REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE BENIBRITS ANNUAL CONFERENCE FOR AIESEC CROKE PARK
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE BENIBRITS ANNUAL CONFERENCE FOR AIESEC CROKE PARK MONDAY, 22ND NOVEMBER 1999
Is cúis mhór áthais dom bheith i láthair inniu chun an chomhdháil seo a oscailt go hoifigiúil. Tá mé buíoch díbh go léir as an chuireadh agus as fáilte fíor-chaoin.
It gives me great pleasure to join you here today to officially open the 1999 Benibrits Conference, aptly entitled ‘Exceed your Expectations’. Many thanks for your invitation and warm welcome. I would like to begin by extending a warm Céad Míle Fáilte to all of the overseas delegates who have travelled to be with us on this occasion. I hope that your time in Ireland will be a most informative and enjoyable one. We are delighted to have you here.
A few months ago, the world looked back and celebrated the anniversary of the first space mission to successfully land a man on the moon. Thirty years on, the names of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are as familiar to us as Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo and maybe even St. Brendan. We look back and marvel at the achievement of three decades ago and admire the skill and courage of those who manned Apollo II on that historic mission, an achievement that had once seemed not only impossible but unimaginable.
But someone did imagine it. Back in 1961, John F. Kennedy committed his nation, before the end of the decade, to landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth. Once that vision had been articulated, the task seemed difficult but not impossible. Its achievement was the culmination of thousands of hours of scientific research and study and successful merging of technologies. Its success was also due in no small measure to the harnessing of great minds in pursuit of a common goal, with a shared determination to make it work. Knowledge provided the map that charted the way, but the way would not have been charted without the will.
That voyage was the culmination of centuries of humankind’s love affair with travel, its capacity to broaden the mind, to expand horizons, to discover new worlds. Today, with advances in technology and cheaper transport costs, such opportunities are available to greater numbers than at any time in our history.
In today’s “Information Society” knowledge is at the core of our economic existence and communications technology has made the world an ever-shrinking place. But learning is about more than second-hand knowledge. It is at its most effective when it comes first hand, through experiencing new ideas, meeting new people, encountering new cultures, discovering new ways of looking at the world and about one’s own capacity to shape that world. Nothing can ever truly replace that personal experience, especially in the case of young people whose journey through life is still unmapped. That experience opens up new horizons and directions in a way that can be genuinely life-transforming.
I greatly welcome the role that this organisation, in conjunction with official schemes such as the European Union’s Erasmus Programme, has played down through the years in making that experience possible for so many young people.
Almost 150 years ago, John Henry Newman answered the question "What is a University?" this way:
" It is a place where inquiry is pushed forward, discoveries verified and perfected, and rashness rendered innocuous, and error exposed, by the collision of mind with mind, and knowledge with knowledge .... It is a seat of wisdom, a light of the world, a minister of the faith, an Alma Mater of the rising generation."
Newman’s definition has stood the test of time, not least thanks to organisations such as AIESEC which had the vision to imagine how that learning experience could be enhanced, and the will to make it happen. For what young people learn and experience at university is not confined to the lecture theatre. Universities are living communities which derive their energy, life-source and vitality from the coming together of different ideas, cultures and attitudes. It is that diversity which sparks off creativity, challenges people to think anew and finds fresh pathways to discovery. That diversity is immeasurably enhanced by programmes of cultural exchange. It enriches both the individual and the community to which they come.
In a world undergoing rapid change, it is the individuals who have been taught to think for themselves, to question, to seize opportunities, to have a sense of curiosity, of purpose and of determination – those are the individuals who have received the best possible education and the best possible preparation for life. They are the ones who will become the leaders and ‘doers’ of tomorrow, the people who shape the world around them, who perceive what needs to be done and who do not wait for others to make a start. They are the people who apply their talents widely and generously, with a sense of responsibility and commitment to the world around them.
The work you are doing through this conference, through AIESEC as a whole, has made a major contribution to releasing that potential, encouraging that embrace of diversity, that widening of horizons, that sense of social responsibility for thousands of young people. I warmly congratulate you on that contribution. I would like to particularly commend Stephanie McDermott, Gavan Ryan and all of the organising committee of this conference. I hope that all of you who participate in it will go home with renewed energy and enthusiasm, new skills, new ideas and a new set of friendships from your time here.
I wish you all every success in this Conference and in your future work.
Go gcúití Dia bhur saothar daoibh. Go raibh maith agaibh.