REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT the Camden London Irish Centre Wednesday, 1 December 1999
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT the Camden London Irish Centre Wednesday, 1 December 1999
Cuireann sé áthas ar mo chroí bheith anseo i bhur measc inniu. Go raibh míle maith agaibh as fáilte fíorGhaelach a chur romham.
I need hardly tell all of you gathered here that the Camden London Irish Centre has become synonymous with the experience of the Irish in London. This Centre tells the story of the Irish and this city. Within these walls the spiritual, the academic, the physical and the cultural successes, the ups and downs and difficulties of our community are played out through the work of all the organisations housed here, and through the life experiences of those who come to the Centre.
It is an invaluable space for the local Irish community; a place of belonging, of recognition where you can find a friend, get a helping hand, celebrate, get a bit of advice, make plans for the future, feel part of something special, know you are important. Here the needs and concerns of the Irish community are taken care of professionally and sensitively. Here a huge range of people, old and young bring their talents, their individual stories and cares and here they reach out to one another, bonded to each other by their common membership of the Irish family.
When Fr. Tom McNamara formed the committee that brought this Centre into being, he envisaged a place where members of the Irish community could come to seek welfare advice and social and recreational facilities. That seed sown in 1955 has blossomed into one of the most important resources for Irish people anywhere in the world. It is a credit to its founders and to the generations since who have sustained and developed it.
The strength of the Camden London Irish Centre is the way it captures under one roof all the diversity of the Irish community. There is a wealth of talent, of different interests, skills, pockets of experience and wisdom, of creativity and genius. Instead of each simply doing its own thing and going its own way divorced from all the others, here they put into practice that lovely old Irish adage: ‘Ni neart go cur le chéile’ - our strength is in working together. This diversity of input and ideas allows you to keep fresh, to keep in touch with a huge number of pulses, to use efficiently the talent base that is the Irish community. This is the place where a random collection of people are woven into community and where community is made to work. The organisations here play a supporting and advisory role for the wider Irish community, but are also able to support and advise each other, through their connection here at the Centre.
The Centre itself has of course just undergone considerable refurbishment and regeneration. You could say the same about Ireland too, where a mood of buoyant optimism has transformed the landscape of economics, culture and politics, particularly the politics of peace. This new mood is already visible in the changing relationships between these two islands. I hope that here, too, in the largest and oldest of the Irish communities abroad, that there is a mood of hopefilled renewal, of fresh possibilities and faith in a better future.
Irish men and women have been coming to London for centuries, driven usually by economic necessity and lack of opportunity at home. As all emigrants do, they often found life here difficult, lonely and personally challenging in ways that tested them whether they were able for that testing or not. Their spirit of community and mutual help was critical in helping them to overcome these problems. Many made successful lives here, and made a significant contribution to their new homeplace. Others struggled and still struggle in their lives, given heart by the helping hand they found here among friends who were once strangers.
We have all wished for the day when no-one should have to leave Ireland through economic necessity and it is remarkable to see our country close to full employment and to live through days when for the first time in 150 years, we have net inward migration to Ireland. These are undoubtedly good times and used well they will get better, drawing into the centre more and more of those still on the margins. But of course you still see the emigrants. They still come here and they still come too often unprepared for what they will inevitably face. Centres such as this, and the organisations represented here, still have a vital role to play.
No-one can doubt that the experience and influence of the Irish abroad has had a critical influence on us as a people. The often cruel fact of Irish emigration has made us an outward looking, cosmopolitan people, spread across the globe. It has been a major factor in creating the very economic success which we now enjoy at home. It has kept our culture fresh, replenishing it, bringing our music, dance, literature, art, theatre, film, to the heart of many other cultures, giving our country a significant global influence which defies our size. Crucially too, it was our global Irish family which supported in so many ways the pursuit of peace.
I know that Irish people abroad have closely followed and shared in all our hopes for the peace process, nowhere more so than here in London. After a long period of frustration and concern, we are now witnessing the renewal of the momentum for the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and the achievement of lasting peace. The establishment of the institutions in which old enemies will become partners in a remarkable adventure in democratic consensus politics is a wonderful gift to the children of the Millennium and in particular to the Child of Bethlehem whose jubilee is the cause of all the celebration. It is a great week for new beginnings, for fresh starts and the radiant expectation of new hope.
So, as we celebrate the reopening of your new offices today, I would like to make a link with the opening that is taking place in Belfast this week. The two events are linked not only by history, but by the work and dedication which has carried both forward at this time, to a new and better future.
To achieve as much as you have achieved here at the Centre, hard work is not enough; it requires vision and stamina and unwavering hope. I want to commend all of you here today for your contribution to your own community and to the wider community of London. You have made this Centre a home from home for so many. You have been a beacon of light in the darkest hour, and today you have provided a space for celebration in one of Ireland’s finest hours.
I would like to mention one person in particular, Brian Duggan, who over the last fifteen years has worked with outstanding commitment and perseverance in locating and reuniting hundreds of Irish people with their families. Through his work Brian has brought hope where there was despair, he has built bridges where it seems impossible to build. He has served his community loyally and today his community would like to thank him for all he has done.
I have had an opportunity today to visit your new offices and meet with the staff, feel the energy in this, the very powerhouse of the Irish in London. May you continue to thrive and to flourish. May you continue to guide and to lead and to achieve.
It is my great pleasure to declare these offices open.
Is mór an chúis bhróid dom an méid atá curtha i gcrích agaibh. Guím rath Dé ar bhur gcuid oibre san am atá le teacht. Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.