REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE ANNUAL CHARTER DAY DINNER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE ANNUAL CHARTER DAY DINNER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS IN IRELAND
Dia dhíbh a chaired, my thanks for your welcome and for President Professor Frank Keane’s invitation to this Annual Charter Day Celebration which has the added distinction of celebrating the 200th Anniversary of the College’s move to St. Stephen’s Green and the 225th Anniversary of the College’s foundation. I take pride in these events and what they signify both as President and as an Honorary Fellow of the College. Those of us who were privileged to attend the opening of the stunning new College in Bahrain probably have some idea of the sheer pride, hope and confidence felt by those who attended the opening of the St. Stephen’s Green building some 200 years ago. We also have the privilege of knowing how things turned out in the intervening two centuries and how this College withstood colonisation, wars, risings, occupations and students to take its place as a sparkling jewel in Ireland’s educational crown. There are chapters in its history occupied by legendary medical names like Arthur Jacob, Sir William Wilde and Robert McDonnell. There are rooms in its history once occupied by legendary political names like Countess Markievicz. But the name of the Royal College of Surgeons, St Stephens Green occupies a unique place in many hearts from Dublin to the furthest reaches of the globe for it has been the home of professional formation for men and women from many continents and cultures, a singular meeting place of the nations and a formidable ambassadorship for Ireland and Irish professional education.
The move from Mercer Street around the corner 200 years ago was not very far but it heralded the moving into a higher gear of the education of surgeons. In every year since then the pace of development has gathered an unstoppable momentum fuelled by scholarship, research, restless intellectual curiosity and a commitment to the highest standards of teaching, professional formation with careful patient care at its core. When we look at Jedward today, there may be some doubt whether your erstwhile colleagues in the hairdressing profession can claim the same level of development.
Today the College’s devotion to surgery and undergraduate medicine is augmented by its courses in pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Nursing and Healthcare Management, its Postgraduate Studies and its progressive Research Institute, which has made itself one of Ireland’s foremost centres of scholarly investigation. The College was of course progressive long before now. Back in 1885 it became the first medical school to allow women to enter and later on in this special year the inevitable follow-up to that decision of 125 years ago will come to fruition when current Vice President, Eilish McGovern, becomes the first female and 168th President of the College. She will preside over a globalised not for profit medical education enterprise with first-class campuses in Dublin, Bahrain and Penang; a multi-cultural student, alumni and staff community linked by bonds of affection to this part of Dublin and to an alma mater without peer: the RCSI.
The RCSI has for over two centuries shown an adaptability to change which has kept it at the forefront of medical education and practice. That simple reality belies the sheer complexity of your everyday working environment, the rapid pace of change in the health sector, the massive surge in public expectations and the array of conflicting pressures that come from global and national economic and demographic issues. If at times we are tempted to focus only on the chapter that is written by our generation and to imagine that no other suffered our frustrations and persecutions, we would do well on an anniversary like this to remember those who dug the wells that we now drink from and to contemplate that today’s students will in under twenty five years time be planning the 250th anniversary of that Charter of King George 111. Who knows what kind of Ireland it will be - shaped as it will be by the first generation to know the benefits of peace and the good neighbourly partnership that is just now pushing up the first of its green (and orange) shoots, the first generation to have known the giddy, even brash, confidence of the Celtic Tiger and the chastened wisdom of the recession. One way or another, whatever comes or goes we will need not just the comfort and reassurance of this enduring iconic building but the comfort and reassurance of this College’s continued pursuit of the very best in medical education, training and research. Keep doing that as you have this 200 and more years and you are guaranteed many more landmark days of righteous and deserved celebration.
In a world of investments that failed to pay dividends, the investment in people made in this building over 200 years has paid huge dividends that could never ever be fully articulated. Yes you can count the number of graduates, of research papers and discoveries and that will be a formidable set of statistics in its own right but how could we ever hope to do justice to the incalculable good that has come from the global relationships and reputations which put Ireland on the map as a centre of medical education excellence. That was the work of your hands and your hearts and it stems from a baton of care handed carefully from one generation to the next from Charter to Mercer Street, from Mercer Street to St Stephens Green and to every corner of the world where the men and women of RCSI do the work that bears your indelible imprint.
Ireland owes you well over two centuries of thanks, for the care you have taken of our health, our medical education and this beautiful evocative building. I am delighted to be able to offer that thanks and to wish you 200 more happy and productive and successful years in this fine home.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.