REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF ST. LUKE’S DAY CARE CENTRE 14 JULY 2000
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF ST. LUKE’S DAY CARE CENTRE 14 JULY 2000
Is mór an pléisiúir dom bheith anseo i bhur measc inniu. Go raibh míle maith agaibh as ucht bhur bhfáilte chaoin.
I am delighted to join you today to officially open the new day care centre at St. Lukes and I would like to thank Bishop Colton for the kind invitation.
Over the past two years I have had the privilege of meeting many of our older citizens from every part of the country. I meet them in all sorts of situations and places. Some come to visit Aras an Uachtarain as members of community organisations or active retired groups. Some I meet at community events or visits to hospitals or day care centres such as this. And each individual has a formidable story to tell, a unique set of memories and experiences, a lot given and a lot still to share. Some enjoy great health and energy. They are never off their feet, up to their ears in all sorts of things. Others have grown frail or know the weakening of illness and they have had to adapt and cope as best they can. Still others have drifted into aloneness and loneliness as friends and family have died or moved away. Ageing brings new challenges and with them new responsibilities for all of us as a caring community.
We are now living in a society which, thankfully, is enjoying unprecedented growth and prosperity. Our senior citizens lived through and came through very different times. They invested their lives in this future we are now living and it is so important that there is visible evidence of gratitude and respect for their contribution.
This Day Care Centre is a wonderful way of repaying the debt we all owe to the older members of our community. Through its work they know they are valued, wanted, needed, remembered. This Centre provides a range of important services which allow our senior citizens to remain happy and healthy in their own homes, among their families and friends in the community while receiving vital high quality help and support when they and their carers need it.
At different times of our lives, every one of us needs the help of someone else. Sometimes we are the givers, sometimes the receivers and that is how it is here too. Here you meet old friends, make new friends, tell yarns, provoke old memories, swap gossip, greet someone with a smile which helps them through the day, or receive a warm hello which makes the day worthwhile and memorable. The older we get the more important it is that we find new ways of growing in social confidence, new ways to enjoy life.
The Centre provides an impressive range of health services which must give great reassurance to all who come here and who depend so much on those services. Equally valuable are things like the hot meals and laundry facilities which are available and make many a life that bit easier. No doubt many of you spent hours cooking and cleaning and washing for yourselves and your loved ones, so you should think of this as payback time!
The Day Care Centre is also a wonderful resource for those who are carers of older people. They give so generously of their time and their love to ensure that the person in their care has the best possible quality of life, but they need time to build up their energies too. We need healthy carers and this centre plays an important role in giving them a much-needed chance to recharge their batteries and regain the physical and emotional strength to continue with their important work. We owe them those few hours of respite, for without them, so many lives would be much poorer.
I would like to warmly congratulate everyone associated with the new Day Care Centre especially the staff. Your care and kindness is I know very much appreciated by those who use the centre. I would like to thank the staff of St Lukes home who have provided the very best of care to the residents of the Home for many years. I understand that two of your residents, Alice Northridge and Maisie Howe are over 100 hundred years, while ladies usually never tell their age I think in this instance you’ll forgive me as I congratulate you both and wish you continuing good health and happiness. One of the nicest jobs I have as President is signing the letters to centenarians, most of whom are women. And it is a special privilege to be in the company of these women who have been witnesses to three centuries. This building holds the key to so much of the history of our people and this place. It is held in the hearts and heads of our senior citizens, in lives lived well. God grant you all many days exploring together this great human reservoir.
I would like to thank you all for your wonderful welcome today and I wish you the very best with your future endeavours. It gives me great pleasure to declare this Day Care Centre officially open.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go leir.