REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR IRELAND RECEPTION ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR IRELAND RECEPTION ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN, FRIDAY, 12TH NOVEMBER 1999
Is mór an chúis áthais dom agus do m’fhear céile Mairtín, fáilte fíorchaoin a chur romhaibh go léir chuig Áras an Uachtaráin.
It is a great pleasure for Martin and myself to have this opportunity to welcome you all – and in the case of some familiar faces, to welcome you back – to Áras an Uachtaráin.
This is a day for celebration, for recognising the tremendous work that has been done by the International Fund for Ireland down through the years. Through your efforts, among others, over the past thirteen years, the morbid tide of history which has at time threatened to overwhelm us and contaminate another fresh new century, has been not just held back but turned back so that we can look forward to the new millennium with more hope than at any time literally in centuries.
There must have been times when you wondered if any real progress was possible, when it appeared that all the painstaking work counted for little in the face of an obdurate legacy of communal hatred, opposing ambitions, mistrust, fear and appalling violence. Your work helped to sustain hope when we most needed it – the hope that step by step, that legacy could be eroded, that hearts could be softened, that a space could be created in which erstwhile enemies could be brought together – sometimes, initially, without much enthusiasm by either party – and helped to see what could be achieved by partnership rather than conflict. We owe you our heartfelt thanks for that cross-community work, because in a very practical way, it gave so many communities a taste of what might be, a hunger for what could be, a tangible sense that there was and is a real alternative to the destructive mindsets of the past. Your support for so many cross-community projects and schemes has given people the incentive to cross the divide, to open up dialogue, to allow new ideas to take root.
Sometimes we need to stand back from the work, from its busyness, from the up close minutiae and just contemplate the changes which your work has helped to bring about. Think of the people who today are working together, talking together who only a short time ago believed they had absolutely nothing of value to learn from or share with each other. Think of the patchwork of projects and their teams with fresh new skills and experiential base every bit of which will be an important resource when the executive is formed in Northern Ireland, because it promises a radical adventure in democratic consensus politics which has no equal except in the work undertaken by organisations like yours and the partners who have helped you along the way.
It is important to have days like this to acknowledge how much has been achieved, to draw hope from those achievements in facing the undoubted difficulties that still remain. When the jeremiads talk of going back to square one, we can say honestly but there is no square one to go back to - there has been a shift, it is perceptible, it is wrapped up in a mood for change, a determination that whatever the cost there will be peace.
For this is a process, with a beginning, middle and end. We have made a start, through the Good Friday Agreement, which laid the foundations for a future based on respect and consensus. We are now in the middle, in the difficult, often frustrating process of implementing that Agreement. And there will be an end - a society based on peace, justice, equality and partnership – and each patient step of your work brings us closer to that end, closer to demolishing the space in which the toxin of hatred has operated for so long, closer to realising the dream of a lasting peace on this island and in the hearts of all our people.
I and many others are grateful that there were people who were not frightened by the scale of the endeavour. There are those who look at problems and shake their heads saying what a mess for someone to clean up. There are those who say - what can I do about this mess. You are the second kind of people, the doers, who refuse to accept the counsel of despair, who dare to hope in and work for that which the cynics believe to be impossible.
I am delighted to welcome so many community and development groups who have grasped the invitation and the opportunity offered by the IFI programmes, and used it to make a difference where it really matters – at grassroots level. It took an awful lot of courage, a lot of determination and independence of mind, to take those first steps in cross-community bridge-building. It took even more courage to keep going when you encountered setbacks, closed minds, the jeremiads who predicted failure around every corner. But you did keep going and the fruits of your persistence are now beginning to blossom in this generation, in the new jobs that have been created, in the investment that has been attracted, in the determination to leave behind the baggage of the past. Today, I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you for that, for sustaining hope, for laying the foundations on which a better future can be built for all of our children.
I would like to pay a particular tribute to the European Union, and to the greater Irish family throughout the world, who have done so much to help us on this journey both in terms of their very considerable financial support through this Fund, and by their unwavering encouragement, goodwill and practical assistance. We think in particular of Senator George Mitchell, who has invested such energy, patience and painstaking hard work in this process. We are deeply grateful for his exceptional and elegant contribution. We have been humbled and encouraged to know that there are so many people in every part of this globe who care deeply about what happens on this small island. We owe it to them, to ourselves and to our children, to make the best possible use of the new opportunities that have been opened up, not least through the International Fund for Ireland.
I would like to finish by thanking Willie McCarter, Chairman of the International Fund for Ireland, and all of the staff in the Belfast and Dublin Offices of the Fund, for their outstanding work to date. I hope that the future will be marked by many more successes.
I would also like to thank our wonderful musicians for helping to make this day a special one – our harpist, Catherine Tarrant, who played for you in the Front Hall, and the string quartet in this room: Michelle Fleming, Catriona O’Hara, Eoin Schmidt-Martin, and Hugh McCarthy.
I hope that you all have a most enjoyable day here, that you will return home with a new store of memories and friendships to sustain you in your future work.
Mo bhuíochas libh arís as bhur gcuid oibre ar son na síochána agus na cothromaíochta ar fud na hEireann. Nár laga Dia sibh.