REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF FOCUS IRELAND HOUSING PROJECT
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF FOCUS IRELAND HOUSING PROJECT GRANGE COHAN 4 SEPTEMBER 2000
Is cúis mhór áthais dom bheith anseo libh inniu ag an ocaid specialta seo. Tá mé buíoch díbh as an chuireadh agus an fáilte fíorchaoin a chur sibh romham.
I would like to thank Sr. Stan and FOCUS IRELAND for the kind invitation to join you today on this very happy occasion for the official opening of FOCUS IRELAND Grange Cohan housing development.
For many people this is a good time to be alive in Ireland, so good that we need to be reminded that not everyone has it so good yet. Those of you involved in FOCUS IRELAND know that this is no time for complacency but a time to galvanise the formidable resources available to this generation to bring about a society of real equality of opportunity.
People measure success in many ways but we will count ourselves truly successful only when all our people have the means to live their lives with hope and dignity and possess the most basic need of all – a home to call their own.
Groups such as FOCUS IRELAND are doing the hard slog which turns the language of hope and equality into a lived reality. Through your work with those who, for whatever reason, are experiencing difficulties in securing accommodation, you providing not only much needed shelter, but a pathway to that place called home. Home is about having a place in society, having a network of support, having roots in a community, belonging somewhere and being part of that complex system in which your life counts, in which you matter as a human person.
Sometimes it is hard for people to believe that they matter, that they truly count. That is why the work of Focus Ireland is so important. Without this work, without the hands and hearts to do it, there would be a gap - a place for people to sink, for lives to be lost. With the work we have a place like this to celebrate, to take pride in and take hope from.
I have just had the opportunity to view some of the homes and I am most impressed by the care and attention to detail with which they have been developed. It is wonderful to see this type of versatile accommodation which can wrap itself around the changing needs in the local community including the disabled, from youth to old age. Great credit is due to builders the Fewers Brothers and architect Gary Faulkner for their tremendous work on this project.
This development of Grange Cohan is the product of the dreams, hard work and the indomitable spirit of many including most importantly the people of Waterford. It takes its name from the adjoining townland of Grange and St Cohan’s Monastery which was destroyed in Cromwellian times. It’s new residents will put down fresh roots here and with the continuing support of the local community this place and the people in it will flourish- they will know they matter. Great credit is due to Fred Hatton and Justin O Brien from the Waterford branch and to all at FOCUS IRELAND, to the statutory bodies, and the voluntary groups who have been involved in bringing this project to fruition.
I am delighted that part of this new development includes a Community facility which will provide a meeting place for residents, a nursery and a cafeteria. These things will help build the shared memories on which communities grow and thrive and I wish you joy of them. Bricks and mortar in themselves do not make communities. People do that. I wish you energy, happiness and hope as you make your homes here and transform this small estate into a neighbourly community.
I wish all the residents present and future every happiness peace and fulfilment in your new homes. May the memories which gather and grow in these new homes be happy memories: may those happy memories start with this special day.
It is my great pleasure to declare this new development of Grange Cohan officially open.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go leir.