNESDAY, 15TH OCTOBER, 2008
Your Majesties, Ministers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen. Friends of Ireland.
Martin og jeg er veldig glade for å være her i kveld. Det er hyggelig at så mange kunne komme.
As our visit to Oslo draws to a close, Martin and I wish to convey our heartfelt gratitude for the immensely generous hospitality shown to us by your Majesties, King Harald and Queen Sonja, by the President of the Storting Torbjørn Jagland your Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, the University of Oslo, the National Library and the
Nobel Peace Institute. To all of you without exception and to all of the officials who have assisted you, our heartfelt thanks.
I also wish to thank my fellow Irishmen and women who have come here to share in this first ever Irish State Visit to Norway. We Irish are a truly wandering people. There is no corner of the earth, it seems, where a group or a community of Irish people cannot be found. It must be the Viking blood in us for hardly by coincidence the Norwegians are the same. Here this evening mná, cailíní agus fir na hÉireann are well represented and I understand that the St. Patrick’s Day Committees, the Norsk Gaeltacht and the Bergen Irish are represented. I am glad to see too that many adopted Irish, including the Norwegian alumni of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, are also present. More have made their careers and homes here in Norway. You know of course that the Irish, and particularly, Irish women, blazed the trail to Norway a millennium ago. The Irish are credited with having introduced Christianity to Norway which was arguably a better deal than the accurate weighing scales which the Vikings introduced to Ireland to the lasting horror of most weight conscious women.
The Irish Constitution was amended in recent years to assert that the Irish nation consists of all the citizens of Ireland and that it “cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad”. That deep sense of kinship is strong wherever the Irish gather in the world and they are without a doubt our prime and best ambassadors for it is our family abroad who open up Ireland, its character, its values, its culture and its story to the four corners of the earth. Our Irish family in Norway have made us immensely proud for they represent all that is best in us and their Norwegian-Irish children are the fortunate inheritors of two great cultures, long intertwined.
Both Ireland and Norway know the hardship involved in wandering. In ancient times the sea was the highway between Norway and Ireland though in the eighth century the sight of a Viking ship would not have made Irish eyes smile. Centuries later, ships would take both our peoples across the sea to the New World in search of better lives. One such ship left Norway exactly 140 years ago, the Hannah Parr carrying 400 passengers mostly from Hedemark and Oppland . They battled through a horrendous storm and limped into the great Viking city of Limerick on Ireland’s south west coast where it is recorded they were made welcome and comfortable after their awful ordeal. Two of their little children died and were buried there. Last month a memorial garden was opened in Limerick to commemorate them. Embedded in the Irish nature and in the Norwegian is a care for one another and a compassion for those in need which is showcased in the way both our nations outreach to the poor of the world and take responsibility for peace keeping with the United Nations in trouble spots all over the world. Norway’s practical commitment to the less fortunate of the world is utterly exemplary and it sets a bar for the rest of us to follow.
Tomorrow Martin and I will travel to the ancient capital of Norway, Trondheim, a place that has had much contact by sea with Ireland in olden and in modern times. It is in this part of Norway that the memory of St. Sunniva is held dear. Legend has it that she was an Irish princess who fled to Norway to escape the attentions of an over ardent pagan suitor. It was not the best choice as it turned out for she came to a tragic end in Norway but her intact remains were found by King Olaf Tryggvason and one of the earliest dioceses of Norway was erected at the place. St. Sunniva is now patron of Western Norway. We have not as yet identified an Irish patron for Southern Norway but given the volume of tourists between Norway and Ireland these days it shouldn’t be long before a suitable candidate emerges though hopefully one with a happier romantic life and outcome than poor Sunniva!
Today our Irish family and friends and business partners in Norway travel by plane or use that great bridge that is the internet or the phone. It has never been easier for us to communicate as individuals and as states. But it is still personal contact that makes the difference and cements the friendship. The handshake, the smile, the chat, the shared meal are the most potent pathways to enduring friendship. That is why I am so happy to be able to visit Norway so soon after Their Majesties visited Ireland and so appreciative of the gracious presence of Their Majesties here this evening. I am glad to say we will not be fleeing from the Vikings but leaving very reluctantly a place where we were made to feel so much at home and a place from which we take many happy memories.
Gurb fada buan sibh ‘s go raibh míle, míle maith agaibh.