REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF TV DOCUMENTARY SERIES, “THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING IRISH
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF THE TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY SERIES, “THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING IRISH”
Good morning, and thank you very much for the kind invitation to join you this morning for the launch of a wonderful television documentary series, “The Importance of being Irish”. It celebrates and opens up to us the huge impact made, often quietly and without much fanfare, by talented Irish men and women, all over the world, in spheres as diverse as the sciences, law, medicine, business, engineering and the public service.
These spheres have long been overshadowed in terms of recognition by our pantheon of geniuses in the world of the Arts.
So this rebalancing is more than a bit overdue but of course the series, in looking for a title, looked to a gifted writer whose genius for self-promotion was of legendary proportions.
The series by contrast promotes the stories of our global Irish family.
It tells of their accomplishments, of the many ways in which they shaped the world for the better. Each individual story is one of tenacity, hard work, creativity, occasional sheer brilliance and of achievement. Together they give us an insight into the best of our Irish character and value system.
They place us in the world not simply as a nation of emigrants but of internationalists, capable of making ourselves at home and of embedding ourselves and the best of our culture virtually anywhere in the world.
Today we are so fortunate to have a generation of highly educated, immensely confident, cosmopolitan, young Irish men and women, for whom a comfortable ebb and flow into and out of Ireland is very much the pattern of their lives. They have a better chance than any generation before to make their mark at home or in a place of their choice and not the choice of capricious external forces.
The old Irish emigrant communities around the world have bequeathed to them a formidable network and resource base which has breathed fresh energy into our economy, our culture and our peace process. The five million or so inhabitants of this island have over seventy million human connections world-wide today. Their lives form part of our past, our present and our future. We draw from many wells of experience and we have an infinity of unsung heroes, heroines, successes and transcendent inspirational stories yet to be told. This series will do much to unpack some of those stories and to open us up much more fully to our continuing and changing narrative as a people.
This series is public service broadcasting at its absolute best. Along with the expansion of RTE’s public service outreach to Irish communities abroad it is building and reinforcing the sense of belonging that unites even the most cosmopolitan and far-flung of us into an Irish village clan, concerned about one another, interested in one another, proud of one another. It will, I hope inspire a new generation to be our innovators, our achievers of tomorrow whether here or elsewhere in the world.
I am grateful to Professor Slevin, the Royal Irish Academy’s outgoing President for his generous invitation to launch the series. It also gives me the welcome chance to thank Jim for this past decade of voluntary and remarkable service to the Academy, to science and to Ireland. I know that you join me in wishing him every success as Director of the Irish Centre for High End Computing.
To RTE congratulations on this high-end television series. May it receive the audiences it deserves and may it bring home to us the importance of being Irish, especially in this month when St. Patrick’s day will be celebrated from Moscow to Tokyo. We are a blessed generation indeed to be part of today’s “indomitable Irishry”.