Remarks by President McAleese at the Gala Dinner of the Conference of the Worldwide Ireland Funds
Dromoland Castle, Co. Clare, Friday, 24th June, 2011
Dia dhíbh a chairde, thank you for your very warm welcome. I’d like to especially thank our dear friend, Loretta Brennan Glucksman, for her kind invitation to join you tonight. As Chair of the Fund, Loretta has shown remarkable generosity and unfailing commitment to this country. I’d also like to acknowledge Ambassador Dan Rooney (here tonight) - for his longstanding friendship with Ireland, his pioneering role in establishing this wonderful organisation and his outstanding representation of the United States in Ireland. And of course, my very warm thanks to all of our global friends in the Funds who have travelled from all over the world for this important Conference.
The commitment and generosity of the Ireland Funds is without parallel. Throughout its history, the Ireland Funds have been an unfaltering supportive partner on the long, slow, sometimes frustrating and often arduous journey towards peace. Along the way, many brave steps were taken and much generous support given. As an organisation, you have made an incredible contribution to bringing enduring peace and stability to the island of Ireland. Your involvement extends today far beyond the peace process to a broad range of worthy projects that seek to tackle disadvantage, promote arts and culture, advance education and promote community development throughout the island of Ireland. By bringing together a huge network of committed people with a genuine passion for Ireland, you have gathered a momentum and a meitheal which has nudged the trajectory of history away from the dark of dysfunction and into the light of hope.
Your annual gathering has many reasons to celebrate. On 5 May, we saw the electorate in Northern Ireland endorse those parties constructively engaged in power-sharing and a new Assembly and Executive was formed without delay or controversy. In casting their votes on that Thursday, the people of Northern Ireland once again resolutely expressed their view that their priority is to build a better future for themselves and their children, a shared, non-sectarian future based on agreed principles of parity of esteem, good neighbourliness and mutually respectful dialogue.
That election was reassuring evidence of how far the tide of history has turned but if ever your work received global validation it was in the remarkable pictures that went around the world last month when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was given a warm and memorable welcome when she became the first British monarch in a century to set foot in Dublin. Those four days with so many iconic images and history altering words, showcased the strongly collegial and friendly new relationship that has developed between Ireland and Britain. The work of the Ireland Funds features large in the long years of preparing the ground for that visit of which the word historic can properly be used.
Governments and politicians over many long years contributed hugely to the construction and the consolidation of the peace process. But the changes of hearts and minds at street and community level was effected by courageous individuals and groups who worked as signs of contradiction to build healthier and more nourishing cross-community relationships. Much of that work, done in small and seemingly intractable spaces was facilitated by the Ireland Funds. Your faith in them, your funding of their activities helped to shorten the road to peace and reconciliation. I wish I could tell you that the work is done, that the old culture of conflict has disappeared for good but that would be to exaggerate where we are right now. The failed, uninspiring and tired culture of sectarian paramilitarism is on its way out, is in its final death throes but it still can sting and can still inflict outrageous hurt. Recent events in East Belfast tell us how much work remains to be done in terms of eradicating violent sectarianism but as with the death of Constable Ronan Kerr the solid and unified public response also tells us how much work has been done, how deeply embedded is the commitment to peace on all sides and how out of touch are those who continue to ignore the express will of the people which is to live and work together in mutual respect and peace.
There is no room for complacency. The new relationships that are blossoming need to be nurtured. The manifestations of sectarianism and paramilitarism have to be completely eradicated. These things will not happen by default but by continuing prioritised effort on the part of all peace-makers. The Ireland Funds supporters have remained so close to the action that you already know that and will I know stay close until the job is done.
We are so grateful to you for your unwavering commitment to Ireland’s general wellbeing and its struggle to rebuild prosperity and opportunity in the teeth of this tough period of recession. We have undergone a tremendous economic shock but at last there are signs that we have begun the journey to recovery. Painful financial readjustments have been experienced by our people with more to come but we have an agreed road map through these difficult times and we have considerable underlying strengths that allow us to view the future positively. Our young and well educated work force, our favourable demographics and our strong pro-enterprise environment have meant that Ireland is still the destination of choice for many of the world’s leading firms, particularly in the high technology sector. Our exports are at an all time high with the pharmaceutical, software, financial services and food sectors all performing well. Last year, in fact, we had the highest trade surplus in the European Union, after Germany.
It is hoped that the Jobs Initiative which the Government announced last month will help to get people back to work; provide training to those who have lost their jobs; and instill the confidence we need to kickstart the domestic economy into action again.
An important asset through all times whether bad or good has been and continues to be our global Irish family. The strength of Irish ancestral links is formidable and it is real.
It generates more than mere good-will. It generates its own momentum. Last month, we were delighted to claim a new member of that family – President O-apostrophe-Bama!
The President and First Lady’s visit to Ireland reminded us of the array of underlying strengths of our nation and portrayed us to ourselves and to the world as what we are, a people that has accomplished great things against the odds and a nation with so much more yet to give.
As we work conscientiously and with considerable community solidarity, to overcome our economic problems, to restore our international reputation and rebuild our image abroad, we look for help, advice and inspiration from our global family worldwide. In particular we look to those friends who are tried and tested over many years, our friends in the Funds, who are already leading the charge into the future with your Promising Ireland Campaign. There is a day up ahead, I do not yet know for certain its date but there is a day coming when peace and prosperity will cohabit on this island and will infuse this island from shore to shore. Some other President will celebrate that anticipated day with another generation of members of Ireland Funds from around the world. Tonight I thank this generation that took the baton of responsibility and care not because they had to but because they wanted to. This generation is the first to see what a peaceful and prosperous Ireland could be like, the first to get close to that “further shore” where “hope and history” might rhyme. The boat has not yet docked but the shoreline is visible, the crew is experienced and if the weather could be better, the wind is still at our backs, thanks to you.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.