REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE BANDON 400 CELEBRATIONS ON SATURDAY 17TH JULY, 2004
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE BANDON 400 CELEBRATIONS ON SATURDAY 17TH JULY, 2004
Dia dhíbh a chairde. Tá an-áthas bheith anseo libh innu ar an ócáid speisialta seo i Droichead na Banndan.
It’s a great pleasure to be here today to join with each of you in your wonderful celebration of the 400th birthday of the town of Bandon. I wonder if an early resident, Henry Beacher, foresaw it all when he got a licence for a Saturday market and two fairs back then from King James I.
It’s especially good to celebrate with friends from Guer, in France, Bristol in England and Bandon, Oregon, in the United States, all places with which Bandon is twinned. I know that each of you will find that 21st century Bandon is a place of warm welcome and a place and a people, well worth the long journey.
Bandon’s own long journey started in the heady, troubled times of the early 17th century. Rebellion was in the air as the culture of the Gael felt the full onslaught of English domination. By the end of that century the great chieftains would all be gone, scattered across Europe, the ancient bardic tradition would be severed and the native Irish had about them an air of defeat so dense that it would take over three centuries for the clouds of despair to lift.
Bandon started life as a showcase of the plantation and of the planter way of life and certainly it has a history of economic achievement which must have been the envy of many other towns for by the early 19th Century, the town enjoyed considerable commercial status with five large breweries and two very large distilleries. A town of substance had grown from those years after the unsuccessful Desmond rebellion and today its character and confidence are still evident in the fine historic and public buildings whose stones have been silent witness to the complex history of our people.
Over the decades and the centuries the people of Bandon have woven the tapestry of community. The barricades of class, ethnicity, politics and religion have been bridged by the relentlessness of time working through the lived lives of generations of neighbours. They faced hard times together and today share the pride of four hundred years of survival, of celebrating a birthday as part of a modern, egalitarian achieving Ireland.
Thanks to the ingenuity and hard work of its citizens, Bandon today offers huge scope to town folk and visitors alike. It has a rich civic life from sporting interests to the spiritual and more than its fair share of anglers’ tall fishy tales. It has its heroes and heroines from George Bennett, who wrote the history of Bandon and founded the town of Bandon, Oregon to the woman who reached the top of the world recently Dr Clare O’Leary, the first Irish woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Her spirit says a lot about the spirit of Bandon itself, a determination and a commitment so evident in these wonderful celebrations and in all the hard work of the Bandon 400 committee. It is after all the men, women and children of Bandon who create and replenish its store of memories, who make it a happy and a welcoming place. And here you will see a caring community at its best, looking out for its children, for the needs of their parents, taking care of the sick and vulnerable, spoiling the elderly as they so richly deserve after all they have invested in our country.
I have also been asked to unveil two new sculptures in Bandon Town today. I’m delighted that it has been decided to mark this anniversary not only by the festivities today and throughout the year but also by something tangible and permanent. Future generations can admire and appreciate these, both as works of art, and as permanent reminders of this Bandon 400 celebration year.
I would like to thank Mayor Murphy-O’Mahony, the members, officials and staff of Bandon Town Council, the Bandon 400 committee and indeed everybody for the warm welcome that has been extended to us today and I hope the next four hundred years will be as peaceful and prosperous for Bandon and its people as you yourselves could wish.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.