REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE MULTICULTURAL YOUNG PEOPLE’S AWARDS FRIDAY, 19TH NOVEMBER 2010
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE MULTICULTURAL YOUNG PEOPLE’S AWARDS FRIDAY, 19TH NOVEMBER 2010
Dia dhíbh. Tá an-áthas orm bheith thar nais anseo i bhúr measc agus tá mé buíoch díbh as an cuireadh agus an fáilte a thug sibh dom.
Good evening and thank you for that very warm welcome. It’s a great pleasure to be here this evening for the Multicultural Young People’s Awards. My thanks to Roberto Samson from Catholic Youthcare for his kind invitation and to the Integration of African Children in Ireland who organised today’s event.
I visit a lot of schools as President and if there is a remarkable story that deserves to be told it is the story of the courage, the commitment and the achievements of the many young people who came here as immigrants, who faced into the big tasks of making friends, learning new languages often both English and Irish, trying to make sense of a new country, new home, new streetscape and culture. Their perseverance and resilience have been utterly heroic and their talents and genius will be an important part of Ireland’s future. That is why I am so glad to see these awards focus on these, Ireland’s new children, whose identities are complex mixtures in which Ireland plays her part along with many other countries and cultures around the world. Ireland’s multicultural young people draw their sense of identity from an exotically rich mixture of sources. That richness is their gift to Ireland’s future for as tomorrow’s adult citizens it is here they will make their lives and help shape the comfortably cosmopolitan, ethnically diverse, egalitarian Ireland that is already in the making.
Our ambition has to be for an Ireland where an immigrant family can integrate easily without surrendering their identity, where doors are open to them and handshakes ready to make them welcome, where there is a respectful curiosity about their culture and where they can easily access all points of entry to Irish culture. Our ambition has to be for an Ireland which celebrates the newcomers’ skills, talents and gifts, seeing in them a strengthening and a deepening of our society. For the first time in our history we have a large cohort of well-educated young people who speak the languages of the world, understand the customs and practices of many foreign countries and who will be a huge asset to us as we, a small globalised exporting nation, expand our international business and try our best to restore prosperity. We will see their genius on our sportsfields, in our universities, in our literature, theatre, television, our cookery, our music and dance, our dress, in our friendships, in our growing familiarity with faiths and cultures we once knew little of, our community life, our politics and in all the places and spaces where their talent will take them and all of us together as a nation. For they are of our nation and we have a vested interest in letting their genius shine as it does in a very special way here tonight.
Our nominees here tonight may be young but they have a wisdom beyond their years that comes from having had to make their lives among strangers. Some have experienced prejudice or stereotyping or artificial barriers of ignorance but they have built bridges over their difficulties and shown us the momentum, the civic strength that comes from insisting that Ireland be a place of lived mutual respect and inclusion. Back in 1916 those who heroically took on the might of a dominant Empire so that this small nation could be free to carve her own destiny, set out their ambition in the Proclamation- it was to see Ireland become a place which cherished the children of the nation equally. Later our Constitution was to assert the right of each citizen to equality, to dignity and to freedom. These words have no power if we let them lie fallow. Their power is in action and in right action that “stands its ground” no matter what the times or the tides.
Today’s economic tide is difficult and it has cast dark shadows of worry over many lives but for many of our immigrant children life has always been tough and they have been tried and tested through harsh conditions which we in Ireland no longer have a memory of. They can see Ireland’s strengths and her potential with a sharp clearsightedness that is lacking in many quarters. They see how good our education is, how the vast majority of our people have jobs, how so many of those jobs are in the world’s topline industries. They see our capacity for innovation, for reimagining ourselves. They see the extraordinary bulwark that is our community life, a facet of Irish life, a mutual care that is utterly unique in the world. We need to start seeing Ireland through their eyes for here they see their hope and their future and by their actions they are proving day in and day out how much they have to offer today’s Ireland and tomorrows.
I congratulate all the nominees for these awards, thank them for working so hard to invest their goodness in Ireland and I hope for them the happy, satisfying future they dream of for themselves. I thank all those discerning people who recognised genuine integration when they saw it and had the wisdom and generosity to nominate the young people being recognised here tonight.
Finally, I particularly commend Yemi Ojo, founder of the ‘Integration of African Children in Ireland’, for without her drive and initiative we would not be here tonight for what is a wonderful occasion that lifts our hearts and hopes as we look to Ireland’s best future - yet to come but on the way thanks to all the good people who are doing good things - like our nominees.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.