REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE LATTON FAMILY RESOURCE CENTRE, LATTON, CO. MONAGHAN
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE LATTON FAMILY RESOURCE CENTRE, LATTON, CO. MONAGHAN WEDNESDAY, 12TH MAY 1999
Go raibh míle maith agaibh as ucht bhur fáilte caoin. Tá áthas orm a bheith anseo inniúagus bualadh leis an méid sin daoine ó Latton.
It gives me great pleasure to be here with you today in Latton to officially open this wonderful family resource centre. Thank you all for your kind invitation, in particular, Patsy Conlon, Chairperson and Alice Forde, Secretary, of the Latton Social Services and Development Association.
The very existence of this Centre is testimony to the trojan work which the Association, with the support of local people, has been undertaking since 1995. Your achievement is all the more remarkable given the many hurdles you have had to face. I know that the Latton area has long witnessed the loss of its young people to larger towns and cities, and indeed, further afield. You deserve great credit for refusing to passively accept these problems. Instead, you have shown how much local communities in rural areas are capable of; you have shown how much energy, enthusiasm and initiative exists in Latton. You have shown that you are willing and able to create a better life for all the people in this area, if given the encouragement and support to do so.
Ireland has traditionally been renowned for the strength and the stability of its family unit. Many of you here have come from large families, as I do myself, and can testify to the trials and tribulations of family life, but also the immense closeness and joy that it brings. It may be a cliché to refer to the family as the building block of society, but there is much truth in that saying. It shapes our experiences, personalities and ways of responding to the world far beyond those early years. Where our experience of family life is positive, it launches us into life with the skills and confidence to respond well to the challenges and problems life will throw at us. It is said that what is engraved in childhood is engraved on stone. It is therefore important that families have the support and assistance to ensure that that early engraving process is done well.
This is all the more important in rural areas, which lack the resources and support systems of large towns and cities, yet which face many of the same problems and more besides: stress, isolation, unemployment, poverty, broken families, alcoholism, older people living alone.
Initiatives like this Family Resource Centre are invaluable supports in helping to tackle those problems by proving practical services for children, parents, the unemployed and the elderly. Services which are delivered by local people for local people – those that know best what the needs of the area really are.
One of the hallmarks of Irish life of which we can be most proud is the extraordinary level of voluntary activity within communities. I would like to pay a warm tribute to the many people in this centre who have generously given of their time and energy to help those in need. That work is all the more important in these changing times. It does make an enormous difference. From my own heart, and on behalf of the people of Ireland, I would like to say thank you.
I know that no one initiative aimed at supporting the family can solve all the problems which exist within and outside the family context. But projects such as this Centre are an invaluable part of ensuring that our children grow up in caring and supportive family environments and in their turn, become happy and rounded individuals, good to their families, spouses, colleagues, communities and country.
I would like to thank you all again for inviting me here today and I wish you all well in your future work.
Guím gach rath oraibh agus ar an Chumann. Gura fada buan sibh.