REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF ST. FIACHRA’S GARDEN
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF ST. FIACHRA’S GARDEN THE IRISH NATIONAL STUD, KILDARE
Tá lúcháir mhór orm bheith anseo libh inniu. Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a chur in iúl daoibh as ucht bhur bhfáilte a bhí caoin, cneasta agus croiúil.
I have great pleasure in being here with you today to open these magnificent gardens. I would like to express my thanks to the Chairman of the National Stud, Mrs. Chryss O’Reilly and the Directors, for inviting me here today.
There is an old proverb that says ‘to be happy for a week, kill a pig; if you would be happy for a month, take a husband; but if you would be happy all your life, plant a garden’. I’m not sure that the proverb always holds true - but, having the privilege of being surrounded by the wonderful parkland and gardens at Áras an Uachtaráin, I know how much pleasure they offer to visitors and gardeners alike.
I would like to pay a special tribute to Professor Hallinan, one of Europe’s leading landscape designers, who has designed this garden with such ingenuity and creativity. If I may dare to mention the dreaded ‘M’ word, this truly is a fitting project to mark the millennium – for it is a celebration of how human genius can work in harmony with nature, to create a resource of great beauty and serenity that will be enjoyed by visitors long after the millennium hype has died down.
They say that a prophet is never recognised in his own country. I am delighted to see that this garden, which commemorates St. Fiachra, disproves the saying. For not only was he patron saint of gardeners, he saw the cultivation of the soil as a source of both physical and spiritual nourishment. That association of gardens with spirituality and philosophy, dates back to the Epicurean philosphers of Greece, whose leaders used gardens as their classrooms – albeit in more clement weather conditions than we can be sure of in Ireland. Indeed the verb ‘to cultivate’, comes from a Latin word meaning to inhabit or to worship.
That spiritual tradition has been wonderfully captured in the design of this garden – the elemental power of rock and water, the wonder of nature, with which those Irish monks are in touch. These hermit cells beside us, further evoke the 6th and 7th century monastic movement in Ireland from which St. Fiachra came.
It is a wonderful addition to the other attractions of the National Stud and Japanese Gardens, which I have no doubt will further enhance the enjoyment of visitors, young and old, in the years to come.
I would like to warmly commend the Board of Directors, the Manager, John Clarke, and all those who have worked so hard to create this wonderful garden. I wish everyone at the National Stud every success in the years to come.
Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil libh arís as ucht an chuireadh a thug sibh dom bheith anseo libh inniu. Tá tréan oibre déanta agaibh agus guím rath agus séan oraibh go léir san am atá le teacht.